| “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” – Good habit Habits are actions you take with very little thought and energy. They could be very difficult tasks but you barely have to put any mental effort into completing them. The habits you create and get rid of will play a key role in reaching your goals. Think about the last time you took a shower. All the steps you did were done with barely a thought. You do things that you don’t even realize. It’s a repeated pattern that requires little effort to do, once it becomes a habit. Right now you have eating and exercise habits. The fact that you’re reading this book tells me that these can probably be improved. The first step to creating or changing a habit is awareness of them. Once you identify the bad habits force yourself to do the new habit one time. If you’re trying to break a habit find an alternative you can do. One reason I succeeded with my weight-loss are the habits I created around eating and exercise. Some habits will not take because of issues with the habit. For example, if you want to do an “insanity” type workout and it's s too painful, you’ll have difficulty making it into a habit. The exercise habit I have is walking. If I’m behind my goal I walk six miles from habit. I use to take a subway from the train station to my office and back but now I walk. I skip walking if the weather is bad or I have an important meeting in the morning. If this happens I can walk at lunch time. This six-mile walk is easy and enjoyable to me. I prefer it over taking the subway. Though the subway is about 20 minutes and my walk is about an hour each way, I’d rather walk. I can skip the walk if I’m ahead of my daily weight goal. Recently I wanted to do one million pushups and sit ups. If I create a habit and do a little each day it becomes a reachable goal, If I reach the goal I’ll be in great shape. I started but stopped due to a rib injury from playing basketball. So I stopped the attempt until it heals. You should take the time to plan and prep for the habit you want to do. There are a number of issues to resolve. When, where, how for example. There are many factors that may get in the way. For example what if I want to do pushups at work? I work in a cube and would be embarrassed doing them out in the open. It’s easy to find excuses to not start. But once you get started and make it a habit it will be hard to stop. After a number of repetitions, the habit will be formed. With eating, I’ve developed a habit of eating low sugar protein bars for breakfast and lunch. For dinner, I stick to a low cal frozen meal, veggie burgers or a big salad with chicken. I created habits that make sure I have these foods with me at all times. These habits are necessary when I’m behind my daily weight goal. If you like more information on habits I’d recommend The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. So to lose weight and keep it off your focus should be on eating and exercising habits. I outline many of the habits to create in the remainder of this book. Don’t try to do all the techniques in one day. Go slow, change slowly but keep doing the new habit until you do it without thinking about them. |