One Healthy Choice can Completely Change Your Day

Has this ever happened to you? You wake up, moderately ready for the tasks ahead, but by the time you have your coffee and get ready, your motivation has dissolved to nothing? A feeling of dread creeps in, and excuses march through your mind. One healthy choice feels like too much work. What started as a decent day now seems impossible to get through.

Lately the birds singing outside my window wake me up before my alarm. Not every morning, mind you. But yesterday I woke up a full hour and a half before my alarm went off, and I could not get back to sleep.

I didn’t fret. Just got up, made some coffee, did my Bible study, and scrolled through my phone for a bit. I had my workout planned–a DVD in our basement–and I was already dressed for it. I just needed to put on my shoes and get my butt down there.

But did I get my butt down there? I think we all know the answer to that!

Thoughts crept in, naughty ones. I’m tired. I got up early. Maybe I should take a short nap and then work out.

As soon as it became a possibility that I wouldn’t exercise, my devious brain took another leap–to comfort food. Soon I was thinking about baking brownies.

What in the world? How had I gone from my normal routine (albeit earlier than usual) to mentally skipping my workout and baking brownies? And this all in a matter of minutes?

I forced myself to put on my athletic shoes. I figured if I had my shoes on, I might be more motivated to go downstairs. Then I scrolled through my phone for twelve more minutes. Yes, TWELVE minutes.

The pressure inside me built. Are you going to exercise or not? If you keep scrolling, you’re not going to accomplish what you planned to do today.

You can always take a nap this afternoon. Just do your workout first.

Giving myself permission to slack later was all I needed to get moving. I took a deep breath and headed downstairs.

The thirty minute workout took no more out of me than it normally does. When I finished, I had a bowl of fruit, poured myself a tall glass of ice water, and prepared hard-boiled eggs to add to my salad at lunch.

Soon, I’d showered, folded laundry, called the vet, and sat in my office to work. I ate a healthy lunch, worked for a couple of hours afterward, and called it quits late in the afternoon.

One healthy choice made all the difference.

In my case it was putting on my athletic shoes soon after playing the maybe-I-can-skip-my-workout song and dance. The act of putting on the shoes was the deciding factor for me to exercise, which snowballed into several other easy health choices.

We all have days where we just flake out on our routine. We skip the workout, buy a calorie-laden value meal for lunch, put off the little tasks on our to-do lists, and spend our evening on a social media site instead of reading the book we’ve been wanting to read all week.

It’s okay. I’ve been there. I’ll be there again.

But I don’t have to be there all the time. In fact, I don’t have to be there all that often.

Yesterday, I took one tiny step and it gave me the mental energy to take another and another. That’s a win in my book!

What healthy choice would make a difference when you have one of those days?

Have a terrific week!