My Health

When I moved at the end of February, I was excited. I'd be living with one of my best friends, we'd have a house (not an apartment) all to ourselves, I'd be more independent that I was already, and I'd have responsibilities that had never encountered before (i.e. paying rent, bills, buying all the groceries).

One thing I viewed as a positive was that it was a new environment to me. Being that it is a method I implement with the kids at work, I thought I'd use this opportunity to manipulate and change my environment so as to get a different response.

Here's what I mean by that. I was excited for the prospect that I would be in a new environment for the fact that I could use that to instill some good habits. At my mom's house, my room was constantly messy. Everything was. I didn't pay rent so I was able to use all my money for food and going out to eat.

So I said to myself, "Let's leave that behind. It's a new environment, and I'm going to make some good habits to associate with the new environment that is my living quarters." I was going to start buying my own groceries, and I'd buy healthy stuff. I'd set aside 10 minutes everyday in order to keep things clean and maintain cleanliness as opposed to putting forth hours worth of work towards a massive cleaning spree once a month. I'd start walking to work to save on gas money and get some extra exercise in my day.

It started off great. For the first few weeks, my room was constantly clean, and I put forth a good amount of effort in making sure the general living areas were always clean too. I started walking to work aside from the couple of days when a coworker came by for breakfast and gave me a ride. I was buying some good groceries and only going to Chipotle once a week (which, for those who know me, know that is really cutting back). I did my laundry regularly and put it away right after it was done. I even made a daily habit of meditating.

Now, I've fallen into old habits. I habitually go to bed after 2am. I get lazy when it comes to buying groceries, and aside from making sure there is always milk and eggs in the house, Mikey doesn't do much grocery shopping either. Since I go to bed so late, I try to get all the sleep I can and wake up at the last possible minute before going to work. Because of this, I don't leave myself time to eat a decent breakfast, or any breakfast, and I am forced to drive to work since I haven't allowed myself 15 minutes of walking time. My room has been a mess for weeks now. Instead of keeping up with my determination to always keep it clean, it's become a pigsty. And I am always having, at some point, a pile of clean laundry on the floor that hasn't been put away. I guess I'm so worn out after always having to clean up after my messes in the kitchen and living room (and quite frequently Mikey's messes too), that I just don't have the energy to want to clean my own room. And the more the mess keeps piling up in my room, the more energy is required to clean it, the less motivated I am to do it.

Most importantly, I don't feel healthy. As I said, both Mikey and I get lazy on buying groceries, so I'm falling into old habits of eating out a lot which, I now have learned I can't really afford to do now that I have bills and rent to pay.

So here I need to recharge. And since summer, and swimming season, are coming up, it's a good time to focus on my health. I am going to try and be more disciplined. I need to buy some groceries. Some healthy food at that, and keep my diet in check. I need to start doing my daily ab workouts like I used to do. I need to get up in time to eat breakfast and walk to work, and possibly go for a short jog in the mornings. I need to quit drinking so often. I don't get drunk a lot, probably as much as I ever have, but I've made a habit of coming home, sitting on the couch, and having a beer or two. And I need to stop that if I'm going to try and be healthy.

Instead of complaining about it, I need to realize that yeah, I'm living with a guy who is kind of messy. And instead of complaining about anything having to do with that, I just need to suck it up and clean it myself if I have any hope of this being a decent-looking house.

It's all about establishing habits, which I've never effectively gotten in the groove of making particularly good ones. It's that first, initial hump that I need to get over. With anything, starting is the hardest part. I need to suck it up, find some discipline, and just do it.