Replace your old habits with new healthy ones to losing weight
If you
always find yourself unable to stick to a healthy eating plan, you may
need some help exercising (and you are certainly not alone).
The problem isn't just about motivation - if you
lack the motivation, you'll never have done the work to find and learn about a
healthy and effective eating plan. If you lack motivation, you won't
even try. You know where you want to be - skinny, healthy and full of energy -
and you're excited to get there.
Control your craving for food and
create new habits
Breaking old bad habits seems so hard
because when we carry out some habits – like having a bowl of cereal every
morning, eating sugary treats in the middle of the afternoon, or having a
doughnut from the office break room – We do this according to our desires and
appetites, we will respond to it automatically, but we have to control that. I
know it is stressful.
One of the easiest ways to break bad habits
is to start new ones that are healthy and productive, and over
recent years psychologists and other researchers have looked in to all the
different ways we can break old habits and form new ones. Thanks to them,
There is now a lot of good science showing us the best strategies we can use to build new habits:
1 - Know Your "Why" and Visualize It
A variety of studies on motivation and self-determination
indicate that we have had the most success in achieving our goals when
we think of the big picture of why we want to achieve our goals (rather
than being driven purely by external rewards or sanctions). So when we
watch the big picture - the reason why we want to do something - it's very
likely that we actually follow the steps it takes to get there.
Once you’ve written down your reasons for getting
thin and healthy, put that piece of paper somewhere where you’ll see
it often (I like my bathroom mirror for this). You can even create a vision
board full of inspirational images and words that will help your mind center
and focus on your goal.
- If you’re having trouble thinking about your "why," just
picture what will happen in your life when you’re thinner and healthier.
Maybe you’ll go out more, or get more done. Maybe you’ll feel differently about
yourself or your future. Those benefits that you’re picturing are probably your
"why!"
- Once you understand your big-picture motivation for creating healthy
habits, it’s time to reinforce them in your subconscious. Visualization
is a great technique for this, as anyone who’s tried meditation can tell you.
This visualization technique is a really powerful motivator and it only takes a
couple minutes – so don’t skip this step!
2 - Create
a plan for your small goals
Research also shows that while we need
big-picture goals to motivate us, it’s actually the small, teeny tiny
goals that will make sure we achieve long-term success. It’s only by taking
baby steps that we’ll actually get to where we’re going.
And that makes a lot of sense, when you think
about it. Even though you may want to lose 40 pounds and exercise
for an hour every day, this will be hard to achieve if you only focus on those big
goals. You’ll feel overwhelmed and may never even start in the first place.
But, on the other hand, if you focus on the little, small changes that
will get you there and then tackle them one baby step at a time, then you’ll
quickly approach your goal. And with every little goal you achieve
you’ll get a feeling of accomplishment – and that feeling will keep you going.
So start by setting a small goal that
serves just one purpose: to get you closer to your big "why"
and then you’ve been visualizing. Then, once you’ve achieved that little
step, you can focus on the next one and the next one and so on, until the life
you’ve been visualizing becomes a reality.
Here are some examples of the sort of small goals
you might start with:
- "I should have a healthy breakfast every morning."
- "Every day I will replace the afternoon sweet candy with a piece
of fruit."
- "I have to drink 8 glasses of water every day."
- "I should walk for 20 minutes every day."
- "Every morning I should start eating a healthy meal in the
clay pot or prepare what I need to prepare a healthy dinner."
- "Every Sunday evening, I should prepare 5 healthy lunches
to pack them at work."
- "I should do a 10-minute workout every day."
Any of these steps can be very easy if you follow
the other steps in this article - and each step can have a major impact on your
health and weight. Once you start feeling like it is automatically
getting up every day and eating a healthy breakfast, or going for 20
minutes on foot, or whatever small habit you decide to create, you can
start with the next habit that will bring you closer to your big goal.
3 - Be
Prepared and Make It Easy, Fun, and Convenient
Okay, at this point you’ve visualized and
written down your "why," you’ve broken it down into small
goals and habits you can achieve one at a time. Now it’s time to
make sure you’re fully prepared by checking that you have everything you
need to ensure your success.
Want to eat a salad every day? Make sure you have
a salad spinner to make it easy to wash lettuce. Grab extra containers if you
need them for packing salads to go. Know exactly what your grocery list needs
on it to stock your kitchen with fresh salad supplies. Want to walk 5,000
steps every day? Make sure you have comfortable shoes and a good
pedometer that will track your steps.
Once you have everything you need, it’s time to
think of all the ways you can make your new habit as easy, fun, and
convenient as possible.
A great way to make it fun is to do it with
someone else. Want to walk every day? Get your husband to come with you, or
take the dog. I have a girlfriend who I love to go walking with regularly, and
knowing that she’s waiting for me and that we’ll have a good chance to chat and
catch up is all the motivation I need to make sure I never miss one of our walking
dates.
4 -
Reward your progress
By now you
should be really, fully ready to create amazing new habits for your healthy
new lifestyle. I highly recommend grabbing a calendar just to use for
tracking your progress with new habits. Every day you successfully carry
out your new habit, you can put an X (or a check, or a smiley face!) on that
day. If you miss a day, there’s no need to feel bad – but the act of visually
tracking your progress might be just the thing to keep you on track.
And then comes the best part...rewarding
yourself! For every week or month that you commit to practicing your
new habit effectively, give yourself a small reward.
You’re now armed with all of the steps you need
to start developing some healthy habits, and I’m confident that you can
do it. And when you’re trying to break bad habits, I want you to keep in
mind that it really isn’t as hard as it seems. Think about how all of your normal
habits and routines go out the door when you travel or go on vacation – it
doesn’t cause you any physical pain or present any significant mental
challenges, right? That’s because habits aren’t actually all that hard to
break... especially if you replace the bad ones with good ones.
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| Replace your old ha
watch here Heather Kaufman with this video about :
bits with new healthy ones to losing weight |
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