Several weeks ago I wrote about the process of overwriting old habits and said I’d be back in a couple weeks with an update and more on habit change. Well, here I am! 🙂 My intention had been to replace my evening habit of vino and snacking with a healthier one – yoga. I reasoned that if it was relaxation and alone time I was seeking, yoga would fit the bill. And so I set about my experiment.
That lasted exactly three days.
Instead of relaxing me, the evening yoga gave me extra energy. Made me more alert. 10PM. 11PM. 12AM! I was seeing numbers on the clock I haven’t seen since I was nursing babies! However, with some trial and error, I did stumble across a few things that have helped:
- board games – no, really! The 9 year old and I have passed several evenings playing Carcassonne and it’s been wonderful. I’m so glad my boys are getting to board game age – beyond the likes of Candy Land, that is. And since our current game of choice requires tons of space, there’s no room on the table for snacks or glasses.
- initiating a No Food/Drink at the Computer rule. It’s a rule for the boys, and now it’s a rule for me.
- exercising more and eating healthier during the day. This one has been the clincher, really. I find the better I do during the day, the more exercise minutes I log and the more good snacking choices I make during daylight hours, the less I want to mess it up come evening. Strange but true.
The evening snacking habit hasn’t disappeared, and I can’t say I’ve found one sure thing with which to replace it. But the siren call of the cookie jar is slightly more muffled. It’s easier to resist. And that’s a good start in my book.
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