It’s travel day, and this morning I made my usual stop at McDonald’s for a reprieve from the hotel breakfast food. For those who are curious, my keto-friendly meal included two egg whites, two sausage patties, and a coffee with cream. 

As I was sitting at a table, I could not help but notice a guy who appeared in my field of view. He was standing over a small coffee. I watched him take four packets of sugar, one at a time, into his hand. He grabbed the four packets by one end and shook them several times, then ripped the ends off all four packets at once and dumped them into his coffee. Then he stirred. Then he counted another four packets of sugar and repeated the process. At this point, I noticed there was a pile of sugar packets on the table next to the cup.

The first four packets did not register as unusual, but when he went for the next four I had to keep watching. After eight packets of sugar, he repeated his ritual. And he did it again. I was mesmerized not only by the quantity of sugar but also by his methodical ritual. I could tell he has done this countless times. 

In the end, he put sixteen packets of sugar into his small coffee. According to the official nutrition information from McDonald’s, one packet of sugar has 15 calories and 4g of carbs. In sugar alone, the coffee had 240 calories and 64g of carbs. Curiously, this is nearly the exact same sugar and carbs in a 20 oz bottle of Coca Cola. 

I have a coworker who makes a Starbucks run every morning. She even jokes about not having any interactions with people until “after my Starbucks.” She uses the Starbucks app to place her order. It’s part of her ritual. One morning the Starbucks app was down, and her morning routine went into chaos. Her ritual was disrupted.

Rituals are very powerful. If you have pets, you know what I mean. No matter how many times I tell my cat that she’ll get used to treats at a certain time, she is right there like clockwork meowing for the reward. 

Rituals themselves are neither good or bad. You can have an evening ritual before going to bed or a meditation ritual or exercise ritual. All of these support good health. You can also have rituals like turning a coffee into a virtual soda, which clearly is not healthy.

What rituals do you perform on a daily basis? Are they helping you or harming you?