Chapter one focused on rewarding yourself for the small victories, setting small and achievable goals, and how the decision we make can affect our future decisions.
Mindfulness is the chapter was explained as being “Present in the moment through greater awareness of yourself”. This included our senses, thoughts, feelings, and our environments. The chapter also explained mindfulness to be not wanting to fix or or judge what was happening around us but to just let it be. During this course, I am focusing on improving my nutrition as well as maintaining an active lifestyle in hopes to see both physical and mental changes on my body. With this in mind, over the last week I did follow the 80/20 rule of eating mainly nutrient dense food while allowing myself to give into cravings without beating myself up about it. I reminded myself that one bad decision did not erase the good ones. The chapter also explains that being mindful can improve your mental health. I started each day of the week with the good intention of staying on track, eating mindfully, and knowing that there were small goals behind each decision that I would make during the day. I’d reflect on my day, usually towards the end of it, and think if I had mainly ate 80% clean. If I did, I’d reward myself. If I did not, I would think about what I could have improved on. On the days where I did allow myself to eat less clean, I thought about what was happening around me and if anything in my environment could have caused it. This past week was a tough week, where I suffered a loss. I did choose to give in to my cravings, and I knew it was because I was having a bad day, even a bad few days. But that was okay.
Moving forward, I plan to use the preparation and action steps that were mentioned in the chapter to set my weeks up for success. I am going to set S.M.A.R.T goals and use shaping. By making a series of small changes I can develop habits that can last. Also, an action I am proud of myself for doing was improving my “self-talk”. I turned negative thoughts into plans of action. For example, I came home late from work, and really wanted to eat something healthy but had nothing prepared. I made a frozen pizza, ate the whole thing, and regretted it (but yes, it was delicious). I told myself theres nothing I can do now, but for next week I will plan to have meals ready for nights that I work late.
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