BLOG 84 HABITS

BLOG 84 HABITS

Oh those good old habits we all have. Whether good or bad for us, we lean on these comfortable behaviors to take us through our day. Can you name a few of your own?? Habits impact our fitness journeys when it comes to incorporating healthy changes and getting rid of poor choices. So let’s take a look at the scope of these habits and why it’s our human nature to lean on them. 

Through my research, I found that habits form as a result of a 3 part process. In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg, breaks down why we do what we do. He says it’s called the “habit loop”: “First, there's a cue, or trigger, that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and let a behavior unfold. Then there's the routine, which is the behavior itself. The third step, is the reward: something that your brain likes that helps it remember the ‘habit loop’ in the future (http://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them). Adding to this, “Neuroscientists have traced our habit-making behaviors to a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which also plays a key role in the development of emotions, memories and pattern recognition. Decisions, meanwhile, are made in a different part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. But as soon as a behavior becomes automatic, the decision-making part of your brain goes into a sleep mode of sorts” (http://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them). So it’s as if our mind doesn’t even need to be present anymore for us to perform these behaviors. It’s like our drive to and home from work; we can think about a million other tasks for the day….not the route we take to get there. 

And now of course we all want to know the secret to how we break these habits. Many folks make that New Year’s resolution or Monday morning promise to themselves that they swear they’re going to let go of something. So here might be some help for you that I found, “Breaking bad habits — or what James Claiborn, a psychologist and co-author of The Habit Change Workbook: How To Break Bad Habits and Form Good Ones, describes as learned, almost automatic thoughts or behaviors that have become somehow problematic in our lives — is tough. Really tough. Here are five surprising strategies to help you succeed” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/12/break-bad-habits_n_6438748.html):

1.       Become hyper aware of your habit

2.       Stop focusing on what you’re not going to do

3.       Be your own opposing counsel

4.       Think doom and gloom

5.       Focus a big chuck of your efforts on your environment

To start, don’t ignore the habit. Rather, “So break out the notebook and really spend some time sitting with your bad habit — when you do it and why you do it and how it makes you feel.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/12/break-bad-habits_n_6438748.html). Not that we like to think about what we are trying to forget, but when we perform these habits half the time we are unconsciously doing them. Set positive goals and stop saying, “I’m not going to eat ice cream”. Rather, focus on the new positive behavior. You have been the one giving yourself permission to have this habit so now think about why you do this and what you tell yourself moments before that allow you to make this choice. Then talk yourself down from it. You have to think of all the negative of the behavior and maybe even the worst case scenario if you keep doing it to break the cycle. Don’t think about the positive of it haha. And of course if you don’t want to have ice cream every night, then don’t buy it. Make your environment the best set up for success. Take control of your surroundings. 

There are many tricks I’m sure to talk ourselves out of habits. If we can talk ourselves into something, then we are all capable of talking ourselves out of it too. The mind is powerful but let’s use it to our benefit on our fitness journeys. You are worth every positive behavior so out with the old and in with the new. That happens one choice at a time, one rep a time, one bad habit gone at a time.