The Return of Elvis: Seven Habits for Wellness

This is Part 2 of Don’s wellness journey and the origin story behind the creation of Wellness Leadership LLC.  In part one, we left off with Don, a once fit Army officer and now a 358-pound behemoth sprawled faced down after tripping, leaving work at 3 AM with broken glasses and bruised pride.  You can read it here. Seven Habits That Derail Wellness.  In Part 2 below, Don tells of his return to wellness and the rebirth of Elvis! Take it away, Don.

At basically the nadir of my 50+ years, I somehow decided to turn my health and life around.  I did not get there all at once. But at that point, I decided to do something, somehow.  I returned to wellness by killing the seven deadly habits explained in my most recent blog.

Before discussing that, let me talk to you about Habits. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, linked here The Power of Habit, is a must-read for anyone seeking to change the habits that make them unwell. 

If you struggle with bad behavior, DROP EVERYTHING AND READ IT NOW!  The proposition from the book is we are creatures of habit.  The book can be summed up by this quote: “There is nothing you cannot do if you get the habits right!”   

You do at least 40% of anything by habit daily.  For example, when you get up, your breath is sour, and you smell, so you brush your teeth and shower.   Your routine is consistently the same depending on what is more important to you (I brush my teeth first).  Every practice is triggered by an event (halitosis from sleeping with your mouth closed), followed by the habit (brushing my teeth, followed by mouthwash) to gain a reward (kissing my wife without her turning away!).

First, you must realize your trigger, then the habit that returns the reward.  You can change the intervening routine to get a similar bonus if you recognize the motivation and the resulting reward.  We are not Pavlov’s dog, but we are sure close.  The critical thing with humans is you can discern the trigger, change the habit, and earn the same or similar award.  So now I will tell you how I dealt with the seven deadly practices that led me back to wellness.  In all seven, I list my bad habits, the triggers that caused them, the habits I changed, and the rewards I still got even though the practice was changed.

1. Bad Habit: Binge Eating of Peanut M&Ms. New Habit: Eating filling fruit.  I told in the last blog how I would drink a cup full of Peanut M&M’s to sustain me from long nights of driving my team to create software.  I changed this habit in three ways.  First, I tracked the number of Weight Watcher points associated with a cup of peanut M&M’s (27 WW Smart Points per cup– more than 4/5 of my daily allowance).  Then I figured out the trigger.  It was approximately 3 hours after lunch when I felt tired and needed to leave the chair.  The habit was to walk to the front desk and fill a coffee cup with Peanut M&Ms, and the reward was a burst of energy from sugar.   What I did once I realized the trigger and the reward, I just changed the habit to get a similar award.  An Apple has natural sugar but is zero points.  So, I walked to the break room and grabbed an apple.
2. Bad Habit: Overworking New Habit: Delegating and mentoring. One of the main reasons I gained weight is I tried to do everything myself and worked 16+ hours, seven days a week.  The trigger was an overwhelming sense of responsibility for my job and the satisfaction of a successful project.  I was not fully utilizing my team or giving them a sense of accomplishment.  So, chiefly for selfish reasons, I realized I could no longer be an iron man and started to delegate.  I adopted an approach of Mentoring and not Mangling with dictates and proclamations.  This gave me time to focus on my health and allowed us to accomplish the mission, thus fulfilling my sense of responsibility.
3. Bad Habit: Not Sleeping New Habit:  Sleeping more (but still not enough!).  Delegating helped me to get more sleep.  But I also took other measures.  Instead of working or listening to books on one of my many plane trips, I did a mindfulness exercise or prayed. And then I went to sleep on the plane.  Also, training helped to induce me to get more sleep.  I also monitored my sleep habits with a Fitbit.  Despite all these efforts (and another step I will mention later), I could only up my average sleep to 6.2 hours from a paltry 5.1.   But it is progress.  By the way, rest is one of the most critical factors in weight loss.  I failed to lose weight in those weeks due to a lack of sleep.
4. Bad Habit: Stressing out New Habit: Working out.   Stress was one of the triggers to so many of my bad habits.  There are two ways I countered the trigger of stress.  I planned a Beer Walk after work when I felt pressure coming on.  That is where I would make a 2-3-mile trek to the Banger’s Bar, just off-trail in Austin Town Lake.  I would have a beer and then walk back. See below a picture of me returning from my most recent beer walks and enjoying an Austin sunset!   The other thing I do is sing Karaoke with an app called Sing Smule.  I don’t do it in the office (well, at least not usually).  But singing a few tunes is a great way to get the stress and the fat invoking Cortisol down!
5. Bad Habit: Not going to the doctor. New Habit: Doing exactly what the doctor told me.  In my previous blog, I talked about how I skipped the doctor because of work and paid for it.  I paid for it in two ways.  I had Sleep Apnea, an undiagnosed condition that caused me to retain 25+ lbs. of fluid.  Once I finally went to the doctor, I kept going.  And I did what they told me.  That meant living with a CPAP for a year and taking it to all my favorite Midwest states for work (don’t try to get distilled water at midnight in Topeka).  I also took my meds.  These two simple things took off 25+ lbs. in water weight and reduced my shoe size by 2 1/2 sizes.
6. Problem: Depression Antidote: Being Thankful and Grieving. Many things went wrong in 2012; most importantly, I lost my last parent.  I drove on and tried to work myself out of the grief—bad idea.  After a year of trying that, I pulled myself out of my funk by taking time to grieve and being thankful for all the good things coming my way (Kid’s graduation, daughter’s wedding).  When you are sad, look for something for which to be thankful, but more importantly, take time to remember the person you lost! 
7. Bad Habit: Not drinking water and drinking Coke. New Habit: Drinking flavored Sparkling Water.  I wouldn’t say I like drinking water.  But I love carbonated drinks.  Once I realized I was drinking a lot of calories, I decided to try zero-calorie sparkling water.  I got a soda stream machine and bought flavor pods in the store to save money.

And there you have it.  I changed my habits and transformed my life.  178 lbs. gained and then lost and never, ever coming back again.  You can return to wellness like me with the Power of Habit.  Learn more by contacting Wellness Leadership LLC.

Don Grier

Helping others thrive through wellness and weightloss.

See Full Bio