Creating a Micro-Environment of Health

So Happy Day After Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope your day yesterday (and every day but especially yesterday!) was filled with laughter, love, hope, and good memories being made!

It was at my house.

I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time EVER at my house.  My sis usually has it at her house, since she is the one who never left Arizona LOL.  I was the transplant traipsing around the world and other states, so who ever knew where WE were going to be any given Thanksgiving!

England (Lancashire).  Austria (Schladming).  Canada (Winnipeg).  Jerome (near Sedona, AZ).  Colorado (Lyons, near Boulder).

Yes I was the wanderlust always ready for an adventure.  My sis was the set-down-your-roots and with her 4 kids it just seemed like the place to have Thanksgiving every year, and Christmas Eve too!

The gathering place.  But her house is in the "middle" of being painted on the outside, so it is all taped and oversprayed with primer and the like, so we decided to have it at MY house on the next street over. 

SUCCESS!

Yesterday we had all manner of EVERYTHING to eat.  Sprouts did it up for us very well, everything was delicious.  We had far more pies than necessary, and it really smelled like Thanksgiving when we warmed everything up (the pre-cooked Turkey was AMAZING!).

So this morning I was thinking about what it MEANS to create a micro-environment of health in our lives.  I came up with a few ideas, some borrowed from Dr. A and some how I've implemented things in my own  home/life/friendships.

Creating a Micro-Environment of Health in the HOME ENVIRONMENT:

While we are focusing on health, it is important to identify in us what "triggers" we may have, and then change our routines and our environment to one that will PROMOTE our health goals, not HINDER them.  I've done that in my own house and with my immediate family, I've created a "safe zone" so to speak, where those items that cause me the biggest temptations historically just aren't around.  I don't have them readily available, because I know that even if I am doing SUPER WELL on my plan and with my health goals, there is about 8% of my day (it's a hypothetical, I've never actually measured that.....LOL), where my track record historically has shown that I am LESS focused on what I want EVENTUALLY (health goals) and MORE focused on what I think I want NOW (yummy food).

So I keep my trigger-items OUT of my house because I have created a "micro-environment of health" in my house.  I only want those things which will further my health goals to be readily available, I want my house to be a place of peace for me and not a battleground. 

What are those items for YOU?  For me, they are:  An OPEN bottle of red wine, Blue Cheese, Brie or Stilton, and Black Licorice (soft kind, what they call "aussie style).

No matter how I THINK I am doing, if I put these things in my house they WILL hinder my plan, because I allow them to.

So they don't reside in my house.  Yes, I pour out half-empty bottles of wine every once in awhile, after we've entertained and I want to set myself up for an on-plan day the next day.

Creating a Micro-Environment of Health in our DAILY ROUTINES:

What else do I do?  Well, if I am going running the next day I'll spend about 10 minutes the night before, just around bedtime (I'm sure that time of the day is PART of my 8%!), gathering my running gear, my ear buds, my running shoes, etc, and placing them on a chair in the kitchen near the coffee.  Then I'll grind the coffee and set up the coffeemaker for the morning.  Why do I do these things?  Not just to be "ready to go" in the morning, but to keep my mind and my actions right before bed focused on health.  If I didn't DO this routine, I may instead direct myself to the pantry to grab a handful of nuts or dried cherries. 

But I don't.  I have a healthy ROUTINE.  I have created a micro-environment of health, and have established healthy ROUTINES which a repeat every day.  This promotes an attitude of moving towards health in my life, instead of an attitude of food-centricity.

SO!  It doesn't matter to me what I may or may not have eaten yesterday, for Thanksgiving.  What DOES matter is what am I doing TODAY.  How am I acting in accordance with my long-term health goals TODAY?  With this very next DECISION?

Well, I sent all the left-overs of EVERYTHING home with my sister to deal with.  TODAY we are back to our regular routine, and my regular routine looks something like this:

Wake up, have my "perfect" cup of coffee with 2 TBSP half and half and 1 packet of splenda in it, and a Medifast Meal.  This morning it was a Choc Chip Cookie Dough Chewy Bar.  Some days it is Oatmeal or Blueberry Muffin.  Occasionally a Brownie.  Always with my perfect cup of coffee.  Then I fill up my 44 oz water cup with water and a Mixed Berry Flavor Infuser, I blog, I read the blogs, and I drink my water.  By about 8 am I have had my 1st Medifast Meal, my coffee, and am a good way through my water.  The day has started out right, in a way that supports my health goals, because it is my ROUTINE to do so.  I don't wake up in the morning and think "do I want to stay on plan today?"

OF COURSE I do.  It is a given.  It is not a daily choice anymore, it is now a routine.  An established HABIT of making my first meal a Medifast meal, and drinking plenty of water.  This sets up my next meal and has me thinking clearly with plenty of energy to continue my healthy routines.
Creating a Micro-Environment of Health in our CHOICE OF FRIENDS AND ACTIVITIES:

We all get to choose who we spend time with (outside our family of course!), and we also choose what we spend our time DOING.  Who are  your immediate circle of friends, and what do you do when you are with them?  Do you have a group of friends who support you in your journey?  Or are all of your friends constantly pressuring you to drop this "diet thing" and come have fun with them at the movies with popcorn or getting froyo after eating out?  If THIS is your group of friends, then perhaps YOU can be the healthy one with healthy goals and influence THEM.  But if not, then you may find THEY are influencing YOU.  I'm not saying drop them and never do anything with them, indeed I am not saying that.  What I am saying though is that we become LIKE those we hang out with the most.  We are sort of an average of the 5 people who hang around with most.  So improve your odds and find at least ONE person who IS health minded, who DOES have the same health goals as you do, whatever phase they are on in that journey doesn't matter but the MINDSET does, and spend some good time with THEM ALSO.  They will bring up your average!  =)  Do you like to hike?  Look online for some hiking groups that get together on the weekends to go hiking.  And join them.  Do you like to ride your bike?  Lots of cycling groups out there, and if there ISN'T a group, START one!  Are you a walker or a runner?  Look online and you will find there is a healthy vibrant active community out there and you CAN be a part of it.  Spend a part of every week with these like-minded people and you will begin to see it rubbing off, you will begin to see that it is easier for YOU to stay true to YOUR health goals because you are spending time with other people FOR WHOM it is NORMAL to be HEALTHY, and not an exception.

Dr. A talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with Healthy Community in his book Dr. A's Habits of Health, and I have found this to be 100% true in my own life.
So this is a peek inside the routine of someone who is still on her journey.  I hope you find it helpful!
Rinse and Repeat!