Creating a Healthier Lifestyle One Step at a Time (Part 1)

We are creatures of habit, we sit in the same church pews, order the same items at our favorite restaurants, and probably do the same morning routines. At times we do these things without thinking about them, and it is because our brains have created pathways to carry out these habits almost automatically. When we think about weight loss or health goals, we may envision the way we want to look or the numbers on the scale. We all have heard the new year’s resolution of wanting to lose a few pounds, and start the year off with a goal and we may do good a few days , maybe weeks. We’ve started exercising, eating better, then we jump on the scale and see the needle still stagnant. We lose momentum, fall off the wagon or decide its not working so we give up and settle back into our same habits that got us to where we were to begin with. What we don’t see is those small changes were adding little by little, step by step. Part of creating better habits to reach a specific goal lies in the identifying the “Who?” Who is it you want to become? Do you want to become a healthy person, a non-smoker, a walker, runner or a person who exercises? When you know who you want to become you will know what to do. We focus so much on our goal of losing weight, and goals are great, and some people may reach them while most people never do. How do we break out of the same cycles our bad habits have created? That is why it is important to identify who you want to become. For example, you want to quit smoking, and someone at work asks you if you want a cigarette. And instead of saying “No I quit smoking”, you instead identify as a non-smoker and say “No, I am not a smoker.” You may want to eat healthier, so you identify as a Healthy person. You do not have to stay defined by your bad habits, you may hear someone say “she has always been overweight” but she doesn’t have to identify with that, so ask yourself who do you want to become?

Atomic Habits by James Clear, identifies our habits as systems we have in place that create, in this case, our health lifestyles. Once you have identified with who you want to become, you will know what you need to do to get there. For example, if you identify as a Healthy person, and you go into a restaurant, ask yourself, “what would a healthy person order?”, and it makes the decision easy. Next you identify the triggers that are reinforcing these bad habits. Maybe you have a bad habit of eating ice cream late at night, so instead you replace that ice cream with low-fat yogurt you will enjoy eating yet is a healthier option. Or maybe stress is a trigger to overeating. Determine what the stress is that is causing you to overeat, identify it and replace the bad habit of overeating with a better habit, like going for a walk or working in your garden, organizing your calendar, whatever you chose to make sure it is something you like to do and it is a healthier option in place of the bad habit.