Good habits, bad habits

This week marked the start of Lent, and even though I’m not religious I’ve decided to use it as an excuse to try and ditch some bad habits and pick up some new ones!

Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent – comes right after Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day, so I marked the occasion with a whopping great stack of fluffy pancakes with enough maple syrup to lubricate a truck engine. I knew was was to come, so wanted my last day before The Great Give-Up to be full of food.

Giving up

I’m not giving up anything world-changing, but working around Leeds it’s all too easy to go out for a naughty lunchtme treat and I’ve noticed that it’s become my bad habit. For the duration of Lent I’ll be trying as much as possible to avoid the workday temptation of the various takeaways, pubs, sandwich shops and delis that are just a short walk or drive away.

Bringing lunch in from home (or making it in the studio) isn’t just healthier, but will probably end up saving me a ton of money too! It’s one thing to nip out for a quick sandwich, but when that ends up leading to grabbing a bunch of bargains from a supermarket on the way back it’s definitely not a cheap lunch!

Forming habits

I’ve read in the past that it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I’m confident that over the next 40+ that I’ll be able to notice a difference. All of us at work have picked something to give up (or take up). We’ve posted about it on our studio blog, and will hopefully keep each other accountable.

To add a bit of incentive, every time one of us falls off the bandwagon we’ll chuck a little bit of cash into a jar and donate it to charity at the end. That way, coming undone once or twice isn’t the end of the world – we can just pick up again the next day!

The first week has been okay so far – but then I was off for half of it. The real test came today when the team went out for Fish & Chip Friday – it was tough to resist, but I stuck to my ham sandwich and feel better for it! Let’s see how long it lasts!