• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Mitten Girl
  • Cocktails
  • Recipes
  • My Book
  • Work with Me
    • Portfolio
    • About
  • Shop
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Cocktails
  • Recipes
  • My Book
  • Work with Me
  • Shop
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Cocktails
    • Recipes
    • My Book
    • Work with Me
    • Shop
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home » Recent Posts » Life

    Consistency > Habit

    Published: Oct 23, 2019 · Updated: Mar 13, 2021 by Katy McAvoy

    I love when you share my recipes!

    • 1

    Exercise and I are not friends. 

    At best, we tolerate each other.

    At worse, I ignore exercise altogether.  

    For years, when I’d quickly walk up a couple flights of stairs, or hustle from one building to another for a meeting, I’d end up huffing and puffing. (And then try to NOT huff and puff out loud so as not to give away how horribly out of shape I was.)

    Every new year started with some variation of an “exercise more” resolution. 

    Every year I tried. 

    Every year exercise was gone from my life by the end of summer.

    Does running out of wine count as cardio?

    There’s lots of advice out there for making something a habit. 

    “Do it for 28 days. Then it’s a habit and you don’t have to think about it any more!”

    “Do it for 90 days and it becomes such a part of your routine that it’s second nature!” 

    Somehow those philosophies have never applied to me and exercise. I could exercise for six months straight, stop doing it due to illness (or minor injury, or vacation, or ANY excuse), and that was it. My habit was over and it became an uphill battle to find it again. 

    Then one day, I had a chance encounter with this staircase.

    Looking up the staircase
    See that tiny blue thing towards the top of the stairs? That's a person.

    This ridiculous staircase is located in Saugatuck, Michigan. At the bottom of it is a parking lot. At the top of it are sand dunes and a path to glorious Lake Michigan. 

    I was on a work retreat, when colleagues suggested a morning walk. Thinking it would be a stroll around some wooded trails, I happily joined in. And then we ended up at this damn staircase. 

    I had spent a lot of time convincing myself that I wasn’t *that* out of shape. But this staircase came along to tell me YES YOU ARE!

    I headed up these stairs with four other women. 

    I was the last one to the top. 

    By a lot. 

    I kept having to pause. 

    I kept feeling like I was going to be sick. 

    I kept being reminded over and over of how little exercise I was actually doing in my life. 

    It SUCKED. 

    But I did it. 

    Overlooking Saugatuck, Michigan
    The view from the top.
    The view back down the staircase
    Looking at where I'd come from...

    My colleagues were so gracious. There wasn’t a word said about how long it took me to reach the top, how hard I was breathing, or that they could have completed a full yoga session while waiting for me.  

    But OMG, I was SO embarrassed. 

    The more I thought about that embarrassment, the more I never wanted to be in that space again.

    I was tired of trying to hide my huffing and puffing. 

    I was tired of always putting “exercise more” on my to do list only to inevitably fall off the bandwagon (and happily wave at said bandwagon as it left me in a cloud of dust). 

    My attitude towards exercise has always been go big or go home. If I wasn’t running or doing long kickboxing sessions or losing lots of weight, what was the point?! Problem is, this way of thinking was causing me to hate exercise and eventually quit. 

    So how could I change my attitude?

    What if instead of pushing myself to do big, long, intense, workouts, I focused on just doing something. What if instead of measuring my success by pounds lost, I measured it solely by consistency? 

    Consistency is more important than perfection

    I don’t know why that clicked, but it did. The new plan was to exercise for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. The exercise could be ANYTHING - gentle yoga, walking (fast OR slow), jogging - whatever I wanted it to be, just as long as I moved my body for 30 minutes.

    This was about building a healthy routine through consistency, instead of trying to turn myself into an athlete. It was about giving myself a couple days each week to skip a workout, and not feel like I failed. I started keeping track of my new goal only in terms of weeks completed and I kept the number next to my alarm clock to remind myself what I was working towards. 

    That was 78 weeks ago. 78 weeks is a year and a half. Funny thing is, I still want to skip my workouts. 78 weeks and it’s still not second nature or habit. I still want to bail on it. But now that I’ve gotten that week count so high, I don’t want to start it over. I don’t want to go see the count go back to one week. 

    And because I’m not trying to make myself into an athlete, my results haven’t exactly been mindblowing. I haven’t lost a lot of weight or inches. I haven’t started running 5K and 10K races. I haven’t joined a gym or started cross fit classes. 

