Jan 19

Jan 19 Activity Logs for Habit Building: My Moving Meditation Log

Hello beautiful wellness seekers, I'm Liz Moser, and I'm a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

Over a year ago, I wrote a blog about Jerry Seinfeld’s calendar method to motivate him in writing jokes every day. It couldn't be simpler: He has a sizeable yearly calendar posted on his wall. Every day he writes a joke; he crosses off that day on the calendar. The string of x’s is motivating and addictive in a good way. You don’t want to break that chain by skipping a day!

I’ve completed multiple calendar challenges. Many of my daily habits, such as waking at 5 am, and my morning 10 minutes of stretching and exercise, I established thanks to calendar challenges. However, unlike Seinfeld, I utilize a finite amount of time. Typically, ten weeks or 70 days, seeing as it takes, on average, 66 days to form a habit.

If you want to laser focus on adding one daily action to your routine, then a calendar challenge is the way to go.

A slightly more complex way to track your habits completed and a way to manage more than one action at a time is a nightly checklist. I wrote a vlog on nightly checklists over a year ago, and here is a link to that. Also, last week’s vlog was a review of my habit performance in 2021 using the information from my completed checklists, and here is a link to that blog.

In addition to calendar challenges and nightly checklists, a more robust or thorough way to go when you want to motivate yourself and track your progress while recording additional info is by maintaining a log or a journal.

Such as my 2022 Moving Meditation Log.

If you follow my blogs, you know that my morning sitting meditation morphed into a moving meditation several months ago so that I could reach two hours of cardio exercise per week. It’s going very well so far.

I started this journal on December 16th of 2021, not that long ago, and I’ve written in it every day since.

At first, I took sloppy notes on lined paper while determining the specific data points I wanted to record, and then I designed an excel spreadsheet that includes three days per sheet.

At the top left is a space for the date, and above I write in the day of the week.

I record the time the sun rose, so I know how light or dark that day's jog was for future reference and just for curiosities sake.

Then there are spaces for the weather. In particular, the temperature, real temperature (pretty key in Minnesota in the winter when wind chills can get dangerously cold), and general info like cloud cover, snow flurries, or rain.

I also record the humidity, wind speed, and wind gusts. Yes, the wind is reflected in the real feel temperature, but it also affects my chosen clothing.

I record the time I leave and my return time. However, usually, it's the time I start filling out the chart, and then when I get home, it’s after I’ve taken off my layers and am sitting down to fill out the journal.

I record the minutes in my cardio zone and peak zone. That's the info I receive from my Fitbit.

I also have a large square to record what I wore. It’s winter and cold, so I need a lot of space to list all my different layers 😉 Although on some days I'll write. ‘Same as yesterday.' I love those simple days!

Then the last spot on the right is for general notes such as how cold or hot I was. I always record which articles of clothing I unzipped or took entirely off. I'm continually attempting to home in on the most pragmatic outfit for every temperature range. Lastly, I may jot down my mood (but it's always good. I love getting outside in the morning); what beautiful things I noticed or remarked on, and I love when it's clear out, and I can see the moon and the stars. Those are my favorite mornings!

This may seem like a lot of info but it takes me only a minute or two before I go out and when I return.

I keep a log instead of simply adding another box on my nighty checklist mainly for my self-education. It’s been many years since I exercised outside during winter and what you wear when you exercise is different from what you wear when going on a leisurely walk or stroll as I did last winter. I'm not going to wear my hiking boots and down parker for a jog!

For instance, I have three levels of hand coverings: my heated gloves are cozy but the least warm, mittens, and when it's crazy cold, I wear my mittens with knit glove liners. In addition, I have two different neck gators and two different weights of pants to wear over my workout tights. And usually, I wear only two layers on top, but when it gets way below zero, I add a third layer.

The clothing info is practical but recording the sunrise is more for curiosities sake. Fun fact: did you know that on the winter solstice, December 21st, 2021, the shortest day of the year, the sunrise was at 7:49 am, and then it continued to rise later, culminating in a sunrise of 7:52 am on January 7th? That’s counterintuitive, isn’t it?

Now the sunrise is going in the right direction. As of last Sunday, the sun rose at 7:48 am. I think it’s worth noting that over three weeks after the supposed shortest day of the year, the sunrise is only 1 minute earlier.

But I digress 😊

Keeping a log is a terrific method to gather info and record whether or not you completed the action. You could start an exercise log like mine or, you could also start a food log. Not only what you ate but also your moods and energy. I could even see a book reading log. How much time was spent reading, how many pages, and any takeaways from the book. I could even start a log for my daily piano practice. What time did I start and stop, and what pieces I worked on. You could create a log for any of your daily habits you would like additional info on. Be creative!

A log is like a nightly checklist but way more robust, and for only one action. A log is a way to cross off that you've completed a task while recording relevant and interesting info for future reference. It's a way for you to learn and grow from your experience.

With my moving meditation log, I want to record my minutes of cardio, clothing worn, and weather. I want to learn about the most effective outfits for specific temperatures. And I'm having fun watching the sunrise earlier and earlier as we inch closer to spring.

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog about how and when you could incorporate a journal or log for a new habit as I did with my moving meditation log. If you have any questions about this blog, health, wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com.