There are times in life when routine can be your friend.
There are times when stepping into your routine can be reinforcing, choosing willfully to engage in behaviors that will become habits down the road, laying foundations upon which success will be built in the days ahead.
Some days stepping into your routine is downright comforting, allowing you to get on with the day’s business with less attention to details already smoothed by your routine, hopefully spending minimal time on less critical decisions, and smoothing the tugs and pulls of daily decision making.
There are times in life, on the other hand, when routine can become dull, limiting, repetitive, and soulless.
Some days (or weeks, or months) we need a change in the routine, something to shake things up and inspire a new view of life and the challenges of the day.
Those of us working hard to improve our health, for example via optimizing nutrition and activity, changing our routines often becomes an integral part of the game.
Simply moving off the standard American diet is a huge change for most people, not to mention a genuine run of nutritional ketosis, adding fasting days, or even going full on carnivore. Carb cycling is another great example, and the lay fitness literature is chock full of recommendations about changing up the exercise game (see this, this, and this for example).
The trick of course is knowing what to change and when to do it.
And let’s face it, changing the diet and fitness games is sometimes a matter of trial and error, or an N=1 experiment if you prefer. Listening to your body is key, as is not changing too many variables in too short a time frame.
I recommend you always have a reason to implement change, however simple it might be, and it’s often incredibly helpful to run your ideas and goals by a trusted friend, mentor, or coach.
Maybe it’s time to change up your fitness and/or food plan this week. Git ‘er done.
