Wacky Moles

One challenge I have faced anytime I have sought to improve my habits especially during this year commitment to grow & live a healthy lifestyle, is to keep trying in spite of temporary, yet persistent failure. Logic would lead you to believe that you could focus on one behaviour for a limited amount of time and when it looks like it's become second nature, you could turn your focus to another behaviour while maintaining the consistency in the first one. This might be true if I were a programmable robot or if the variations of life and emotions didn't come into play!

Instead of consistent, systematic conquering of bad habits and the successful assimilation of new ones, I've experienced an almost comic life version of "Whack a Mole" where just as I pound down one issue, another rises up and as I pound that one down, the series of "moles" that I had just whacked at keep taking their turns randomly popping out of their holes again. Why won't they all stay down?

One week I may decide I'm going to focus on my water drinking and as I experience some success in that department, my food & exercise journal may be neglected. I turn my attention to the food & exercise journal only to forget the water and find out that I'm not exercising enough in relation to what I'm eating. I start to increase my exercise but then I forget to make some healthy foods and snacks for myself to eat and end up standing at the fridge with no good food choices and we order a pizza. So I spend some time making some wholesome food and realize I've forgotten to take my supplements all week....I think you get the picture!

Life is a series of changing seasons and frankly, as humans we are bizarrely complicated in our reactions and emotions. Summer vacation may somewhat derail my efforts to keep my family and I on the nutritional straight and narrow but September is here and bringing it's routine structure with it. I've been distracted with conflict and emotional turmoil that has temporarily hindered my energy for healthy meal preparation or journaling but that too will pass. It's important to keep the big, long term picture in front of your eyes or the insanity of reemerging obstacles will make you throw your "whacking mallet" away in despair.

I may not drink my 8 glasses of water each and every day but since water is pretty much all I drink ever, at least I know that I'm not quenching my natural thirst with other less-healthy alternatives. I may not take my supplements consistently but I have them and they occasionally need replacing so they ARE being consumed, albeit haphazardly. My exercise may not always outdo my appetite but at least my body is somewhat fit and there's less extra poundage than there could be. So maybe we order a pizza now and then--at least that is the exception and not the rule.

I am comforted that although my "whacking" efforts may appear to be disjointed and ineffective, I am finding that the moles don't get out of their holes quite so high and my efforts are scoring some points. If I keep at it, maybe I'll be quick enough with the mallet to keep them down for good. In the meantime I'm going to keep trying and remember that it could actually be fun to play this game if I make it so.