Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Skip the Chips

I. Love. Chips. Potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, you name it. Salty, crunchy things. I love salt. And while I’m grateful so many of the Epicure products I sell are low sodium, I recognize the irony in the acknowledgment that two of my favorites are salt. (SPG and Herbed Garlic Sea Salt, specifically.) But I digress.

I love chips, and in moderation that isn’t a bad thing. But recently, and again, I realized I wasn’t loving them in moderation. So I worked on eliminating them from my routines. Again. And I started to realize how many triggering events would usually send me to Casey’s for a bag of sour cream & onion or cheddar & sour cream or BBQ or...you get the idea. Tired? Have a snack. Stressed? Have a snack. Long day doing...whatever? Chips!!

I started, again, slowly working them out and redirecting my snacking to other things. I started realizing what the triggers might be and planning ahead, for example by taking a cut up apple on a long drive. I wrote down in a note on my phone every day I did not eat them. Slowly, slowly, I stopped missing the chips. I stopped craving the chips. I realized after some extremely stressful days that I hadn’t made myself feel better with a snack of potato chips. And now? They don’t appeal. Maybe I could do small servings, but I don’t even want those. And I am over one month consistently not having them, which feels fantastic! Honestly? I can’t say I’ve noticed on the scale. What I’ve noticed is how I feel, and I feel really good for having eliminated a habit that wasn’t serving my best interests.

What unhealthy habit would you love to give up? What strategies do you think will help you? Figuring out the triggers was a huge help for me!

Cheers! Here’s to your health!!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Cutting Chips

I sometimes wonder if I take the alliteration too far or if I’m the only one amused with it. And then I decide since I am amused with it, I’ll alliterate away! :)

I love potato chips.

Scratch that.

I LOVED potato chips. Both the emphasis and the past tense are appropriate now.

In the category of potato chips, I include all kinds of snack items such as Cheetos, Doritos, and Funyuns, FYI. I don’t include pretzels, or tortilla chips such as those you get at a Mexican restaurant. It’s next to impossible to buy so-called single serving bags of gluten-free pretzels at convenience stores, and I so rarely have tortilla chips unless I’m at a restaurant that they’re a non-issue for this habit. And let’s be honest. Those single serving bags of chips at a convenience store? They’re large enough to share and no one ever does!

I haven’t had potato chips for two full months. I’d been trying to break this snack habit for the better part of a year and I had intermittent success.

I loved the crunch and salt and flavor of sour cream & onion, or barbecue, or sometimes even just plain chips. Ditto for the salt & flavor & crunch of Cheetos, which are gluten-free. (I never said all gluten-free foods are health foods!) I found myself wanting (needing) salt after long, hot days working outside. Chips made good comfort food when I’d been sick, or filler food when I was bored.

I didn’t love the feeling when I finished eating them. Greasy, overly salty, overly processedy…these were all sort of ick feelings. (Yes, autocorrect, I know “processedy” isn’t a word. I’m using it anyway. So there!)

I have started successfully using other things to satisfy the salt & crunch cravings. Lightly salted, roasted almonds are much less salty & greasy than chips. Gluten-free crackers, carrots, or sometimes cashews, sunflower seeds, or roasted edamame filled in. I almost forgot one! Hot buttered Cheerios are a good substitute for both potato chips & popcorn. Sometimes I need salt & a little fat, so I’ll grab a string cheese. Some of these options are still almost junk food, but almost all of them are healthier.

The biggest success and the thing about which I’m the happiest is avoiding certain triggers that would usually send me running to the store or asking my husband to do so. I didn’t go for chips the last couple of times I’ve been sick or to the doctor. I haven’t gone for chips after long days working, or when I’m stressed or emotional.

Newer science says it takes 66 days to build a habit. I’m living proof that a bad habit can be successfully broken in that time as well. Another way to look at it is that I’ve built a good habit of picking healthier snacks!

What bad (or good) habit have you broken (or built) lately?

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Meditation Is a Healthy Habit

Last week, I posted about building healthy habits. (It’s a theme for me!)

This week, I want to talk - again - about meditation. It’s a healthy habit, too, that helps me start my day in a positive way.

It doesn’t have to be for hours on end, although I know people who can meditate for an hour or more.

I do try to continue to increase the amount of time I spend meditating, and I frequently find myself being so relaxed with being present with my breath that I am surprised when the end chime sounds.

I still haven’t mastered meditating on weekends.

But otherwise? Everything in my post from last June is still very true!

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Building Habits & Routines

I have certain things that I like to do every morning, and it’s become very rare that I don’t keep to these habits.

I meditate & journal. I exercise. I have coffee with or after breakfast.

While I’ve become very good at maintaining those habits, and they all feel critical to having good days, sometimes I would scramble in the morning to get going on my routine. After a conversation quite some time ago with another coach, I started to look at how I could prepare differently in the evenings in order to have good mornings.

It’s been rocky. As a morning person, I’m much more with it in the a.m. than I am in the p.m. Evenings are my time to wind down, relax, cross stitch, or read, and so on. So then waking myself up a little to be productive and prepare for the following day sometimes feels counter-productive.

It isn’t. It’s extremely productive. Not only am I accomplishing things that will help me have better mornings, I feel better going to bed because I’m ready for the next day.

I set out the clothes I’ll wear for exercising.

I program the coffee maker.

I am getting better at prepping lunches for the following day as well as setting up my desk to be clear so I can sit down and work right away if that’s on my agenda.

How long does it take to make something a routine or a habit?

Honestly? It’s going to take as long as it takes for you to be comfortable with and happy with your actions. The so-called age-old wisdom that it takes 21 days seems to be up for debate. I saw an article that said it takes 66 days to build a new habit. That’s more than TWO MONTHS. Two months is a lot longer than 3 weeks, and it feels overwhelming and intimidating.

So…I’m not going to think about how long it takes to make a routine or habit.

I’m celebrating that I’m working on those habits and routines and that I feel good about how they work in my life.

For the record? BREAKING a habit also takes a long time. I’ve been working on breaking the habit of eating potato chips. (I’m happy to say that I’m being successful, and I’ll have an update on how I feel about it in a future post!)

Keep on going. Celebrate the successes. Understand the roadblocks, and understand how you feel about both the successes and the roadblocks.

Healthy habits & routines are totally doable!!

Cheers! Here’s to your health!