Break up with Your Bad Habits
December 29, 2008
We all have unique habits. Some are fantastic, like being regularly active, while others can truly hurt your health, like smoking. Habits can start at a young age and the longer we keep doing something, the more likely it is to become a permanent habit. For instance, those who start smoking at a young age and continue for many years, have a difficult time breaking that habit. We of course need to keep our positive habits, but work on breaking up with our bad ones.
How to Break up with Your Bad Habits – It Starts with a Plan
You have several options for changing your habits. One is to stop cold turkey but this is unrealistic for some folks. A simple trigger may tempt you to go back to your old ways. Maybe your trigger is candy – you have a bad habit of eating candy every single day. The easiest way to make positive strides is to get rid of it. Keep it out of the house. Keep food in a coworker’s desk or another location that’s out of site. In fact, research suggests when food is out of site, like in a desk or file cabinet door, you will eat significantly less than if it isout in clear view.
Now, sometimes you may find avoiding the trigger is impossible. All of us would probably prefer to avoid a stressful day, but that is not always within our control. In these situations, the goal is to acknowledge the urge, and the consequences of giving in. Try this the next time the urge to go back to your old ways comes back:
SUBSTITUTE another activity
• Stressful day? Rather than grab the first thing from the vending machine, take a 5 minute break to unwind. Close your eyes, take several deep breaths, and refocus. Eating is not something that will take the stressor away and will likely add additional stress. Be careful of using food in an attempt to forget about tension. Instead, use the opportunity to identify practical solutions to dealing with the stress.
• Instead of eating while watching TV, do some calisthenics or stretching exercises. If you have exercise equipment, use it.
SUBSTITUTE another activity (cont'd)
• Catch up on your correspondence. Instead of eating when you are not hungry, e-mail, call or write a letter to a friend.
• Drink unsweetened green tea, or chew sugarless gum while you work instead of snacking.
• Ladies, pamper yourself with a mini-manicure. If you normally snack in the evening, paint your fingernails instead. It makes it more difficult to snack with wet nails, and by the time your nails have dried, the urge most likely will have passed.
• Brush your teeth. Food is not so appealing with the taste of toothpaste in your mouth!
• Take a bath, listen to music or leave the house and go for a walk if the urge to eat is strongest in the evening.
Breaking up with your bad habits is surely possible; like getting out of a relationship, though, it won’t be easy. Remember that small, baby steps along the way will work for permanent success.
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