November was my strongest month in the ten months I’ve been tracking my daily habits.
My goal for November was the same as October, (and September) – six habits (alcohol, sleep, fasting, caffeine, water and supplements) over 80%.
Here’s how I did:
November, 2022 (Close up)
No Alcohol – 100%
Sleep – 6.5HR – 80%
Protein – 120 grams – 73%
Intermittent Fasting (8/16) – 73%
Caffeine (2 before Midday) – 97%
Water – 2 Litres – 93%
Supplements – 93%
(Average sleep – 7 hours, 15 mins)
I’m especially pleased about November for a few reasons:
- My sleep has been at 80%+ consistency and above an average of 7 hours for three straight months now. It’s become noticeably easier to get over six and a half hours, which is a sign that the habit is starting to stick. My average sleep also hit an all time high of 7 hours, 15 mins in November. 👊
- The switch from Paleo to 120 grams of protein has been a game changer. It’s been so liberating to let go of trying to hold myself accountable to a very strict goal of eating paleo. It turns out eating 120 grams of protein is a VERY good simple metric to focus on. Firstly, because eating enough protein is a big factor in recovering from workouts and building muscle (and I wasn’t eating enough before). But secondly, it’s a behaviour that encourages many other good behaviours. It’s forcing me to better plan out my meals. It’s encouraging me to make better food choices (high protein meals tend to be cleaner – big salads, lots of meat, nuts and dairy). It’s also helped bring my total calories down. What surprised me the most was how consistently I achieved 120 grams of protein – I hit 73%! You’ll also notice that most of the time I missed was on weekends. So, there’s an obvious way to close the gap and get it over 80%.
- Intermittent fasting fell a little below 80%, which was a bit of a shame. But, there’s a silver lining. Most of the times I missed were conscious decisions by me. I knew I was going to slip below 80% and made peace with that. At least half of the misses were drinking the odd cup of tea whilst watching my daughter play football (I count that as a miss, because technically the milk breaks the fast). Most of the benefit of intermittent fasting is that it helps you to eat fewer total calories, therefore these slip ups don’t make much difference. That said, making excuses like this can become a slippery slope. So, I’m going to tighten it up and keep things at 80% going forward.
- My caffeine, water and supplement habits are fully established habits now. I hardly have to think about them and can’t imagine a scenario where they drop below 80% again.
So, overall an INCREDIBLE month. Yes, I have a little bit of tightening up to do. But, I’m very close to having seven really powerful health habits at 80% consistency. This feels like a gigantic inflection point for me. I feel and look better for it. Things are really clicking.
That brings me to December. This is always a tricky month, because of the holiday period. I was tempted to take the same approach as I did for August (track my habits, but let go of any expectations), but that feels a bit of a cop out given where I am. So, I’m going to push for 80% for all habits and see where I end up. I’ll lower my expectations a bit. If I fall a bit short, I’m not going to beat myself up. And whatever the result, from there, I’ll be looking for a full wave of green in Jan, Feb and March 2023. If I achieve that, I’ll start to look at some other habits.
Bring on December!
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