THE WICKED WELLNESS METHOD STEP 4: THE GIDDY-UP & DO IT TECHNIQUE

SAMPLE CHAIN OF EVENTS STRATEGIES FOR BREAKING CHAIN Come home from work ▼ Plan an evening run as part of your exercise plan Feel tired and not like exer cising ▼ Tell yourself you’ll feel bet ter and more alert after working out Look for walking shoes, can’t find them ▼ Put shoes and workout clothes out the night before Feel annoyed ▼ Remind yourself of your new healthy routine and Giddy Up and Do It Damn It! yourself out the door Go into kitchen, see food, feel hungry ▼ Stay out of the kitchen un less you will be fixing a planned meal or snack Grab a bag of chips and hummus ▼ Have a glass of water or a pre-prepared healthy snack Turn the TV and sit down ▼ Listen to energizing music while you get ready to exercise Eat snack and watch TV ▼ If you like watching some thing while you exercise, get a stationary bike or treadmill Feel guilty Even if you have a small lapse, don’t beat yourself up. Resume your routine tomorrow ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲

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THE WICKED WELLNESS METHOD STEP 4: THE GIDDY-UP & DO IT TECHNIQUE

If you remember from the previous chapter, the important thing to do when you go to update your habits into rituals and routines is to start small. You don’t need to revamp your health routines overnight. For example, I know a group of people that started The Pushup Club. They started with doing just 1 pushup a day and then immediately texted each other when they finished. Then, of course, since they were already down on the floor, they slowly added more. But all they committed to was 1 pushup to start.

A Recap So Far

In Step One, we determined which areas of your health and wellness need the most improvement.

Step Two, we outlined what we want to achieve and where we will fit our new health routines into our daily lives. Maybe you’ve decided that “I want to be the kind of person who looks in the mirror and loves her glowing skin.” Or, “I want to be the type of person who practices daily meditation.” You’ve examined what your daily routines are and have identified where you can layer new healthy routines into your life.

Now it’s time to break it down even further. Allow me to introduce a technique that has been instrumental for me. I use it daily.

GIDDY-UP AND DO IT, DAMN IT!

Isn’t it amazing that when we feel the slightest bit of resistance to do something, we come up with the most brilliant excuses not to. I head off to sleep with the best of intentions to wake up at 7:30 am for a 20-minute workout. I mean how difficult can that possibly be? Then, my 7:30 alarm goes off. I’m wide awake, and yet I sit there in bed doing nothing. I think, well maybe I can wait just five more minutes and I’ll still have that 25-minute window left to work out. Then more pour in. Maybe I’ll cut out of work early and fit in my workout later. Or, maybe I’ll double the length of my workout tomorrow. YES, that’s what I’ll do!

Yeah, I’m full of shit. And, don’t tell me you all haven’t done the exact same thing. We all do it…it’s human nature.

This past year I dug in deep to create a technique that could leave no room for excuses. For me, it needed to be simple and something I couldn’t forget. It’s the tool I use to get myself out of bed when I feel like sleeping in. It’s the tool I use to get anything I don’t want to do, done. It’s my go-to mental gadget that works. And it goes like this.

I call it Giddy-up and Do It, Damn IT! Yeah it sounds a little harsh, but it’s not. It’s mighty and it’s powerful! It’s my version of ripping the bandaid off.

We are masters of excuses. We could talk ourselves out of anything. I know, if I could get paid to create excuses all day, I’d be retired on my own island drinking delicious bourbon cocktails with little umbrellas while sitting underneath a misting umbrella!

I want to empower you with this tool and give you permission to use it A LOT. Once you say it, you can’t stop yourself from moving forward with the routine, ritual or task at hand.

HERE’S HOW YOU WILL USE IT

Once you have set up the decision you want to do something (e.g., workout at 7:30 am) you say out loud “Giddy-up and do it, damn it!” and while you are saying “damn it,” your body’s IN MOTION off to do the thing. No excuses. You said it and now you are in process.

This is how you get yourself to do the hard stuff – the work you don’t feel like doing, or you’re scared of doing, or you’re avoiding. That’s it. It takes seconds.

THE CASE OF THE UNUSED PELOTON

I thought, like many, that when I bought my Peloton the motivation to bike every day would just naturally happen. No dice. I’m embarrassed to say I actually had it sit in my home for almost a year without using it except for a handful of times. And then, one day when the monthly charge for the Peloton App popped up on my iPhone, I said, “WTF and I doing??” At that moment, I found myself in the Grit Gap and I knew I had a choice. Option one, I could cancel my subscription (I mean why would I pay for something I don’t even use). Or option two, I could wake up and take charge of my body. Lucky for me (and you) I chose number two. #Truth

So when I started on my Peloton, all I told myself was ”I need to commit to 5 minutes a day on the bike for one week.” And that’s what I did. Just 5 minutes a day for a week. And don’t think that I didn’t come up with excuses why those 5 minutes were a hassle. Isn’t it shocking how powerful our minds can be to talk ourselves out of 5 minutes of fitness! But I’d Giddy-up and Do It, Damn IT! myself on that bike every single day that week. I wish I could say I wanted to do it. I didn’t. But I did it anyway.

Being the improvement seeker I am, I naturally wanted to increase my time. So that is what I did. I set a specific time (8:30 am), directly after spending mornings with my son, and put it in my calendar so no one could schedule anything for me during that time slot. I set out my workout clothes each night at the end of my bed so there was no time “figuring out” what I would wear. I