James Clear’s excellent book, “Atomic Habits”, introduced me to the idea of habit stacking. Where you stack an additional habit onto an already established one e.g. adding calf raises to your toothbrushing regime, doing stretches as your coffee brews or meditating after hitting the snooze button. Likewise, I’ve been trying to make some slow and steady improvements to my routine.
The Social Dilemma: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” Jeff Hammerbacher.
Who else felt attacked by this Netflix Doco about our addictions to the online world? I knew there was a panel of people working on just-the-right-time to distract me with a notification, entice me with an ad or lure me into a Taylor Swift YouTube rabbit hole! The fact that most of the boffins spilling the tech tea say that they use minimal social media and don’t let their kids online because it’s so addictive and negative speaks volumes. I was shocked when I took a peek at my Screen Time on my phone settings so I decided to start cutting down my dose. Cold turkey might have seen me smashing the safe like the tween in the film. So, I have set app limits for social media, turned off notifications, left my phone on silent and out of eye-line and reach and preferably in another room where possible. I have got my screen time under 2 hours a day and aim to continue to cut it down slowly-slowly.
Sustainable: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly”. Anne-Marie Bonneau (Zero Waste Chef).
Two books I’ve read recently have motivated me to cut down my waste and be more mindful about sustainability. In “This One Wild and Precious Life”, Sarah Wilson advocates using and repurposing what we’ve already got. When her t-shirts become ragged under the arms, she cuts off the sleeves and wears them as tank tops. When they fall apart, she rips them up to use as cleaning cloths. She uses a jar as a coffee cup/ water bottle and famously wore the same pair of green shorts for 8 years. Since reading, I’ve been sure to use a keep cup or dine in (now we can in Melbourne again-hurrah) and repurpose containers for storage. In “Home” Harriet (Natural Harry) Birrell shares her simple homemade recipes for cleaning and beauty products to reduce waste, expense and live a low-tox life. I’ve vowed to replace my products with these as I run out. So far, I’ve made a Face Oil and a Surface Spray which I’m using with pride and sniffing with pleasure. Body Wash and Window Cleaner are next on my list. Thanks to these lovely ladies, I’m steadily stepping towards sustainability.
Fitness Finesse: “Welcome to your 30’s. A cauliflower substitute has replaced all the carbs you love and the only joy you get is watching shows about murder”. Dizzle Saint James.
The night before my friend and I went to a week-long health retreat a few years ago, we went on a bit of a binge. Fish and Chips, McFlurries, lollies, bottles of wine and ciggies were all consumed. We knew there would be no caffeine, sugar or alcohol so we went nuts. I mean…we’re not even smokers! While I had lots of fun rebelling and the retreat was amazing, I wish I had followed the retreat’s suggestion of slowly cutting down on all of these in the weeks before hand as I spent a good amount of time there suffering headaches and sleeplessness as I detoxed during 5am workouts with no coffee in sight. I’ve recently stacked on the Covid kilos with literally nothing to do but open-the-fridge in lockdown. To combat this, I’m slowly increasing the minutes I do daily Downward Dog App Workouts (Yoga, HIIT and Barre-ScoMo’s fave) and replacing all the carbs with a cauliflower substitute. I’m hoping this baby steps approach will serve me.
So Steady as She Goes as we go into November…
Xxx Much Love Yvette
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Some great concepts here Yvette…I wish I was better at implementing them!
But being perfect isn’t the end game, changing the mindset of the masses is!
Quite the eye opener The Social Dilemma …. I need to get lamb and birdie signed up to it too.
As Mando says, ” This is the way ”
Markus
X
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Thanks MoPM! It’s definitely an ongoing challenge to keep baby stepping towards improvement. I sometimes have to resort to hiding my phone at the bottom of a drawer. Good luck guiding the girls, I’m so glad we didn’t face the exposure of social media growing up! xxx Yvette
Ps: A MAN OF YOUR SKILL SHOULD MAKE SHORT WORK OF THIS. — THE CLIENT
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Thanks for the entertainment Yvette! Had a good chuckle when I remembered scomo’s barre moment. Best of luck with the digi detox. That’s at least one thing I don’t have to worry about as I’m a bit of a luddite 🙂 As for those covid kilos tho…. xx
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Ha!! He got it wrong twice! Bar-REY. Thanks 🙏 Dave-I need to take a leaf 🍁 out of your book 📚 i.e: Aldi phone and no social media. Looking forward to getting back into the 🏊♀️ slow lane soon. Much love 💕 xoxo Yvette
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Love the efforts toward more sustainable living. I agree with the mindset of doing your small part daily to snowball into a less wasteful life. Great read!
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Thanks so much for reading! I’m enjoying the compound effect of making small sustainable changes. Looking forward to more in the new year. Much love 💕 Yvette
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