Habits are hard to break

This year I learned how hard it is to kick a habit, and how equally hard it is to make good ones stick.

I wanted to kill two birds with one stone: exercise every day, and stop eating fast food, because my metabolism won’t be this awesome forever. Simple, right? Wrong!

For me, fast food is like a toxic on-and-off relationship. I try to distance myself from fast food as much as possible, but there is always a part of me that thinks it won’t be so bad this time. And then fast food calls me up and says, “Hey Danny, we’ve got some great new limited-time item for five dollars. Now get your butt over here.”

We hook up, and then I immediately feel terrible and sick. I say it will be the last time, but fast food just smiles while it waits for me to drag my sorry butt back to the drive-through.

For a while, I was such a good boy. I was eating better, gaining some muscle and (mostly) sticking to my routine. I felt like a flaming stallion pumped full of bull shark testosterone. But for whatever reason, I totally dropped the ball and stopped working out.

I forget why, but I stopped for a couple days. And then I started eating fast food again, and that made me less inclined to work out. I broke my own heart. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Why am I so hard to reason with?

Manufacturing change for yourself is incredibly hard. I used to play on the tennis team in high school, and I would take lessons throughout the year. This forced me to work out each day, because it was required. I also ate healthier because my mom used to make all my lunches and dinners.

Forcing yourself to abide by your own rules is really hard because you can persuade yourself to slide out of commitments pretty easily.

I found that consistency is key. Even if you’re not working out a ton, just work out at least a little a day. And don’t let one fast food meal slip into your regular diet. Just doing what you have to do every day, without fail, will get something to stick… or to fall off.

Well, here’s hoping this time will work. Trying to escape my own bad habits has made me respect other people who have the same issues that much more.