MAKE or BREAK

Habits can make or break a person’s life! We develop habits that are essential for everyday life. In general,t humans all do the same things, we just do it in a different way. I workout everyday! I mean every single day! I am not the only person who does this. I workout Monday-Friday at 6am and Saturday and Sunday at 8am. I strength train during these workout sessions. Other people who work out run daily, walk, hike, swim, bike, do yoga, play tennis, play basketball, ice skate, ski, box, and so on and so on. Some may do it first thing in the morning, others midday and some in the evening. Everyone who works out everyday does not have to do the same type of movement at the same time to work out. Some people may get better results than others and that is because of a variety of factors that I will talk about in later blogs. Exercise can become a habit. When someone does it all the time it is a habit. It’s not a permanent habit because all habits can be broken.
Throughout my life journey I have broken and created habits. I used to bite my nails, smoke cigarettes and weed, dip (chewing tobacco) , drink soda, coffee and beer. I’d alsowatch hours of movies and television weekly, along with eating fast food. These were all habits that I needed to break in order to change my life. It was no easy task, and each habit had its own process to break. The most difficult habit to break was smoking cigarettes. I never thought smoking cigarettes would be difficult to quit. After all, I began smoking cigarettes because I smoked weed. I rarely purchased cigarettes and only smoked after or during the times when I was getting high with my friends in college. I stopped smoking weed shortly after I found out I was going to be a father. I was trying to put forth the effort to be a role model for my child. I truly had many other issues to address to be a good parent other than smoking. Needless to say, that is where I started. Before I move down my children are 25 years old plus and I feel now I would make a good parent. Moving on… after I stopped smoking weed I never went back. I was around it sometimes but never felt the need to ever smoke. However, I started smoking cigarettes more. I had a good excuse. My son’s mother smoked. That made it easy for me to smoke. Even after we separated I continued to smoke. I tried to hide the habit. Many people didn’t even know I smoked. I was embarrassed by it. From the years of 1993-2008 I smoked off and on. I quit more than 100 times and 3 times for over a year. Finally in 2008 I quit and never smoked again. Never wanted to either. I have had several dreams in which I smoked and I woke up disgusted with myself. Then I realized I was dreaming.
Smoking was so hard for me to stop because I was dealing with two problems at once. I smoked and drank. Everytime I would stop smoking I would stop drinking. Then when I started drinking again I would crave cigarettes because that is when I frequently smoked. I was going crazy not being able to quit and I started the process in 1997. For 11 years I was on cigarettes, then off! In 2008, I decided to quit on a trip to Virginia. The first day I decided to quit I drank all day. I got drunk! The next morning I went for a run. I never again craved a cigarette. I do not know what psychological factor led to this cravelist journey, I am just glad I have been smoke free for 15 years. That is the same amount of time I spent as a smoker.

Another habit I broke was drinking soda. I broke this habit in 2004. I loved soda. Grape, orange, fruit punch, root beer creme, pineapple, pepsi, coke, sprite and Dr. Pepper. I quit this happy for two reasons. My teeth and my physical health/weight. My teeth were destroyed. From 2001 – 2015 all my dentist visits were followed with fillings. My mouth looked like silver teeth on the inside. The sugar from the soda was eating up my teeth. Also I was drinking about 800 calories a day in soda alone. Not to mention that the orange and apple juice I drank on a daily basis too. I was about 230 lbs and 6 years prior I was 175 lbs. My unhealthy lifestyle was catching up fast. My cholesterol was high and My primary Physician was pushing medicine on me to help lower my cholesterol levels. I was 33 years old and I was being advised to take medication for my health. It was a wake up call! I load a 4am cold water bucket toss on my soul. I began to change. No soda, only diet. Diet is not any better in my opinion. I just don’t like to taste so two liters would last a week, not a day. Within a year I was only drinking seltzer and water only. However shortly after I picked up the habit of drinking coffee. Ice coffee had no added sugar but it was a new habit. I was able to stop this bad habit with fear, and replace one habit with another.

My journey in life does not just consist of bad habits I have dropped. I also added good habits to my life. Waking up early was something I never did. I am accustomed to going to bed around the timeI wake up now. I created these habits because everything I quit in life often was associated with waking up early in the morning. I did not play basketball at two colleges because the coach expected us to be lifting or conditioning. I never did it and I never played or even tried out at those schools. I had a great excuse for not getting up early. I was not a morning person!. LIES, I was lying to myself. I began to tell myself the truth. I am not able to get up in the morning because I go to bed so late. If I want to get up early I have to go to bed early. In 2003 I also started to work on changing this habit. At first I would wake up and go to the gym twice a week at 6am. By 2008 this was 3-4 times a week. By 2010 it was every weekday. Today it is everyday. It is hard for me to stay awake past 9:30 pm. I have to take a nap if I want to hang out until 11pm.
Making and or breaking habits are challenges that we have throughout our lives. Some habits for some people are fairly easy to break or make. The same habits for others are difficult to break or make. There is no time period or correct way to break or make a bit that will work for everyone. I believe each person must first identify a habit they want to make or break and begin to work on it. From my experiences habits can be broken immediately or they can take years and even decades. Discover the habits that benefit you and keep them. Habits that don’t benefit you, break them!. I have made and broken habits, I am still trying to make new positive habits and break some habits I consider bad or that dont benefit me. I am a work in progress and will work on myself forever. I will be making and breaking habits until my last breath.

Thank you for reading.

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Wakime