Painting and Pumping and Habits

Yesterday was a great day for me.  I started a new hobby.  Something I have been working with my Life Coach on is finding out what brings me joy to spend my time with.  I have always wanted to try my hand at painting- so I got a paint by numbers.  i know that sounds kind of silly- but it is a beautiful photo of London.  I thought it would be appropriate given our living here now.  I started yesterday and really enjoyed it.  I am hopeful that I will be able to get "lost" in this activity.  I will try and take pics and share on the blog so you can see my work of art.  I may be a famous painter one day and it all started here!!! :)

I also went to Pump yesterday and really challenged myself by adding more weights to my bar.  I am sore sore sore today- but I am happy about it. 

I had a really good talk with my husband the other night about changing habits.  He had read a book once about it for work reasons.  One of the things that he read in the book that really made a lot of sense to me was this... This is how a habit can be formed.  Trigger=Reaction=Reward.  We cannot control the trigger.  We can control the reaction.  So think about a smoker or an eater.  Some "trigger" happens. An emotion happens.  Smoker smokes or eater eats.  The reward is that the emotion is temporarily relieved.  So... if we can identify our triggers we can try and change the reaction.  The book recommends choosing 1 and only one reaction.  This makes it easier.  So if I notice that I am eating when I am not hungry and I can "catch" it... rather than eating I choose to paint(or whatever 1 reaction is that I pick) The reward will still happen- I will relieve the emotion that triggered me wanting to eat- but I replaced it with painting instead.  Over time my habit can change.  The triggers still happen- the reactions change and the reward still occurs.  The hardest part is identifying the triggers and recognizing when we are reacting to them.

Does this make sense?  I really think I believe this is going to help me!!!!!

Have a great weekend!!!!

Hugs!