Recognizing the bad habits, then deciding to break them.

Dear James, Daniel and Emily

It's that time of year again, time to make some decisions on what I can do to improve my health next year. Because I have to be honest, the belt is getting a little tight around the middle. And while it easy to make excuses the real reason is I have fallen into a few bad habits, which I have to break.

I didn't run as much last week, but the runs I did do were good quality. Including starting Thanksgiving day with my own personal 10K Turkey trot. And this week I am back into my customary 5 day running cycle (barring the arctic blast we are expecting laying a sheet of ice over everything, I mean I can run in cold, or snow, but I do need to be sure of my footing, especially since I run in the dark.)

I have identified 2 bad habits to focus on. First, running to eat. Far too often I find myself using the excuse of 'hey I ran today, I deserve that extra waffle, slice of pizza etc.'. I need to get myself back into the mindset of separating my eating from my running, save for watching what I eat the night before a long run. And I actually was pretty good about that on Thanksgiving, I ate the normal huge meal, but that meal was it, I didn't dive back into the kitchen for a late snack or anything like that. So that is the first habit to focus on.

Second, for background last year I resolved to stop eating fast food hamburgers. Kim gave me a hard time about my definition of fast food since I still would eat Five Guys or Cy's, but there is a difference in quality there. And it was as much what came with the hamburger that I avoided. Because as a result certain places either got dropped altogether or cut back to almost nothing, places where it just isn't good to eat: McDonalds, Carls Jr, Wendys. And I was pretty good, I can count the number of fast food hamburgers on 1 hand.

And my resolution this year is to cut off fast food and snack sweets. That means shakes, malts, frosties etc. from fast food restaurants. And no more donuts, pastries, pop tarts etc. that I pick up with my morning soda or from the vending machine. I will leave myself the wiggle room of home made deserts (birthday cakes etc.) and breakfasts. I figure I have to leave some wiggle room for sanity sake. But I feel that even cutting that much from my diet will make a difference. I know it won't be easy, probably harder than the fast food burgers, but I think it is the biggest target area in my diet where I can make a big difference.

I think that if I just focus on those 2 things, plus keep running, I can loosen that belt back up, which needs doing.