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Have you wondered why it seems so hard to form new healthier habits? Many of us have bad habits that are keeping us from being successful in life, including with our health and weight loss goals. There are so many temptations every day to eat something unhealthy or skip a workout, but it’s important to understand what your bad habits are so you can start making changes to move toward your goals.
The first step is to become aware of your bad habits and the negative impact they may be having on your life. Once you’re aware, it’s easier to make a change. Some examples include:
Procrastinating
Surfing the web instead of working out or preparing healthy meals for yourself can have a negative impact on your weight loss goals. If you wait until the last possible moment to do something, then chances are you will not do it as effectively as if you worked on it ahead of time.
Give Up Easily
Knowing that something is good for you doesn’t necessarily motivate you to do it. And when things become difficult, it’s easy to give up and just say “forget this!” Giving up easily makes it hard to achieve the results you want because you won’t be consistent.
Forgetting to Act on Your Goals
Sometimes we just need to take action and follow through with what we want, even if it’s hard. Being too busy might seem like a good excuse for forgetting to act on your goals, but really it doesn’t matter why you’re not taking action — the results won’t be any different.
Now that you have identified the WHAT, let’s look at WHEN & WHY
How long have you had your bad habits? Have you struggled with them for a long time? If you’re finally ready to make a change and form new, healthier habits, then congratulations! You’ve already taken the first step toward success.
If you’ve had these bad habits for a while then it’s probably not easy to pinpoint exactly when they started or why you have them in the first place. However, once you know what your bad habits are and how they’re interfering with your weight loss goals, it’s easier to work on changing them.
Why do we perpetuate our bad habits and why are they so hard to break?
In order to break a habit, you must figure out why you do it in the first place. That way, you can come up with a solution instead of blindly trying different things until one works. This might take a little time, but if you want to change your habits forever, then it’s worth it!
Identifying the trigger is key. Do you eat when you are bored? Or when you feel negative emotion? Maybe you hate to cook or wait until you are so hungry you eat whatever is there… You might not even realize that you eat when you are feeling negative emotions like stress or anxiety, but this is something to pay attention to.
If you can identify where your bad habits come from (or why they exist), then you’ll be better able to find a way to fix them. So don’t give up if things start to feel a little uncomfortable or even if you slip and fall back into old habits. Just do the next right thing and keep going. You can do it!
The Ghosts of habits past
As though it weren’t hard enough simply forming new healthier habits… just when you think you have succeeded in doing so… knock knock! Who is it? BOO! The huge, scary, hairy, 10-legged ghost of habits past here to prey on your weak moments and drag you off to the dark side!
Recognize it for what it is and why it is there and shoo it away. Once it’s gone, be relieved because your struggle is over. Sustainable healthy habits are a marathon not a sprint. Simply focus on doing 1% better than yesterday. Trust the process. Sure, you may want to lose 10 pounds in a week but that’s just not going to happen. Instead of trying to focus on achieving perfection, do what is sustainable for YOU and the rest will fall into place!
If you make a habit out of doing 1% better each day then at the end of a year you’ll have 508% better results than you started with!
The good news… it’s never too late!
The first step to changing your habits is identifying them and understanding why they exist. Once you know what’s driving your bad habits, it becomes a lot easier to find a way to stop doing the behavior that creates the habit in the first place. The good news for anyone who has been struggling with weight loss goals or other health-related issues, is that it’s never too late! Just start small by making one change at a time and work on creating sustainable healthy habits so you can reach all of your long-term goals. Remember: It may be hard but every day will get better if you just keep going!
So tell me, what are your bad habits holding you back?