Happy, happy Monday! I’ve been listening to the book Atomic Habits on Audible and this morning on my run I realized that I was putting the principles of the book in action. I slept hard last night and when I woke up this morning I felt tired and thought to myself, “there is no way that I’m going to run before class today. I’ll just try to fit it in later.” Well, once I got up, made breakfast for Finn, drank my coffee, made a smoothie and went upstairs to get myself and Finn dressed, I found myself putting on my running clothes. It’s become such a part of my Monday morning routine that once I started putting my routine in action, I started feeling the urge to run.

HABIT STACKING

I ended up enjoying four gorgeous 62 degree miles that reminded me why Monday morning runs are the best way to start the week. In the book Atomic Habits this would fall into the realm of “habit stacking.” Author James Clear describes habit stacking this way, “When it comes to building new habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.” 

Obviously, running isn’t a new habit for me but it did take some effort to make it a part of my Monday morning routine. I’m now at a place with my Monday morning runs where it feels like I’m really missing out if I don’t get them in.

Here’s the habit stacking formula as written on James Clear’s website:

“After/Before [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].

For example:

• After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.
• After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.
• After I sit down to dinner, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened today.
• After I get into bed at night, I will give my partner a kiss.
• After I put on my running shoes, I will text a friend or family member where I am running and how long it will take.

Again, the reason habit stacking works so well is that your current habits are already built into your brain. You have patterns and behaviors that have been strengthened over years. By linking your new habits to a cycle that is already built into your brain, you make it more likely that you’ll stick to the new behavior.”

You can read the full post about habit stacking here and I do recommend reading the book Atomic Habits. I think the word habit tends to have a mostly negative connotation but there are so many positive habits and routines that we can create for ourselves to really support our happiness, health and success!

I thought that would be a fun little motivator to share on a Monday. And now, let’s backtrack to the weekend.

WEEKEND IN WINSTON-SALEM

Finn and I had a fun weekend trip to Winston-Salem to visit the special someone that I mentioned in my Charleston recap. I am hesitant to share a lot of details about my dating life online for a few reasons but happy to let you guys know that I am happy and to write about things at a high level for now. 🙂

Friday afternoon looked like fun in the pool. We swam for a couple of hours and Finn had a blast.

He literally fell asleep on me all wet around 3:30p when we were sitting outside by the pool and ended up sleeping until I woke him up at 5!

We did a cookout on Friday night. I made chopped salads, sautéed onions and mushrooms, corn and tots. I decided to have my burger on top of my salad because we didn’t have buns and it was delicious. As were the tots…I can’t even believe how many of these things Finn can put away.

On Saturday morning Finn and I took an outing to the park. This park has a huge three-story play structure that Finn LOVES. I was pretty shocked when he wanted to climb up this ladder thing to the second level. I only had to help him one time and he had it down. It was probably around 8 feet tall.

There were tons of kids and parents there and we both had a great time hanging out and socializing!

Finn took another long nap when we got home from the park so I squeezed in a run while he slept.

Back at home I had a special cake decorating mission to complete. I picked up a chocolate cake from Villani’s on my way out of Charlotte on Friday and decorated it for a Saturday night birthday celebration. We went out with a small group of friends on Saturday for a birthday dinner for said special someone.

On Sunday morning we all headed to another local park for a walk. The cherry trees were in bloom and so beautiful.

Sunday was a pretty day so we spent a couple of hours by the pool before heading back to Charlotte. Can we appreciate Finn holding three cars to jump in the water here? He’s so car obsessed!

That smile. He loves the water.

I borrowed this life jacket from Finn’s dad and he really likes it. It gives him a lot of freedom in the water. I was so pleased to see him putting some of the things he’s learned in swim class into practice like putting his face down and front floating to get to where he wants to go. He also knows to identify where the steps to the pool are and how to get out when he first gets in the water.

Finn likes to wear my sunglasses when it’s bright out but thinks it’s super cool to wear them on top of his head and not over his eyes, haha. He kept telling me, “no, like this mommy.”

Let me tell you, swimming wears Finn like nothing else! He ate his snack in a horizontal position after we got out of the pool and I had to work all my tricks to make sure he didn’t take a second nap in the car on the drive home.

Overall, we had a great weekend. Thanks for letting me share a little bit of it here! I hope y’all have the best week ahead!

QUESTIONS

What are some positive habits that you’d like to implement in your life? What are some you already have? What about negative habits you’d like to kick to the curb? 

Do you have a standing run/workout class/etc that you look forward to on a certain day of the week? 

How was your weekend!? What did you do?