By Justin
I was thinking yesterday, I do that a lot while mowing the yard, why is it so hard to break habits? Seriously, everyone has a tip or trick to help you break your addictions or behaviors. Some are twelve steps. Some are 21 days. Some are cold turkey. The common key is they all are merely one step away from backsliding.
Then I had a revelation. Creating the bad habit was a long slow process. I didn’t wake up ten years ago and say “I think I will start the following self destructive behavior”. No, rather it was small baby steps towards stupidity or small decisions that were every so slight movements in the wrong direction. Sometimes I could tell the decisions were bad, but in the moment the good far outweighed the bad. I only later to learned of unforeseen or unforgiving consequences.
Now I am not talking about huge issues in life. Rather the many small ones that have compounded. For instance, I am addicted to french fries. And it is no small addiction. I would rather eat good french fries than my meal. I systematically rank places on their fries. If I need ketchup, you know there is a problem. My french fry addiction must be a contributing factor in my “slightly larger than healthy” weight.
I also cannot stand water. On a hot summer day, after sweating it out mowing the yard, I want a coke. Water makes my stomach hurt. I can feel the indigestion start from the first swallow. Somewhere along the way in my life, water was much more palatable with sugar, food coloring and corn syrup. I take this as another baby step (maybe literally taken as a baby) towards long term weight gain.
So I have decided to take a new approach, for me, on reversing some bad habits. Instead of tackling all of my vices at once, I am going to try to take small baby steps backwards. No cold turkey stops on Coke. No forgoing of McDonalds french fries. Rather, I plan to start with the other side of the equation. Just like balancing a budget two things have an effect, inputs and outputs. To lose weight one must manage the inputs and exert some outputs. For me, I am going to start with outputs.
I made myself some very achievable short term goals. For example, this week they had absolutely nothing to do with losing weight. I told myself I would get up early in the morning twice this week and do at least 15 minutes of exercise. I was very excited to achieve my goal. Was it a stretch goal, absolutely not. It was a baby step goal. One to prove to myself it is worth it. That the gains made in those days were wiped out today with lunch, was not the concern.
It was the small baby step towards new habits that was important. I am testing a new theory. One that says years of bad habits were made one small step at a time and years of new habits can start the same way. You know the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
I was thinking yesterday, I do that a lot while mowing the yard, why is it so hard to break habits? Seriously, everyone has a tip or trick to help you break your addictions or behaviors. Some are twelve steps. Some are 21 days. Some are cold turkey. The common key is they all are merely one step away from backsliding.
Then I had a revelation. Creating the bad habit was a long slow process. I didn’t wake up ten years ago and say “I think I will start the following self destructive behavior”. No, rather it was small baby steps towards stupidity or small decisions that were every so slight movements in the wrong direction. Sometimes I could tell the decisions were bad, but in the moment the good far outweighed the bad. I only later to learned of unforeseen or unforgiving consequences.
Now I am not talking about huge issues in life. Rather the many small ones that have compounded. For instance, I am addicted to french fries. And it is no small addiction. I would rather eat good french fries than my meal. I systematically rank places on their fries. If I need ketchup, you know there is a problem. My french fry addiction must be a contributing factor in my “slightly larger than healthy” weight.
I also cannot stand water. On a hot summer day, after sweating it out mowing the yard, I want a coke. Water makes my stomach hurt. I can feel the indigestion start from the first swallow. Somewhere along the way in my life, water was much more palatable with sugar, food coloring and corn syrup. I take this as another baby step (maybe literally taken as a baby) towards long term weight gain.
So I have decided to take a new approach, for me, on reversing some bad habits. Instead of tackling all of my vices at once, I am going to try to take small baby steps backwards. No cold turkey stops on Coke. No forgoing of McDonalds french fries. Rather, I plan to start with the other side of the equation. Just like balancing a budget two things have an effect, inputs and outputs. To lose weight one must manage the inputs and exert some outputs. For me, I am going to start with outputs.
I made myself some very achievable short term goals. For example, this week they had absolutely nothing to do with losing weight. I told myself I would get up early in the morning twice this week and do at least 15 minutes of exercise. I was very excited to achieve my goal. Was it a stretch goal, absolutely not. It was a baby step goal. One to prove to myself it is worth it. That the gains made in those days were wiped out today with lunch, was not the concern.
It was the small baby step towards new habits that was important. I am testing a new theory. One that says years of bad habits were made one small step at a time and years of new habits can start the same way. You know the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
1 comment:
Good job! You're right that good behaviors take a long time to form, too. 15 minutes twice a week is a good start. In a couple of weeks, work up to 3 times per week, and then start adding to your time in small increments.
It's important to remember, too, that if you have a bad week once in a while, don't beat yourself up. I try to keep up workouts on vacation, but if I'm unable to and it's been a week, I'll ease back in with shorter and/or less strenuous workouts.
Unsolicitied advice, sorry! Good job again, though. :-)
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