3 basics that change(d) my life
How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Annie Dillard
The word habit makes me roll my eyes! I don’t know about you but I think chore, and I think bad habit more often than not? But ‘habits’ good, bad and chores that we find ourselves in everyday will be what defines our days as they turn into years. What’s your day looking like so far? Do you like today’s-rest-of-your-life feels?
I like to think of habits more like the rooms I spend the most time in and what they look and feel like. My bedroom with bed made, pillow fluffed and inviting, pictures on my wall from my boy over the past 5 years, books I’m reading and looking forward to reading; my kitchen clean bench tops, veggie basket riches flowing, fridge stocked (& leftovers for quick meals!); my ‘living’ room is probably more untidy than most but it’s lived in: kettlebells for morning jump starts, bands for knee recovery movement snacks, hoola hoop, indoor board balance, chin up bar for fun! Look around the rooms where you spend the most time. What behaviour does it encourage? How can you set things up to make your (good) habits easier?
If you’ve trained with fitbynature your good habits are simply the choices you intentionally make each day to ensure your moves, meals and mindset:
Daily consistent moves, not too much so you can go again tomorrow (which is the definition of longevity right?!)
Daily delicious meals from scratch, from the best, cos you’re both worth it and made from it
Daily growth and checkin mindset
Moves
The mechanics behind getting better at anything are simple: consistency. Want to write better? Write every day. Want to run a faster 10k? Train for it. Want to improve your relationships? Check in, communicate, and invest time ... consistently.
It's about showing up- small, focused efforts each day with your movement longevity, Consistency over intensity means the magic happens over the long game - the daily commitment to the process. It's easy to get excited about quick gains, but true progress is built on the steady accumulation of effort. Over time, it's that consistency that compounds, creating momentum, and transforming what was once challenging into something second nature.
If you want to get better, just keep going. Small actions, done consistently, lead to big results. Movement snack right now (https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTgxNzk0ODE0ODE4NjYw?story_media_id=3145627698155278716&igsh=NThsbzZmdWY1bnRr)?
Meals
We all have ‘go tos’ (link) and they’re easy to fall into. First I try to upgrade mine for change (steak stir fry instead of go to chicken) as much as healthier choices like gf pasta and bread.
Leftovers are lunch and lateness logistics of love! Yes, I love alliteration, but think goddess bowls or bento boxes rearranging leftovers in new one-bowl solutions, last nights stir fry as a bang xeo (https://www.fitbynature.org/recipes/project-one-f5w4d-ppepg-dxwak-w749m-zgyjm-48ykt-s6f82-xzclp-6ajfh-nnhjg-ay5za-sllkp-yycpz-3h6gw-d4r8g-xf6xt-skg9e-g27ax-9j5r8-5xzr6-5r8h5-eawee-bepjr-blhjl-xxref-lg7n7-k2tn2-2dcpl-ddwrc) or pho), cassava garlic bread (https://www.fitbynature.org/recipes/casava-bread-pizza-base) leftovers live in our freezer ready for crumbed chicken favourite dinner (https://www.fitbynature.org/recipes/tims-fried-chicken-tfc-mayo), cold tomato pasta salsa only gets better in the fridge, is preserved in olive oil and is a great instant salad topper and dressing. Your curiosity is your limit!
Mindset
A client recently showed me a counter she kept in her phone which includes boxes labeled Writing, Analogue & Creation, Yoga, Days with No Social Media, Gratitude, Walk and Love (as represented by emoji hearts). Some of these are conceptual and others, obviously, aren't. The cold, hard data of our hours might surprise or disturb us .
She described that when she thought about it too much (which obviously I do as well!) she ended up wanting to make panicked resolutions, such as vowing each morning to take a walk first thing, write down at least one thought on paper, take photos of what she saw and consider the contents of her own brain before she checked anything (email, etc). It's noteworthy how good it feels to do this cos I have joined it! My success rate is around 75%-ish. Some mornings I don't feel like putting on shoes and walking out the door. But many other mornings I find myself in parts of the my suburb I've never been, seeing something small I never noticed before, ideas entering my mind that might not have gotten there any other way. Thankyou for this new mindset shift (iykyk).
We need to connect or retreat at certain times for a gajillion reasons. A life can't be all one way, or all another. It's countless tiny, moving parts. Our daily habits and choices accumulate to shape our day, our week and the overall course of our lives. That feels overwhelming but the way we utilise our time and energy each day has a direct impact on the kind of life we ultimately create.
And I think Annie Dilliard's quote is a reminder that we need to keep the balance in our life more heavily geared toward the beautiful, the sincere, the focused, the real-life connected, the tangible, the creative, the adventurous, the strange, the engaged. This can mean whatever we decide is important to us. A conversation with voices, a party with no documentation, moments alone, spaces of quiet, views taken in only through our eyes, no phones at dinner please. It makes me think of how I might answer the poet Mary Oliver's question, "Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
