Everyone has habits. We all have patterns we fall into, even the most free thinking of personalities. The habits may be small, hardly noticeable, even to ourselves, but we all have them. Wether a habit is good or bad is really up to each individual. Only WE really can say if there is something about us we need to change, despite many people’s presumption to make such decisions for us. If we do make the decision to change something about ourselves, though, the first step is to truly recognize what it is we need to change. Sometimes we focus so much on symptoms of a “problem” we totally miss the root of it. Thus if we truly want to change ourselves, we need to start by looking very closely at ourselves.
This applies to all aspects of our lives, but is especially true for our habits of lifestyle. We want to lose weight, it is not as simple as just following a diet, or an exercise program. We must identify the habits that we have fallen into that cause our lack of fitness and weight issues, and CHANGE those habits. Sure diet and exercise programs will work, but they are only as good as our level of commitment to them. If we have not changed the underlying habits that put us off a healthy path in the first place, then eventually we will slip right back into those habits … and find ourselves overweight again.
To truly change this aspect of our lives, we need to ask ourselves some fundamental questions. For example, it may sound odd, but sometimes we need to truly understand WHY we are eating. Are we eating because we are hungry? Bored? Upset? Supposed to? Have a craving? It’s time to eat? Need energy? These are all very different reasons … some more useful than others. Several of these can be true at the same time, obviously some are better reasons than others. Once we have decided the real reasons behind our “hunger”, we can start changing WHY we eat, which together with changing WHAT we eat will truly start us down a healthy path. Probing our reason for exercising (or NOT exercising) can also be as helpful. Once we identify those habits that are less desirable, we can focus on changing them. It takes 21 day to learn a new habit. It takes 21 day to unlearn an old habit. So basically it takes 21 day … 3 weeks … to change something about ourselves if we wish to. This is often a lot harder than it sounds. That is when it is useful to have others helping us. Wether it be a well regimented diet and exercise program, or just a friend to help us identify those “problem” areas, and help keep us focused on changing ourselves in the way we desire, there is no need to do it alone.
So what are the your “bad” habits? What do YOU want to change?
Thank you, I needed this today!
I think I did too haha. I am glad if it helped … it is always good when we manage to encourage each other!