the action snowball effect

My sister just visited Austin for the first time! I wanted to show her the best this city could offer, which meant lots of barbecue, breakfast tacos, Gourdoughs donuts... tons of really heavy foods.

I noticed that every day we ate unhealthily, I'd crave fatty foods all the more the next day. Each meal seemed to compound on the next, with my urge to gorge myself only increasing with each new day.

On the other hand, I recently joined a gym. It kicks my assssssssssss and after going, I immediately crave dark leafy greens, fresh fruit, healthy things. I love the way it feels to take care of my body by working out, and naturally I want to continue my streak with my other daily habits. I'm even thinking of becoming an early bird so I can start my day out with a group workout... a habit I thought I'd never try to tackle (and tbh I'm not sure it's gonna pan out for me BUT IMMA TRY IT ANYWAY).

In each case, my previous actions led to more of the same, compounding on each other. If I'd continued to eat like I have this week for the rest of the year, vs if I continued down the 'workout Madi' path for the rest of the year, we'd see two  different people come January 2022.

It's good reminder to look at our daily habits- are they snowballing us into better versions of ourselves, or increasingly making us worse?

Fixing the cycle may be as simple as starting with one good simple habit, and letting that little snowball get bigger the longer we keep it up.