Returning to old habits...

...as long as they're good ones

It's not shameful to return to some old habits.  I swear, it really isn't.

When I started this journey...in earnest this time...just over a year ago, I was pretty gung ho.  I was doing a Couch to 5k trainer (with Zombies! yay!), myfitnesspal to track my calories, an app called monitor your weight to keep track of my overall goal of weight loss vs. time spent, etc.  I was vigilant on tracking myself and holding myself accountable.  I set up calendars for workouts so that I was making sure to hit the gym 3 times a week, and making sure I did my weigh in every week, same day of the week, same time of day (and posting in our Facebook group as an extra layer of accountability).  It was awesome.

And then I got used to the routine.  I was able to maintain a lot of what I was doing without such stringent accountability.  I was able to watch my calories and have a better understanding of how many were in the things I was eating.  I was able to get to the gym or outside running 3 times a week without even thinking about it because it was just my routine.

Over the course of this year long (so far) journey, I completed a 28-mile bike ride as well as a 10k and 5- 5ks.  I met my goal of completing a 5k in competition in under 40 minutes.  I've lost a total of 40lbs so far (of my goal of 50).  I feel better, I look better (if the compliments I've gotten recently are any indication), and I'm actually enjoying things like running.  Even shoveling my driveway for the first time yesterday (I hate winter in upstate NY) wasn't as hard as it was last year at this time.

It's now holiday time...one of the biggest food related holidays of the year now behind us (God, I love Thanksgiving food) and I'm feeling myself slipping back into some old habits again.  I've run 3 times in the last 27 days.  I ate (and drank) EVERYTHING on Thanksgiving...and the day before...and the day after.  It's getting dark so early in the evening now I almost hate going outside to run (surprisingly it's not the cold keeping me inside).  I have ZERO desire to go to the actual gym.  I'm getting complacent.

SO.  Instead of allowing myself to fully slip back into *those* old habits.  I'm deciding to return to some other old habits instead:

• I logged into myfitnesspal for the first time in months tonight.  I'm logging everything I've eaten today.  I'm going to log my food again for at least the next month, daily, to keep myself accountable.  (Side note - only a couple hundred calories over my 1300 calorie goal...so much better than it could have been for today, but still something I need to work on).
• I am currently printing a new 30 day challenge for myself as a workout challenge.  I'm going to plan out my next month of workouts (and I think it's important to take into account plans that I have, etc. to make it realistic) and stick to it!
• I joined a challenge on dailymile (my running tracking website) to see if I can log a certain number of miles over the next 30 days (and if you do, you're entered to win $$ yay!).
• I weighed myself on my normal day (Friday...bad idea...the day after Thanksgiving) to get myself an idea of where I am.  Thankfully, I was up only 2 pounds from my lowest weight to date so even the beer fest I went to, and Thanksgiving, and all that other stuff that I've been doing hasn't set me back TOO much.  I'm committing to the weigh in every Friday morning again (as I used to) so that I have a gauge on where I am in the process.  I had a few times where I was afraid to hop on the scale, but if I can't be honest with myself, what good is all this work I'm doing? 

I guess my point is that old habits are ok - and it's sometimes ok to need to get yourself back on track by returning to the "crutches" that you needed in the beginning.  To remind yourself of the good work and the good choices and just straighten out your relaxed expectations for yourself a little.  A setback is ok.  A little movement in the "wrong" direction is ok.  But there are tools out there that helped me once and it's ok to need them a little bit again.  It doesn't mean I'm a failure, I'm just kicking myself in the butt to get myself in gear again.  I have til April to reach my goal (which is TOTALLY doable) but I need to stay on track a bit and I'm going to return to some old....good....habits to get there. 

What good habits to you need to get back to??