I mentioned this topic briefly in my last blog but I literally haven’t stopped thinking about it. I have heard so many people comment about Mondays.
“My diet starts Monday.”
“I have a new exercise routine, I’m beginning on Monday.”
“I royally screwed up on Thursday so the week is a bust. I’ll try again on Monday.”
Don’t even get me going on the Monday versus Sunday debate. My husband flights me constantly by saying the week starts on Sunday (as most people agree), I think it starts on Monday. If most of the world agrees that the week begins on Sunday, why does everything need to start on Monday?
I’m not writing this blog to give you the answer to this strange and ambiguous question. I’m here to tell you that it’s a load of crap…and help you out of it.
Why not Mondays?
I would actually counter the Monday Theory by saying you should start on almost any day other than Monday and maybe Tuesday as well. For whatever reason, we feel as though Mondays are a clean slate. Goals are easy to accomplish on Monday’s and that often carries over into Tuesdays as well. By Wednesday, our motivation tends to slump as we look at the rest of a long week and think about how hard we worked for two days. Continuing for five more seems harder. By the time we get to the weekend we have completely convinced ourselves that we’ve screwed up enough that the week is a waste and we can go wild on the weekend and fix it…on Monday.
That cycle is so common. It’s one that I’ve been stuck in many times before.
Here are some questions for you to ponder. If you actually think about these questions I think you might come to the same conclusion as I have:
Why are you waiting for a time that’s not right now?
What can you do on Monday that you can’t do today or tomorrow?
Stop procrastinating and give your body the health it deserves.
So, when then?
I was listening to a podcast recently about forming habits and they mentioned that Wednesdays might be the best time to start habits. I found this very interesting. They listed a few reasons why:
- You need to repeat an activity several times before it becomes a habit. If you take the cycle above that I discussed, starting on any day other than Monday gives you the highest chance of sticking to it longer than two or three days.
- The weekend usually has a different flow than the week. This means you shouldn’t start on the weekend and get disrupted by we week, but also if you can make it from the week to the weekend and back out the other side to the week, you’ve pretty much made it!
- Motivation for work tends to be on a downward trend after Wednesday. This gives your brain a little bit more room to focus on the habit you’re trying to form. When your brain is stimulated on something you will actually perform better at work as well. It goes hand in hand.
Alternate Option
My thoughts on how to counter “the Monday Theory” hold significantly less grace than the above thoughts. Honestly, if you know that you need to do something for yourself, why are you waiting? The tension between motivation and discipline will always be my favourite topic to discuss. Waiting for motivation is waiting for an unreliable feeling. Doing things that you know are good for you, despite what you feel, is how you practice discipline.
Just so you know I am preaching to the choir here; June has been hard and I haven’t been nearly as disciplined as I have been in previous months.
If you’re reading this now, I’m almost certain that you have something in your mind that you know you want to start that will benefit your health. Write it down, right now. As I’m typing this it’s Monday evening so, if you read it when I post it, it’s no longer Monday. Are you going to wait until next Monday to start when you could start this instant OR tomorrow?
If you’re reading this at lunch and you haven’t stood up from your desk today, will you choose to sit on the couch all evening or will you go for a walk? If you’re reading this before bed just having finished devouring half a cheesecake will you get up and eat the other half for breakfast or will you just START and make a nice egg white omelet?
You’ve got this
I realize that I’ve basically been asking you questions this entire post and that’s because I can’t tell you what to do. People ask me how to become disciplined and I can’t teach that. It took me years but I had to come to it on my own. This post is just to ask you questions to get you thinking. I hope and pray that you come to a similar conclusion that have.
You can do it! You are so much more capable than you know. I fully believe in you. It’s time to start.
Bye for now!
Starting Weight: 352
Current Weight: 289
Goal Weight: 150