I have decided to stop trying to lose weight.
NO, actually not.
It's already December and I AM STILL FAT! ☹ I can't commit to exercise regularly so I tried to focus on eating healthy instead, but even so I still fail in this department. I've tried to wean myself off white stuff especially white rice and white bread over the past few weeks, I tried to quit sugar but my unhealthy habits keep breaking my weight loss effort.
Why bad habits are so difficult to kick?
Our daily behavior runs on autopilot. For example when your phone rings, you naturally go to answer it. If someone throws you a ball, you catch it. Other habit-forming activity like brushing your teeth and exercising are formed through repetition.
Psychologists have begun to understand that a lot of our everyday behaviors are often caused by circumstances or related to specific situations. For example, you eat pretty healthy at home but you can't do that at a social gathering. You might bite your nails when you watch TV or when you concentrate at work without thinking about it. You might find that you eat a large dish of ice cream whenever you get home in the evening.
Five Ways to Developing a New Habit
Dr. Arthur B. Markman, the member of Dr. Phil Advisory Board provides these strategies focusing on breaking bad habits and how to replace them with good ones.
1- Define Bad Habit and Commit to Change
You need to identify the habit you want to change. If you decide to arise early and exercise each morning, commit to act in a specific way 100% of the time, and never make excuses or rationalizations during the process until this becomes automatic.
2- Disrupt the Habit
Disrupt the specific actions that make up the habit. An obvious way is to avoid the situations in which you usually do your bad habit. For example, if you want to stop drinking alcohol as part of a move towards a healthier lifestyle, you should avoid the people and places where you used to drink.
3- Replace Bad Habit with Smart Habit
Sometimes you cannot change environment. If you often bite your nails in bed, then you cannot stop going to sleep just so that you can quit biting your nails. When you cannot change the environment, try to replace your behavior with something else. For instance you are trying to quit biting your nails in bed. Try doing something else that will keep your hands busy when you get ready to go to sleep. A manicure before bed, or maybe do a crossword puzzle before going to sleep.
4- Create Habit Diary
Regular writing make you feel good. Writing down positive things that happened to you or tracking your mood can help you identify good patterns in your life which you should make time for and identify bad patterns that should be eliminated.
5- Reward Yourself
When you successfully devote some time to your new habit, give yourself a reward. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. But make sure your rewards don't compete with your new behaviors.
I have tried food journaling before, but the habit journal or mood journal thing is something new to me. Keeping a mood journal sound so much fun. Perhaps it is a better way to understand my mood and tracking my daily goal.
It's now your turn, share in the comments:
- What bad habit you have successfully dumped recently to become a better person?
- What major step you have taken to ditch your destructive habit?
NO, actually not.
It's already December and I AM STILL FAT! ☹ I can't commit to exercise regularly so I tried to focus on eating healthy instead, but even so I still fail in this department. I've tried to wean myself off white stuff especially white rice and white bread over the past few weeks, I tried to quit sugar but my unhealthy habits keep breaking my weight loss effort.
Why bad habits are so difficult to kick?
Our daily behavior runs on autopilot. For example when your phone rings, you naturally go to answer it. If someone throws you a ball, you catch it. Other habit-forming activity like brushing your teeth and exercising are formed through repetition.
Psychologists have begun to understand that a lot of our everyday behaviors are often caused by circumstances or related to specific situations. For example, you eat pretty healthy at home but you can't do that at a social gathering. You might bite your nails when you watch TV or when you concentrate at work without thinking about it. You might find that you eat a large dish of ice cream whenever you get home in the evening.
Five Ways to Developing a New Habit
Dr. Arthur B. Markman, the member of Dr. Phil Advisory Board provides these strategies focusing on breaking bad habits and how to replace them with good ones.
1- Define Bad Habit and Commit to Change
You need to identify the habit you want to change. If you decide to arise early and exercise each morning, commit to act in a specific way 100% of the time, and never make excuses or rationalizations during the process until this becomes automatic.
2- Disrupt the Habit
Disrupt the specific actions that make up the habit. An obvious way is to avoid the situations in which you usually do your bad habit. For example, if you want to stop drinking alcohol as part of a move towards a healthier lifestyle, you should avoid the people and places where you used to drink.
3- Replace Bad Habit with Smart Habit
Sometimes you cannot change environment. If you often bite your nails in bed, then you cannot stop going to sleep just so that you can quit biting your nails. When you cannot change the environment, try to replace your behavior with something else. For instance you are trying to quit biting your nails in bed. Try doing something else that will keep your hands busy when you get ready to go to sleep. A manicure before bed, or maybe do a crossword puzzle before going to sleep.
4- Create Habit Diary
Regular writing make you feel good. Writing down positive things that happened to you or tracking your mood can help you identify good patterns in your life which you should make time for and identify bad patterns that should be eliminated.
5- Reward Yourself
When you successfully devote some time to your new habit, give yourself a reward. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. But make sure your rewards don't compete with your new behaviors.
I have tried food journaling before, but the habit journal or mood journal thing is something new to me. Keeping a mood journal sound so much fun. Perhaps it is a better way to understand my mood and tracking my daily goal.
It's now your turn, share in the comments:
- What bad habit you have successfully dumped recently to become a better person?
- What major step you have taken to ditch your destructive habit?
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