Consistency, Minimum Baseline, and Overdoing It

I have a real tendency to overdo things. It's my binge mentality. I just jump right in. Sometimes, that lets me get some big things done. When I'm in, I'm all in, and everything else falls by the wayside. This is a strength, though sometimes there are consequences to ignoring everything else that comes back to bite me. But another downside to my total enthusiasm is that sometimes, it's necessary to build up slowly. Of course, I can't be a concert pianist overnight. I know that, and expect that. But other times, my assessment of what it takes to reach my ambition is tragically (or equally comically) off.

Physically, my body needs to catch up to my mind. I have to do the work. I have to build a base of fitness. I'm not going to be able to jump off the couch and run like I used to. Sadly, I still think of myself as more physically capable than I am right now. That has led to crashes, days when I've sat inside, huddled to the air conditioner, reading or binge TV watching. The crashes bring migraines and total body aches and pains, those things that caused me to define myself as a chronic pain sufferer. I'm so grateful to have a dog that absolutely needs to go outside - I wouldn't have even made it around the block without Rocky's insistence on his nightly routine. My last run was July 10. I want to be a runner, I think of myself as a runner, but I have to actually do the work and develop some evidence to go with the self-image. Along with needing the body strength, I need the mental strength. I believe some of my crashing is brought on by my hyperactive amygdala, feeling threatened and trying to get me to stop all this dangerous activity that will bring on more crashes. Of course I get sore, and hot, and dehydrated, but the crash is out of proportion to the discomfort inherent in the activity. That's one of the main reasons I need to get evidence that I can and actually do active things, without crashing. This needs to be a gradual buildup, but it needs to be steady progress in the right direction, with reflection and realization that I'm safe and ok.

I joined an on-line running group that provides coaching and counseling.  Through podcasts, facebook posts, group video coaching calls, journalling prompts, a suggested reading list, there is constant contact. (Some of this is free and some is part of a paid subscription. The free stuff is Not Your Average Runner and the paid stuff is Run Your Best Life.) I haven't been all in on all of it as my enthusiasm waxes and wanes, and in inverse proportion my body feels good and bad, but it's really helpful.

The theme of this running group for August is "Consistency". This has really hit home with me. It's time to stop screwing around and buckle down to build my habits that are going to carry me forward in this new time of my life. Enough with the starts and stops, binges and crashes. One of the concepts we've talked about is "minimum baseline". The minimum baseline  in the running context is the absolute least you will do, in the form of "I will do XXXXXX  for at least YYYYY minutes at least every ZZZZ days".  I heard this casually, liked it, adopted it, and promptly blew my minimum baseline a couple of days later. Because my ambition exceeded my capability. I have very high standards for myself. A further discussion of the minimum baseline was very helpful. Of course most of us set the minimum way above where it should be. We all do that. The recommendation is to make a minimum baseline resolution, then cut it in half. The idea is to get that minimum baseline well below the "drama threshold". We all talk to ourselves constantly, bargaining about what we're going to do, creating mental dramas around ourselves. This is a real problem for me especially since I spend so much time alone. Set the baseline below the threshold where the bargaining starts. Get it to the zone where it can become a rule with no arguing, and then it becomes a habit. Once it's a habit, it can be built up and get more significant. This is how to become consistent.

A couple of years ago, I took a cooking class with daily on-line lessons. For the first day of the class, and then required to be maintained each day after that, the assignment was to simply go into the kitchen and pull out a cutting board and knife at the same time each day, the time you wanted to build the cooking habit. I totally understood this, and since I suffer the curse of always thinking I'm smarter than most, I figured I didn't need to actually do the thing, just to recognize what it was about. So, I did some of the stuff in the rest of the class, but I certainly never became a consistent daily cook.

 Today, I'm celebrating having met (and sometimes exceeded) my minimum baseline for activity for the seven days of August so far. My minimum is tiny - hardly worth celebrating - but the seven days of consistency is definitely worth my celebrating. My minimum is to simply get dressed in my running clothes each morning, then take at least a 10-minute walk outside without the dog (we go outside briefly for his interest and hygiene, then I lock him up while he eats and takes another morning nap). Being in my running clothes and leaving the dog behind is required for running. I'm not trying to run yet, but I might try on Saturday. I have, however, walked about a mile and half each day. (I subbed bike riding twice, which is perfectly acceptable.)

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I'm stacking onto the walk at least 15 minutes down in the home gym when I come home. Habit-stacking is a proven technique for successful habit creation. Leaving the dog asleep, I sneak down into the basement and run through my routine for my back and knee. There, I've made it down 5 out of 7 days. Yesterday was my personal training session so obviously I didn't need the home gym, but one day this week I came back from walking and sat down to read for a bit, planning to go down to the gym later. Of course, "later" never came. That is another lesson discussed in my running group. Lesson learned.

My inner mean girl (another term from the group) jeers at me for celebrating such minimal things. But my recent evidence is that seven days is a long streak for me for any activity. Breaking the streak will not dilute my accomplishment so far, and I'm readying my arguments now for how to get back on this track when I do break the streak. My strongest argument right now: I actually can feel the physical difference in the rest of my day for having done the things. I'm not going out running and then collapsing on the couch passively ingesting a book or TV (aka doing nothing) for the rest of the day. I feel pretty good overall. Part of building a habit is actually experiencing the rewards.