This morning, I woke up before my 5:30 a.m. alarm.
On my docket: Run, lift, get ready, and hustle my potato – padded butt to work.
On my mind: The immediate tasks I need to take care of, the emails simmering in my inbox, and the minor aches that coax me into believing that staying horizontal trumps getting vertical.
For the first six weeks of the year, I’ve stuck to my pre-work exercise routine, my better diet approach, my goals for damp January, and more. I’ve logged more miles, more protein, and more dogs of the downward variety. (Disclaimer: I may or may not have celebrated the Eagles’ Super Bowl win with a gifted bottle of Dough Ball whiskey, which both satisfied my preference for sweet drinks and made me feel like the object of a taunt).
The tone for me, I find, is set the minute I decide to get out of bed. If I can win the morning, I can win the day.
But today I wrestle with my routine, and I convince myself — in just a very short window — that my jug of anti-chafing lube will remain closed.
I could have chosen to drown out the excuses, yes, but I didn’t. A disappointing decision indeed, because I’m always happy to have exercised before work even when I don’t always want to. I was this close. And it was that simple.
Today, I chose poorly. Tomorrow, I will have the same choice. And the same one again and again. Those in-the-moment decisions extend to what I eat, how I sleep, and every other factor that determines whether my pants will fit or split.
I’ve always known that the series of small steps can lead to big changes, though it’s never an easy path. When I drill down even more — recognizing that the first small step is literally a 5-second decision to do or do not — I consider the implications.
A single choice in a single second in a single moment of a single day about a single workout or a single cookie is the first domino (did somebody say Domino’s?) to decide how your cells, organs and body will function today and for the rest of our lives.
I had a blip today. Tomorrow, I intend to smack the bleep out of another blip.
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