    What I have been able to do is chase my dog or kid around the yard without becoming exhausted. I can pick up and carry my daughter, no matter how big she’s getting. I can walk up stairs, or dash from building to building, without huffing and puffing. 

    To celebrate completing one year of this journey, I returned that damn staircase and walked up it. Did I have to pause a few times? Yes. Did I still huff and puff? Yes. But I never felt nauseated. And I climbed it in half the time I had taken only one year earlier. And after I walked the dunes to the Lake Michigan beach, it counted as that day’s 30 minute workout. Score one for consistency.

    Dunes
    Dunes
    Lake Michigan
    Lake Michigan

    Life

    • 10 Delicious Non-Alcoholic Drinks for Dry January 
    • Building A Blogging Business: Fourth Quarter and Year End Goal Review 2022
    • Building a Blogging Business: Third Quarter Goal Review 2022
    • How to Create Your Perfect Home Bar

    I love when you share my recipes!

    • 1

    About Katy McAvoy

    Katy is the author, photographer, home cook, mixologist, and Michigander behind MittenGirl.com. Since 2017, she's been crafting easy-to-make cocktails and delicious meals, along with sharing her love of all things Michigan (a.k.a. The Mitten)!

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    1. Ruth Moore

      October 23, 2019 at 2:31 pm

      Way to go Katy!

      Reply
      • MittenGirl

        October 23, 2019 at 8:40 pm

        Thank you!!

        Reply
    2. superbaj

      October 28, 2019 at 1:46 pm

      This is so wonderful! I’m also on my own journey and needed to read this. I’m in the same boat. Right now: it’s about my diet. Making better choices, meal prep, and logging it via MyFitnessPal. For me, when I had used this app in the past (it’s been on again off again since 2012), I felt ashamed about over eating or making certain choices. But this time around, no matter what it is: I log it. Because as you said - CONSISTENCY. (And accountability). I even log a sugar free Werthers hard candy. Little hard candies even! (It’s 10 calories if you’re wondering). And there are days I have gone over my calorie allotment or under my water intake, but I’m training myself to continue to log it no matter what. And it is helping. I feel more in control. Again, not perfect. I still eat late at night, but make different choices. I still don’t get enough exercise but I chose one lifestyle change for now, and this was it. ANYWAY - all this to say, I relate and thank you for sharing your journey. 🙂

      Reply
      • MittenGirl

        October 28, 2019 at 7:25 pm

        I'm so glad this helped! I'm right there with you. I kept waiting for something to click so I could stop trying so hard. But it never has. And then I'd get burned out. So now I'm all about consistency. YOU'VE GOT THIS! "Progress not perfection" is my current mantra. 🙂

        Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Katy McAvoy

    Hi! I’m Katy (she/her). I’m an author, photographer, home cook, mixologist, Michigander, and lover of all things food and drink. I never turn down a good happy hour and believe that a couple hours of meal prep pays off for days. Follow me on Instagram to check out what I’m working on next!

    More about me →

    Search

    Buy Homemade Happy Hour, a Cocktail Book

    Weekly Newsletter

    Join my email list and get my 5 CLASSIC COCKTAILS EBOOK sent to you immediately!

    Subscribers receive a new and delicious recipe in their inbox each week.

    Most Searched Recipes

    • How to Set Up a DIY Cocktail and Mocktail Bar Your Guest Will Love
    • How to Make Cocktail Kits and Mocktail Kits for Holiday Gifts
    • Easy and Delicious Mocktail for Kids (Without Sugary Soda)
    • Easy and Summery Lavender Lemon Drop Martini with Vodka
    • Easy 15 Minute Stove Top BBQ Meatballs
    • Delicious Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whiskey Cocktail
    • Easy Tomato Rice and Beans on the Stove Top
    • Refreshing Orange Ginger Gin Cocktail
    • Non-Alcoholic Mojito Mocktail is the Perfect Summer Drink
    • Slow Cooker Savory Spiced Nuts are the Best Happy Hour Snack

    Footer

    Website

    Privacy Policy

    Disclaimer

    Terms & Conditions

    Newsletter

    Sign Up! for weekly emails

    Contact

    Work with Me

    Contact Me

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2023 Mitten Girl LLC

    1 shares
    • 1