Minimum Baseline
I have something I call my minimum baseline. Its the bare minimum that I allow for myself. Its nothing grand, its almost so minimum that my brain wants to tell me "what's the point." But there is...
For my workouts I have a 5 minute rule. 5 minutes is my minimum baseline.
I used this all the time when I was first starting to workout. I still use it now on days where I am just not feeling it...like this morning.
I had to hit play and do at least 5 minutes. If after 5 minutes I was still not feeling it...I could call it good and stop.
Some days I stopped. This is when I knew my body really just needed a break but at least I was creating a thought that I show up every time I say I am.
Most days it was just enough to get me going. Get me feeling energized. And at that point I was already sweating.
Your brain will tell you 5 minutes isn't enough...whats the point...it wont matter...
But there is a point! The point is to practice changing those thoughts by committing and honoring those 5 minutes. That is where your thinking starts to change, and that is when your actions start to change. When you act differently...you get different RESULTS.
I have a minimum baseline for my nutrition. With my nutrition my minimum baselines are:
1. Peanut butter must be eating on something
2. Eating food is done at 8:00
3. I don't do f*&$ it moments
"Your minimum baseline is not about crazy changes, its about showing up"
My minimum baselines are things that I know I struggle with and will continue to struggle with for quiet a while. They are ways of thinking that don't help me but are so easy to go back to in my mind. They are based on data I have collected about my brain and my body.
For example, peanut butter. Peanut butter is a food I use when I'm bored or stressed and I head right into the pantry and spoon. My brain and past thinking wants to tell me that " a little scoop won't hurt" or "that's a healthy fat, its okay." Sooooo I make the act of eating peanut butter a little harder by creating a minimum baseline that it always has to be eaten on something not out of the jar. Its small but it is going to serve me.
Next up, eating after 8:00. I've collected a lot of data about my results and I have learned that if I eat too late at night I don't see the results that I want. So I have created a minimum baseline because it helps me and serves me in reaching my goals.
Third on the list is NO FUCK IT MOMENTS! These are those moments when the head drama is STRONG, you don't want to deal and you say SCREW it, I DON'T CARE. But you really do care. It's those moments when you are out with your girlfriends and everybody else is eating and drinking it up and you just don't want to have to feel all those uncomfortable feelings of not participating. Of the one where you are having an amazing dinner and you know you should stop because your full but you don't want to so you just say screw it.
Yeah those moments. I don't do those. That doesn't mean I don't blow past my hunger cues, eat 3 more slices of pizza than were on my plan and have moments where I want to go elbows deep in a bag of Cheetos.
"Show up for yourself."
But what it means is I never give myself permission to go all out and to let my thinking go to a place where I say I don't care. I always care. Instead I remind myself how much I care, give myself permission to mess up and know that I can learn from each of these situations. When I'm tempted to want to say "F*&% it" I remind myself "We don't do that any more." It keeps my think mindful and conscious about the food choices I'm choosing to make.
Saying screw it when it comes to my nutrition allows me to check out, go numb and buffer using food when things get hard and uncomfortable. That is something I am not willing to allow myself to do any longer.
Start small create your minimum baseline and give it a try. Don't let the drama come if you don't follow it. Try again and again and again. Modify and adjust if you are not showing up for yourself consistently.
There are two reasons why we don't follow our minimum baselines:
1. Your minimum baseline is too high, so adjust.
2. You are allowing your thoughts to tell you that its not enough, and it won't matter if you skip it because it's not even enough to make a change.
Let me say this again; your minimum baseline is not about getting CRAZY changes. Your minimum baseline is about learning how to show up for yourself, to commit to something that is soo small and minimum and still doing it. To change your thinking and do it anyways.
