Healthy Habits - One Change Per Week: Week #2

So, how did you do with last week's challenge?

Me - I actually have to laugh. 
I started the challenge on Monday and the only day this last week I didn't do it was Tuesday. Um, yeah.  The day I posted here.   ***BLUSH***

So for this week:

Habit #2: Take "the long way".

Honestly, when I was trying to come up with a good title for this habit, it was really hard.  So "Take "the long way."" it is!

The goal for this is to build a little more activity into your day without doing anything drastic. I find that typically these things take very little extra time. And, now that I've done them for a while they are a habit - something I do without thinking!

 

Here's what I mean:

 

* When I'm at work and need to go use the restroom, I walk the long way.  In my old building, unless I was really desperate, I used the restroom one floor up and took the stairs.

 

* When I need to throw something away, unless it's drippy or messy, I throw it in the one farthest away.

 

* If I need to change the load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, I will take each piece out individually and rather than in bunches.

 

* When I am baking or cooking, if at all possible I mix by hand rather than with my beautiful, new mixer (love the mixer, by the way!).

 

* If I'm only going a couple of blocks, I walk unless it's completely beastly out.

 

* In the parking ramp at work, I park one floor up and take the stairs rather than parking on the ground floor or taking the elevator.

 

*And countless other things in a similar manner....

 

 

Now, not all these things are practical all the time.  For example, the weather these last two weeks has been well below 0F here with wind chills in the negative double digits, which means I'm driving more short distances and parking as close as I can!  Drippy egg shells go in the kitchen compost pail next to the sink, no exceptions!  If we need that shirt dry in 45 minutes, I'll grab everything out of the washer and get it in the dryer as quickly as I can.

 

A colleague of mine can't walk up and down stairs without great difficulty so she always takes the elevator, but she always uses the garbage and recycling cans at the opposite end of the hallway rather than the ones in our office just so she has to move a bit more.

 

What does this mean for our challenge this week? 

 

The challenge this week is to pick one small thing and do it the long way. 

 

It doesn't have to be big. 

 

It can be very small:

...chop those veggies by hand,

...mix that recipe by hand, 

...walking to the far elevator at work rather than using the closest one,

...parking one row away from where you usually do in the parking lot,

...and a whole host of other things.

 

Me? 

I'm going to work on walking up and down the stairs at work rather than taking the elevator. I rarely go up more than one floor and I've gotten in the habit of taking the elevator when I really don't need to (the exception will be if I am pushing a cart full of equipment).

 

What will you pick this week?