Attempting to achieve our healthy habits is a good building block for optimal health, or does it take away from our spontaneity? Are bad habits really so bad?
|6 minute read|
Bright morning light piercing through my blinds, a morning routine I try to establish, but on most leisurely days I have my phone in my hand first thing, bad. Eventually I get up, swipe a pet or two over my cat's head as she twitches her ears, still purring with sleep. On a day where I’m working, the first thing in my body is a bottle of water, good. On a day off, it's coffee, bad. On a day where I’m working, I workout in the mornings, good. On a day where I’m subdued by exhaustion I’ll convince myself to skip the weights for the day, bad. I eat then take my vitamins most mornings, once my stomach is full of toast and fruit, good, and the next thing I drink is green tea, good. And throughout the day maybe I’ll be moving around, on my feet, here then there, last minute fill in, sub a stretch and technique class then maybe a ballet class, 10,000 steps, good. Maybe I sit more another day, get up once to refill my water, good, but come home and lay, 8,000 steps, bad. So at the end of the night, the fate of whether my day was successful or not, lies in the hands of my habits. Drinking water, 10,000 steps, vitamins, tea, whole foods, good, good, good, good. But the little things I do that shy away from these, coffee before breakfast, rest days, scroll breaks, are they really that bad? Does the miniature break away from the good habits eradicate all the work we put into ourselves every other day? And so I must ask myself, do I control my habits or do my habits control me?
At the most basic level we can name obvious habits that are good and those that are not so good. But when we get to the nitty gritty, are we forced to achieve these so-called ‘healthy habits’ because we want to or because we are told? For about a year now, I have had a habit tracker that I purchased off of amazon that hangs in my room, in front of my face every single day. At first I wasn’t consistent (bad) at marking down the habits I did do, but I found comfort and motivation in generating a new list of habits every month, the habits that will keep me on track for whatever goal I was trying to reach. Things like taking daily walks, drinking enough water, getting enough sleep (good). On the 29th day of any given month was the reckoning; have I completely wasted my month because I wasn’t staring back at a tracker that was perfect? The habits that went unmarked grinning an evil sneer at me because I didn’t sleep 8 hours every single day that month. Life goes by, things get busy, real things happen, so realistically things cannot be achieved every signal day without fail. But to me, my life wasn’t lived outside of these habits. Perhaps I became a bit obsessive; I was just trying to be a better version of myself.
Intertwined with the health trends social media is saturated with, this desire to achieve every healthy habit every day seems to bleed directly into the hustle culture of our society. Seeing a handful of morning routines, night routines, and workout routines on any feed has the undercurrent of desired habits, yet seem to only be achievable through a product; walking pads, collagen, vitamins, protein powder, pre-workout, vibration plate, electrolyte packs, lymphatic drainage, red light therapy. It obviously is a profitable dilemma, to buy all of these things, my habit tracker included, just to check off a box or cross it off a daily habit list. But who is benefiting from this profit; the double-edged sword that is health and capitalism. Most would consider drinking an expensive habit (bad), but doesn’t all this seem pretty costly too?
Another obvious question becomes who or what decides what is a bad habit or not. Sure the disclaimer on a pack of cigarettes or the graphic of an unborn baby on a bottle of wine serves as the bearer of bad news, but for other things deemed bad, where does that connotation come from? The rise of the early morning routine is the forefront of our make believe example. Waking up early, 4:30 am, 5:30 am, workout, walk dogs, water, protein, etc. This is the golden child of a productive, habit winning day… for those with a body that is built like that. What does this make of the night owls or the night-shift workers? Do they not get to be a part of the habit-forward crowd? At surface level, no they obviously have autonomy over their own routines, yet I believe it becomes so difficult when personal or health trends become mainstream. Nobody wants to feel left out. So one is ostracized to be cast away with their own morning routines that are not copy paste of the most relevant influencer, or rather the most relevant product an influencer is using.
And what’s so bad about being bad? Our guilty pleasures frowned upon only to prevent us from enjoying the little things that make us feel human. Laying close to lovers late at night, whispers as the clock strikes 2am then 3am. A stomach rumble leading to impromptu cookies and pizza rolls, a late night feast, giggling over spilled flour left untouched for the morning. A shopping spree after a tough week, new clothes, new shoes to feel better on an ordinary day. An extra glass of wine at a dinner with friends, a slice of chocolate cake shared with a date, a whole day to roll around in bed. A story to tell, a lapse in control, spontaneity for the sake of feeding a desire. Bad, bad, bad, but oh so good.
Yet, these habits can have a bit of a redeeming quality to them. With habits comes discipline, and from discipline you can find the rhythm of your being. I did originally buy my habit tracker out of a desire to bring more structure to my day-to-day, but just like anything else, there can be too much of a good thing. Lately, I’ve felt disconnected from some of my habits, obviously the drive in writing this, so now it becomes a moment of reflection; what serves me now and what doesn’t anymore. Most straightforward things like drinking water, eating well, and getting sleep are critical to life. But does it really matter that I don’t sit down to do a crossword puzzle each day? Habits shouldn’t take from the spontaneity of life, but rather keep you well enough to enjoy the things that disrupt our disciplines, because again, that is life. Perhaps I didn’t drink enough water one day because I was out and about, or maybe I didn’t sleep enough the previous night because I was up late in conversation with a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile. Habits aren’t meant for perfection, because they will always be there for us. Perhaps habits are the friend we keep in touch with, mostly often, but maybe the text goes unread for a day or two.
still drink your water,
natalie:)
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