We all experience decisive moments every day and they can have a huge bearing on what happens in the minutes and hours afterwards.
They can be positive, leading to a cascade of beneficial outcomes throughout the day and feelings of achievement and self-efficacy. They can also be negative and lead to feelings of lethargy and low mood.
My decisive moment most weekdays is when the alarm goes off in the fairly early hours. At this point, I am faced with the decision to either stay in bed for another hour and a half or get up immediately, put on the cycle kit and get out on the bike for my morning
workout.
Currently that decision is a little more challenging as it is dark, cold and often wet outside, meaning I end up wearing more protective clothing than the average astronaut.
However, I force myself out of bed as that moment dictates whether I have a positive day, physically and mentally, or one tinged with regret where I am chasing my tail to find another time slot to be active.
These decisive moments are like a fork in the road where the right choice at the right time can go a long way to ensuring you have a day of physical activity, good nutrition and a stress-free mindset.
It’s because of this I strongly recommend an early morning activity session, whether that be a cycle, brisk walk or gym session.
In my experience, this often leads to healthier nutrition afterwards and a much more positive outlook to tackle the day ahead.
If we decide to take the easier fork in the road, our days can often snowball in a more negative way. An extra long lie in bed can cause us to miss a planned activity session, pressure the morning routine and lead to rushed and poor nutrition choices in a day of frustration.
Poor nutritional choices at breakfast often lead to a day of less-than-ideal food and drink. Start well and better choices are more likely to occur during the rest of the day.
The problem is the average human is fairly lazy and will inevitably choose the path of least resistance, especially when a decision makes life a bit more challenging – like leaving the house on a cold day to go for a walk.
Television companies are well aware of this flaw in our psyche and make it so much easier to binge TV programmes by allowing episodes to naturally flow from one into another. It’s much easier to stay welded to the seat and just watch one more before bed.
Make life easy now and it will be harder in the future. Take the harder choice now and life tends to get easier and more enjoyable in the future.
Perhaps it would be worth considering when and where your decisive moments occur and put a strategy in place to ensure you can follow through with the positive pathways and dispense with habits that cause detrimental situations.
If you leave the house for a walk, you will improve your cardiovascular fitness, muscle function, bone density, lift your metabolism, improve focus, feel more energised and probably sleep better that night.
Alternatively, you lift the remote and turn on the television – you don’t need me to explain the difference between those two potential decisions and subsequent outcomes.
If you could benefit from more behaviour change strategies, self-refer to our Thrive programme by visiting www.lornhealthyoptions.co.uk.
Like all our members you too may be ready to take the braver and more challenging path?
Rob Graham, lead exercise professional, Healthy Options.