Broken windows

From Ebonyangel's blog (hope you don't mind, eb) I think it's good stuff! So I have to say that the deepest lesson that I have heard on here has been "Broken Windows, the lesson of the vandalized house". Basically its like this. Think about a targeted neighborhood. Let's say that there is a broken window in one window of a house. Lets say that window never gets repaired. So the vandals who see the house say, hey no one cares, lets break another window. And so two windows are broken and none get repaired.  So over time, there is going to be the message sent that its okay to come in and vandalize the house. And still the broken windows aren't repaired and the damage escalates. So basically it causes decline when it could have gone differently.  The broken windows are like those broken promises to exercise, those lapses in judgement with food, those binges, or "off" moments. Those moments by themselves (broken windows) are easily fixed when its just one moment, time, or day (get back on track).  But its harder to keep the vandals out when there are numerous broken windows (day after day of no exercise, eating what you know is not acceptable). Its harder to get the willpower to get back on track when its days of these behavior rather than one instance.  So to that end. Lol. I am reminding myself to think about "Broken Windows." I've been there and its not cute. I don't want to keep inviting these vandals (negative thoughts, bad behavior, depression) back into my house (my temple, my body).

This is a lesson I seem to repeatedly learn.  It's so much easier to begin the slide off your plan once you blow off a single thing on it.  With me, I have a daily log that I keep in a notebook where I note how many times I am going to walk a day, how many times I am going to cycle a day, what my calorie limit is for that day, and how many ounces of water I will drink that day.  There is a very close correlation between my missing any of those things I have *written down* and my going completely off track.  One miss turns into two, turns into a day, turns into a week... you all know the story.  Something I am going to try, is beginning to purposely put in my log days that are 2000 calories, or just 1 walking session, or perhaps even some days where there is no planned session at all.  That way it is part of my plan and not a "broken window."

That's a good analogy.