Old Habits Die Hard: A New Rhythm of Life Takes Commitment and Discipline.

I wrapped up week one of the 30-day Body Budget Challenge dry run.

The week in review was not quite what I had expected. I felt fragmented, and nothing held my attention long enough to stay with it.

After a high-stakes roller-coaster week of stonewalling, appeals to the Governor, breakthrough, and long-awaited beginnings ten years in the making, the week ended on a high note. I was eager to turn my attention to the work ahead, crafting an engaging challenge for others to join me on the 30-Day Body Budget Challenge.

But the week's pressures caused me to cop out on my healthier dietary habits and take refuge in indulgences. The effects of which manifest in my thinking, body, and emotions.

I felt frumpy, stodgy, and grumpy.

For inspiration, I checked in with some of my favorite online teachers, Mel, Beth, Priscilla, and Ann. That left me feeling worse. These women are comfortable in their lane, messaging, and life's messiness.

I, on the other hand, just felt like a mess. Flopping around in fits and starts of what Brendon Burchard calls the “You're gonna suck at first” stage.

A surge of doubting thoughts landed like a punch in my gut.

Where did they come from all of a sudden?

Often when I’m feeling ‘some kind of way,’ I begin to write or speak an incoherent line or two, and clarity comes.

So I made a video for an audience of one - me. I wanted to see if I looked as bad as I felt, and the answer was unequivocal. I did.

Each time I unpacked my feelings and fears, giving them a voice and a name, their enormity shrunk. To such an extent, I chastised myself, “What are you talking about? That’s not true!”

Do we realize how much of our life is lived in our heads? Scripture refers to this as our thoughts and vain imaginations.

Thoughts are habits and what you notice is a spiritual practice. Old habits die hard.

I’m committed to changing how I’ve always done things - taking care of myself - and what matters most.

You must fight for what is precious, override what you ‘feel’ like, and do what you must to receive the reward.

For me, that means living intentionally and creating a new rhythm of life that honors God and the person I am becoming, integrated and aligned with who He made me to be.

It starts with paying attention to the basics, the foundational things, and is how I got started on the Body Budget.

Noticing how I am attending to myself and what I know are essential for me to function at my best

Not only giving myself what my body physically needs to function optimally but what my heart and soul need as well.

To put into daily practice the life-giving things.

That takes more than good intentions; commitment, discipline, community, and support.

That's what the 30-Day Body Budget Challenge is all about. I hope you will join me; we are better together.

Click HERE to connect with me about the 30-Day Boy Budget Challenge