Small Steps

We are motivated by two things:  Pleasure or Avoiding Pain.  Part of avoiding pain, is to shy from doing anything that seems too difficult, scary or no fun.  So, to make a significant change, I have to sell it to my emotional brain as fun, different and easy.  One way to do that is move in small steps, focus on one task until it becomes a habit and then move on to the next task.  So that's what I'm aiming to do.

Task 1:  Ride my bike in the morning.  I've been wanting to get into this habit for a while.  I honestly feel that I am more likely to get a workout in if I exercise in the morning and I'm more likely to make good choices throughout the day if I know I put in a real effort for myself in the morning.  Plus, I think I will start off the day more energetic and with all those feel-good hormones.  So that is my task until it becomes a habit.

Tomorrow I am going to get up and ride my bike, no matter what time I get up in the morning (although I'm aiming for fairly early). 

Here's something interesting I learned.  A study was done on the effects of sugar on the brain.  They gave volunteers a sip of soda while collecting MRI data and confirmed that sugar causes the brain to let off dopamine, the brain's "reward" chemical.  So, whenever I eat something sugary, I'm getting that nice dopamine hit.  However, over time it needs more and more of the stuff to get the same kick, and this is how we get food addiction.

Wanna know what else causes a kick of dopamine?  Doing something new and challenging!  So, the next time I'm feeling down and wanting a piece of candy or cake, I should go do something new and challenging to get the same reward. 

I will post tomorrow on how well my bike ride went in the morning.