Habits, Discipline and Thankfulness

Today I'm very grateful for discipline and sacrifice.

Lately, I've slipped up in living in true alignment with my best health.  I've gained a little weight by not being mindful of how I eat, and I have developed some bad habits.  My coffee consumption is creeping up. The number of yoga practices I do in a week is less than it was. I've been grazing (snacking) all day instead of mindfully planning out my meals.  I've been eating chocolate after every meal, rationalizing it by saying that I deserved it because there are hard things in my life.

But here's the thing, though: all of those things make me feel bad, physically. What I actually deserve is to feel GOOD in my body.

So, on my Yogaversary, I gave up candy and chocolate, because I really want to live feeling the best I can possibly feel inside this body. (Note that I had to make a distinction between candy AND chocolate, because I know myself and if I just gave up candy, that left the door open for chocolate cake, chocolate sorbet, etc..  My brain is clearly a litigator.)  (But I'm on to me.) Giving up candy and chocolate turned out to be surprisingly hard because I had developed a HABIT of having a tiny piece of vegan chocolate every time I ate.

It turns out that I must have done this quite a lot, because now I walk into the pantry about thirty times per day and I stand there, staring blankly at the shelves, until I turn around and leave. (Sometimes, I help myself to a raisin.) Repeat throughout the day.

It's only been three days, and each day has gotten easier. It doesn't really take a super-human effort to break a bad habit--but it does take persistence.

Now I'm trying to throttle back on my coffee consumption.  I'm up to two cups (mugs) per day and I'm going to cut back to one. Not today, though.  I tried to have a cup of decaf last night while out to hear some music and whatever I drank, it WASN'T decaffeinated. I got to lie awake, counting my blessings, as I watched the hours tick by.  Counting my blessings is an awesome exercise, but not so good for functioning the next day. Maybe I can cut back on the coffee slowly enough to avoid some of the more dangerous parts of the withdrawal this time.

Because I eat a fairly clean diet, I also had a realization that every time I eat wheat, I have inflammation issues in my body.  So, today, I began a trial period of living wheat/gluten-free.  I'll keep you posted on that one.

Anyway, I'm grateful for the discipline I need in order to maintain my health.