On Monday, I shared my best and worst professional habits and how I was hoping to navigate them as I start a new school year. Today, I am looking at my personal habits and considering which ones to really amp up and which ones to dial down as the back to school countdown continues.
AMPING UP
Planning our meals. Every Friday, I plan our meals for the next week and then on Saturday morning I do our grocery shopping for the week. Knowing what we are going to eat each night helps to make the day more seamless (it is so nice not to have to expend energy on thinking about dinner and cooking it) and allows BF to easily get started on dinner if I am delayed with something. It also helps me not to resort to pizza every single night since by Wednesday, I don’t really care what we are having for dinner. Having it written just takes the emotion out of it. “Oh, we’re having black bean pie,” I think. “Fine.”
Sharing information. One of my other Friday tasks is updating the family calendar for the next week. It alerts all of us to appointments, lessons, etc. so that we are on the same page about who needs to be where and when. We use a big wall calendar by the door we enter most often, but I know some people who use Cozi. What you use doesn’t matter nearly as much as everyone having access to the information.
Not procrastinating. For the most part, I am not a procrastinator. I figure out what needs to be done, break it down into little palpable bites, and do each piece on the day that I plan to do it. Not backing myself into a corner with having to get things done is one of the kindest things I do for myself. Also, I very rarely stare down a deadline at the 11th hour which greatly reduces my stress.
Accepting myself. I am not verbally or mentally mean to myself. I know that beating myself up is defeating rather than motivating and so I just don’t go there. I can look at a situation and say, “Oh, I could have done this better” and that observation doesn’t make me feel bad (this was a learned behavior and one you can learn, too). Observing the circumstances around me as well as my own choices as just giving me information (as opposed to ways to judge myself) makes me feel informed and empowered– like I can keep growing rather than fall into the limited belief that I am stagnating.
DIALING DOWN
Sweet tooth. If I am totally honest, my absolute worst habit is that I have a sweet tooth. I don’t drink coffee, but I love a mid-day can of Coke. While we don’t really have sweets in our house, it is hard for me to pass by a candy dish elsewhere. I like sugar for the taste and I like sugar for the energy rush and I’d like to not have such a 7 year old affection for it.
Scratching workouts. I like to get out a workout first thing in the morning but if life hits the fan (Happy wakes up earlier than normal, a flurry of overnight emails leaves me feeling panicked, etc), I will ditch my morning workout to work or be productive in some way which never really does as much for me as having worked out would (because, let’s face it, a workout would totally give me an energy high but if I skip it I become even more dependent on that mid-day sugar high). This hyper-productivity sabotages me in multiple ways and it is the behavior I most want to crush this fall (it is a double edged sword because I can get a lot done in a fairly small amount of time but I really don’t like the trade-off as that hyper-focused girl isn’t my favorite version of myself) and so it’s getting its own post next week (the better to think it all through before divorcing it and also because I know that I am not alone). Bottom-line: hyper-productivity is my absolute worst habit, scratching workouts is just a symptom of it.
I’ve been working on dialing down both my sweet tooth and hyper productive mode but both will receive even more attention in the coming months. What habits are you dialing up or down this fall?
Dear Rosie!
Thank you so much for your wonderful book “Beautiful You” and this blog that gives so many great ideas to think about!
As I read your last post it occurred to me that I might share something that happened to me. You see, I used to have a very big sweet tooth indeed. It needed a daily (big) amount of sugar, preferably chocolate, but candies were quite okay too. That was before children.
You see, I have not been so strict with my food, if it’s healthy or not. But I’ve always wanted my children to be healthy and get good, healthy food. So I’ve given them meals 5 times a day, regularly, 2 warm meals and then smaller. And because I have 3 active son, aged 7, 6 and 2, it takes all my time to keep up with them. So I started to eat with them the same food I gave them.
It was only recently that I started to wonder, why I didn’t crave sugar anymore. At least not in the amounts I used to. It might be a bad habit that I still want my one or two pieces of chocolate after a meal. But that’s about it.
I figured it has everything to do with the fact that I started to eat like my kids…
The happy thing is that nowdays I seldom get hypoglycaemic anymore, a condition that was a bit too familiar to me and caused (I suspect) bingeing.
Before children I used to regulate my eating and tried different diets. What is funny about this “diet” of mine is that I didn’t plan it or intentionally left anything out. But nowdays I find myself needing the “real food” even at work or when I’m not with kids.
So that’s what happened to me. I’m not saying that it’s what would necessarily happen to other people nor can I really give any advice not knowing what your habits are or how you live your life. But I hope that it at least helps knowing that sweet tooth can descend to something less dominating, sometimes without painful efforts. 🙂
Hannah, thanks so much for sharing your experience. I love that perspective. I have had the same philosophy about not wanting to model my sweet tooth for Happy and while our food isn’t very “sweet”, I’m still interested on my own (although, to be fair, I am probably more interested than actually having it. I think getting back to school for both of us with lots of structure and less tim to fill will be good for me! Random food question– because you mention having 3 boys and I am always looking for ideas– what do your boys love for breakfast? That is Happy’s least favorite meal and I am always looking for more ideas!
Hello again! This breakfast question is really tricky….it is actually challenging to get them to eat in the mornings. But I give them porridge with a sort of soup made of berries and juice. I don’t know it’s name in English, but it’s sweet and my boys love it! One of them likes to add also cottage cheese on top of it all
Oh, that sounds like something I would love, Hanna. And I am relieved to know that I am not alone with the breakfast challenge. I think if breakfast was 2 hours after waking up, Happy would be fine with eating, but 2 hours after he wakes up is after school starts. 🙂 We have a much easier time with weekend breakfast because it can happen a bit after he wakes up. And thanks for your back to school good wishes!
Just an afterthought, have you tried smoothies? My friend smuggles fruits, berries and vegetables into her childrens diet that way. Says she adds almond milk and sweetens the smoothie with honey. It could be easier to swallow in the mornings and he would have eaten breakfast 🙂
For some reason all of my reply didn’t register, but I hope You and your son have a great start of schoolyear!
Hi Rosie! I’m curious about how you handle your meal planning/grocery shopping routine when you’re traveling on the weekend, have company, or are otherwise prevented from the Friday night planning, Saturday morning shopping routine. I too aim to plan meals & shop weekly, often on Sunday afternoons. But in any of the above named circumstances it all gets thrown off, which typically means the entire week is thrown off and we end up eating out way more than I’d prefer because that feels easier than a week night grocery trip and spur of the moment “what should I cook?” incidents. I’d love your thoughts/suggestions!
Great question, Emily, because that is something that can definitely derail things. So, what I do when I plan for the next week is also make sure that I can go to the grocery store the next weekend. If I can’t (let’s say I am going to be out of town between Friday and Sunday), I go ahead and figure out when I can go. Can I go the Thursday before I head out of town or the Monday that I come back? If I cannot go until after the weekend, I go ahead and plan the meals for any other days between now and my next grocery trip– so maybe I am shopping for 10 days instead of 7. The other thing that I do, and this helps for unexpected events or if the day turns and I cannot cook the meal I planned that night, is go ahead and make doubles that I can freeze. This is especially easy to do with soup and some casserole-y type meals. So, typically, I always have a few things in the freezer that can be a quick go-to meal for us with some roasted or raw veggies on the side. Finally, when I do something like a soup, I will save a couple servings in small containers so I can thaw them out for easy lunches. Hope that helps!