Hello all you beautiful people! How’s your week going so far? Mine has yet to begin and already I have a bunch on my plate. However, I’m moving with confidence and gratuity. You’re probably wondering “Wow, how is she so preppy at 7am on a Monday morning?”. The answer? No sleep. Absolutely none so now I’m delusional. Still, I want to share with you how small habit changes have big effects.
But, first I want to share about my last few days. Over the weekend my little one Alanna, (8 months) had been extremely fussy. I’m talking about crying all day, refusing to be put down. The works. No one got a good nights sleep but, Sunday night after two days of fever that Tylenol couldn’t kick I decided to take her in to our local children’s hospital.
They didn’t do much except traumatize her with the Covid-19 Nasal Swab and a quick catheter to collect her pee. Poor baby but, we left feeling pretty confident that she was okay if not a bit dramatic.
Needless to say after the hospital visit we had yet another sleepless night. I knew when my alarm went off I might as well get up so, I did and here I am.
Now, that I’ve got you all caught up with my life story, let’s get to what I really wanted to talk about. Small habit changes and their big effects.
I’ve been putting forth a big effort to live an intentional life and one way I’ve been doing that is practicing self-care more regularly. If you read my previous post (5 Types of Self-Care) then you know there are different types of self-care and ways to practice them. I specifically wanted to focus more on “physical self-care” because of that good ol’ saying “if you look good you feel good.” So, I’ve definitely been more focused on making better choices.
I had two goals, one was to quit smoking cigarettes and the other was to drink more water.
Only one of those sound hard but, if you’re thinking it was quitting the cigarettes you’re wrong. To my surprise it was as simple as saying “no”.
Well, to be honest, it was as simple as making one small habit change
I’m heavy on routine and every morning before the sunrise and my children were up I’d have a cup of coffee on my patio and enjoy a cigarette. My secret, guilty pleasure which on certain days lead to an afternoon or nightly cigarette. A growing habit I was ready to try to quit again but, wasn’t sure how.
I spent a few early mornings pondering “how can I put the cigarettes down?” as I puffed away. I had tried before and even though I wasn’t successful I knew there had to be a way. Turns out there was.
One morning, it hit me like hurricane -smoking was a habit. Not an addiction (in my case anyways). It was something I did as part of my routine. If I wanted to stop, I had to change the routine. So, I started my mornings out with my coffee inside and in front of my computer desk instead of on the patio.
“I couldn’t believe it”
It was such a small change, really even if I didn’t intend to quit smoking I probably would have stopped anyways. Once I started my mornings getting straight to work online I had tunnel vision. All I could focus on was building my clients website. I was glued to my chair once I started and by the time I allowed myself a break there just wasn’t room to smoke or even a desire.
It’s been two months now. At least. I can’t really say how long since, I didn’t think that it’d happen in a day but, it did. It was like magic, I went from smoking maybe 2 or 3 cigarettes in a day to zero. I don’t miss them, don’t crave them and I hate the smell. All because I decided to change where I drank my coffee. Isn’t that something?
The truly hard habit?
Drinking water. Drinking water on a regular basis is not easy for me. It’s important and I press upon my children how essential it is but, I’m no water-drinking role model.
To help boost everyone’s desire to drink water, I went out and bought some really cute water bottles. I tried to fill them up and refrigerate them overnight so they’d be nice and cool the next day. Turns out that didn’t do much for me as I don’t really like cold water.
Eventually, I found a solution. I changed my habits. It goes back to my morning routine and all that damned pipping hot coffee I can’t put down. The idea wasn’t original. As a matter of fact, I got the idea from @themattiejames on Instagram. She always presses her story viewers to get in 12oz of water each morning before coffee. So, that’s what I did. I forced myself to guzzle down a bottle of water first thing in the morning as I watched my coffee brew.
First of all. YUCK.
Secondly, it’s beginning to become a habit and not so gross after all. I noticed my skin is looking a little better, I’m actually drinking less coffee and it’s lead to me acquiring a taste for water. Spring Water specifically. Now I can get in at least two bottles a a day and am striving for more.
Today was the only day I didn’t do it. If anything was going to touch this tongue first thing Monday morning after the weekend I’ve had it was coffee. Water next.