personal

Healthy Habits: Once You Start It's Hard to Stop

I'm planning on writing at least one blog post a month here on my personal side of my blog about my progress towards my goals for the year and what's going on in my life: to make my personal side of my blog actually personal! This is the first one of the year, and it's about the 4th goal on my list.

I started changing the way I live each day about two years ago, but let myself slide after about 6 months of hard work up until about 3 months ago. It takes a while to get into the habit of doing something, but once you're in a routine of doing something all the time, it becomes natural to you, it's not something you have to consciously think of. There are unhealthy habits (e.g smoking) just as there are healthy habits (taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator). Some just happen, others you have to work at for a while, but they eventually become part of who you are.

These are some of the healthy habits I've "picked up" over the past few months.

Eating normal times (3 times a day)
Eating healthy (low amounts of red meat, mostly fruits/vegetables/fish/chicken)
Exercising everyday (gotta get that mayorship at the gym on Foursquare!)
Drinking lots of water (I don't miss soda at all)

This is possible due to a routine: get up, work, gym, then do whatever I want the rest of the day: It's not a burden, it's a lifestyle. It might be hard to start the ball rolling, but once you do, it's just about keeping the momentum going: a object in motion stays in motion unless an outside force acts upon it.

My lifestyle a few years ago was to sleep in, sit on my butt all day if I didn't have somewhere to be, order a couple pizzas because I was too lazy to make a sandwich and knew I'd rather not make dinner either. I was tired all the time, even if I slept in. Had no energy, and was happier sitting in front of a TV all day rather than going outside and enjoying the fresh air (okay, I still have days like that I guess). A few years ago I used to get wiped out walking a tradeshow floor! Now I have tons of energy, can go go go all day, and even if I only get 5 hours of sleep, I'm able to fully function. I don't feel like I'm always hungry, and sometimes can't even finish a full meal (so many restaurants serve WAY bigger portions than they really should). I feel like a new person, and it feels great.

So why change your routine? Well if you don't try something new, maybe you don't realize what you're missing? While I was living the life I had before, I didn't consciously think about how tired I was or how I wasn't as happy as I could be. What works for me may not work for everyone (or anyone else) the whole point of this post is just to encourage you to break out of you shell, your comfort zone and see if theres a different way of viewing the world around you. You don't know what you don't know, and just because someone tells you something doesn't make it true: you have to find out for yourself. My perspective on life has changed so completely in the past few months. Tying this back into photography: try to get a different perspective that is completely the opposite of the way you would normally approach a subject this week. If you approach a subject from far away and use a long lens, get up close and go wide. If you use just ambient "natural" light, use a flash or two (or three). If you would normally use a macro lens, take an image putting it context of it's surroundings, or take a macro of something you would have never thought to get up close and personal with before. Whatever it is, break out of your shell and try something you...you just might like it!