Figuring it all out...

I'm halfway through a book called One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way (by Robert Mauer), and it's really helping me get a perspective on things in my life. He says that it's all about baby steps towards change, because if we make huge goals or try to make drastic changes - our fear response will kick in and we will most likely fail.

He talks about thinking positively, and asking small questions to accomplish big goals, and taking small movements towards bettering yourself every day - even if they seem like the silliest tiniest little steps. It's really brilliant, and the funny part is - I started practicing it with flossing every day... and guess what - now I floss every day!!

Here's how I did it.
Baby Step 1: For 2 weeks, I simply left my floss out on my bathroom counter so that I would see it every day.
Baby Step 2: For the next 2 weeks, I only flossed a few teeth at a time before brushing.
Baby Step 3: For the next 2 weeks after that, I only flossed the top row of teeth, then alternated that with the bottom row (every day).
Baby Step 4: I started flossing every day.

The crazy part is that it has actually worked!! Ever since I started that, I floss EVERY day which I have never been able to do before.

I'm trying to get this all to work with my fitness routine now, because that's something I've always had trouble sticking with. I get on a kick where I work out like crazy for 3 months, then get lazy, and stop working out for 3 months and gain all of my weight back. It's a terrible cycle, and I have always wanted to be the kind of person that just HAS to workout every day, and feels good about it.

So I started ridiculously small - I started marching in front of my TV while watching the weather forecast in the morning for 2 minutes every day for 2 weeks. It sounds ridiculous, I know!

The next 2 weeks, I marched & stretched for 5 minutes.

The next week I started lifting a 5lb weight, and stretched for 10 minutes.

Today I went for a 15 minute walk before work.

I really hope this means that I'm working my way up, because I didn't feel fear about going for the walk this morning, and I didn't feel bummed that I had planned on getting up to do it. It actually felt really..... good. So wish me luck! And be sure & pick up this book - it's a great read, and really super helpful.

And if "baby steps" didn't make you think about the movie "What About Bob?" with Bill Murray & Richard Dreyfus, then I don't know what to say. Re-rent it, 'cause it's hilarious!