Tweak 3! Slow and steady will win any race (or self-improvement campaign!)

by Changeonething on January 14, 2008 · 2 comments

in flexibility, knowledge gained, tweak three

That’s my theory.

Things went fine last week: I had beans every day but two. Friday was a vegetable curry which had few beans, but some kind of lima presence. Saturday I had some black beans. The rest of the week is detailed here. I call it a success, and I will continue to eat more beans than before.

For those keeping track, I learned in tweak 1 not to ban foods, since it made them more interesting (even if I did avoid them).

I learned in tweak 2 not to promise to do something every day, but that 5x a week might be a manageable addition. Especially for a food item. Ahem, especially for a high fiber food item like beans.

I was not sure what to do this week, but noted that due to various reasons, I have not been walking as much as I’d like to, lately, nor as much as I am used to. So Tweak 3 is to walk as much as I am able, and certainly every day.

This may be very little, today, since my lower back is troubling me. (I spent five hours in a meeting in an uncomfortable chair– I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but the chair seems fine at the time, and the next day, you realize it wasn’t.) But I read that you should move around as much as you can with lower back pain, so I will.

Hopefully later in the week, I will walk more enthusiastically. With vim and vigour.

This seems like a manageable tweak; the onus is on me to make sure I stretch myself.

How, and what, are you doing?

Over and out.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Renee 01.15.08 at 12:32 am

Hi Kate, glad things are going well for you! And thanks for explaining how you thought about categories for change, etc. That was helpful.

My first two tweaks went nowhere. Neither could I rise early nor could I go to bed early. So, on to something else. (In the normal course of “resolutions” this is where I would give up. But I can just go on to the next thing, can’t I?)

For this week, I will write to my father. We have had a strained relationship recently and have not spoken in a while. This year my intention is to get closer to my folks. So, a simple email saying hi, to not make a big deal out of things. That should be doable.

2 Changeonething 01.15.08 at 12:41 am

An email. So small, and yet, it might just set things rolling.
Great idea, Renee!

Previous post: How is it going, tweak two?

Next post: Tweak four: slouching towards self-improvement