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As a result, the kids have come to expect fresh baked goods around the house. They’re now little food critics. “This is great, Mom, but maybe next time …” they’ll say. They take it all very seriously, but they also cheer me on. It’s nice to have something we can all enjoy (in one way or another) as a family. Though I always strive to do my best, one of the best things about baking is that the stakes are relatively low. Sure, a lot can go wrong, but a burnt pie isn’t the end of the world. Baking can seem intimidating to the uninitiated, but it’s important to just go for it, have fun, and be unafraid to fail. You’ll eventually succeed — and there’s no feeling like making something delicious.
though it’s high maintenance, we get a lot of use out of it. It’s almost a member of the family — I named him Harold. (It just felt right.) Harold has been around for about eight years, and he’s the basis of the pizza we make every Friday night, plus countless loaves of bread, biscuits, and waffles.
–Sierra Bennett
WE ARE WHAT WE DO Changing Habits Can Create a New You
We can’t control everything that happens to us, but to a certain extent, our lives are what we make them. The things we do determine how we live, for better or worse. But much of what we do every day isn’t well thought out — it’s a habit. And when you change your habits, you can change your entire life. Unfortunately, it’s easy to talk about changing habits and a lot harder to do it. If changing our habits was simple, there would be far fewer fast food restaurant chains in business, an enormous reduction in smoking, and wait times at your local gym! But we all know someone who has sworn off cigarettes, lost significant weight, gotten in shape, or started eating healthy. It’s entirely possible to change our habits. The question is how.
Experts have plenty of advice to offer. The process starts with identifying which habits are hurting you. Maybe you know you want to change your midnight ice cream habit, but other routines bogging you down can be harder to identify. Start by logging how you spend your time to determine what’s necessary or fulfilling and what’s holding you back. Once you know the habits you want to change, you must figure out why you’re doing them. Each of our routines has a cue that inspires us to partake in it and a reward that keeps us coming back. After identifying the habit you want to change, start paying attention to when and why you do it. What do you feel before you do it? How do you feel afterward? Determining these answers requires some introspection and may take a few
weeks of observing and considering your behavior.
The final step is replacing the habit with something else. But crucially, you can’t deny yourself the reward — you must find a healthier way to receive it. For example, if smoking helps relieve stress, you need to find a different way to decompress when you’d usually reach for a cigarette. If smoking leaves you feeling energized, you’ll need another way to inspire your productivity. Willpower alone doesn’t work. Remember that changing your habits is a process; no one revamps their entire life overnight. Taking on too much at once will set you up for failure. Start small and stay consistent. But once you prove that you can change one habit, you’ll realize the sky’s the limit.
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