Bad Habits??
Do you have a bad habit? Would you like to break it? Would you like to create a new habit?
It is amazing how many of us have bad habits and struggle to break them. I know I used to have such a bad habit of always having a bar (or 2) of chocolate 🍫 or cookies 🍪 with every cup of tea I drank. What I didn’t realise at the time, that due to the fact I was drinking on average 5 cups a day I was also eating at least 500-600 calories a day before I considered anything else that I ate! 😱 That was scary as I was getting no nutritional value from the bars of chocolate and I was putting my body into a sugar rollercoaster. Hence my weight gain and feeling so unwell and unfit. 🤧🤒👎
When I was starting my health journey, a person said to me – “give me 28 days and I will change your life forever.” My immediate thought was “yeah right!!” But I was willing to give anything a try. I thought it would be very difficult as I had such bad habits but at the end of the 28 days I was feeling pretty good.
So how did I do it?
What I found I had to do was to replace a bad habit with a new habit. When you only take away, you will always feel as though you are missing out on something, however when you introduce something new and better to replace it, you feel so much better. You would often hear about people that give up smoking ending up putting on weight and one of the reasons that this happens is due to the fact that they need to find something to do with their hands – they replace cigarettes with food. The key is to replace the bad habit with something that is beneficial.
The first Saturday was interesting
The hardest time that I found in the first 28 days was the first Saturday. You see, when I was doing my weight loss programme, I was doing it during the winter months. Our Saturday night routine was to cook a lovely family dinner and enjoy a bottle of wine with it. Then once we had tidied up, we would sit in front of the fire and finish off the bottle of wine. On that very first Saturday I had no problems with doing without the wine during our meal, but when we were sitting in front of the fire – well that was totally different!!!
I was sitting for a while and my husband was asking me what was wrong. I said I wanted a glass of wine. His response was – have one! In my head, I really didn’t want a glass of wine, but it “was” my Saturday night routine!! I said no, but knew that I had to do something different or I would be looking for one very soon. What I did was make myself a fruit salad! I sat all evening nibbling at it. An hour later my husband asked me if I still wanted a glass of wine and I told him no!
What changed?
You see it wasn’t the glass of wine that I wanted but something to do with my hands. Once they were occupied with the fruit salad I no longer felt the need for the wine. I totally enjoyed my Saturday, and watching X-Factor and the “craving” was gone. I went through nearly 3 months of not drinking any wine and really didn’t miss it.
Nowadays, I no longer have the habit of drinking a bottle of wine on a Saturday night. Most Saturday’s we don’t, but sometimes we do, but it is no longer a habit. More than often, my husband will ask me if I want a glass of wine and my answer is no!! Nearly 6 years of doing my weight loss programme and I haven’t let that old bad habit creep in!
Why has the bad habit not crept back in?
The reason for it not coming back into my routine, is due to the fact that I did without if for over 28 days, I found a replacement AND I felt so good with my new healthy lifestyle that I didn’t want to go back to my old unhealthy habits! RESULT!! I got over the 21 day hurdle and never looked back.
How can you break your bad habits?
Firstly, one of the most important things that you need to do is to recognise that you have a bad habit that needs to change. That is one of the biggest things! Once you recognise it, then you need to really decide that you want to change it.
If you have food issues, this is where I can come in with the SMASH programmes. I have a system that will help to support your body whilst it is going through the “withdrawal” process. I will also give you tips and solutions that will ease the process to0.
Secondly, you need to track what you are doing. What you track, you succeed at! Give yourself 28 days to break your bad habit. Only focus on 28 days, don’t think of anything further than that, otherwise you will get overwhelmed by the whole process. Here are 2 simple trackers that you can print out and use to help you on your way.
I am currently using these to help me with creating a new habit AND getting rid of an old one. I have challenged myself to run 1 mile each day for the month of August!!!😬. I had started to run a 5k but I could not get my pace any quicker and it was really frustrating me. When I was younger I would never have been a long distance runner – and believe me 5k feels like a marathon to me – I am a sprinter who ran 100m competitively when at school! But I knew I had to change something up in order to get a different result so I thought I would try to improve my speed over a shorter distance and then try to increase my distance going forward. I will keep you posted on how I get on. It shall be an interesting month.
Are you up for it?
If you want to make a change in your life you are going to have to change something about it. Start with any of the niggly bad habits that you might have and take it from there. Let me know how you get on with breaking any bad habits or how you have introduced a new healthier habit into your life. Remember, all round health isn’t just about the food that we eat, it is about everything that we do.
Yours in Health and Happiness
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