Making the changes in 2012
Starting the New Year with a resolution for a fitter and
healthier you is easy when you are still on holiday feeling great and
motivated. But how do you maintain new
healthy habits when your resolve starts to fade?
There are two things many of us have at the start of a
new year; great ideas for healthy change and plenty of motivation!
The problem with motivation is that it disappears quite
quickly. So whether you're starting an exercise routine, trying to eat breakfast
every day, or need to lose weight, how can you make your resolutions last
beyond the second week of January?
If we really want to change we need to figure out a way
to keep doing the things that are required even when we don't feel like it or
we're not excited about it. Like brushing your teeth, you do that most time
without even thinking about it or even not wanting to do it.
It is a routine "a habit" that we have been
taught since we were very young and we just do it.
But when it comes to exercise and healthy eating habits
we have a very hard time changing even though we are bombarded with information
about how important it is. The difference is that with the tooth brushing our
parents told us it was important and they also made us do it, which meant it
became a habit.
The first step in applying ourselves is to accept that
with change comes discomfort.
We might have to get up earlier to exercise, we might
have to say no to a chocolate cake at work, and we have to spend some time
during the weekend planning the weekly meals and maybe even cook some meals.
By accepting that from the beginning and be prepared for
that we can improve our chances and be proud of our self when we can manage
hurtles and stick to our goals.
We have to find a way that works for us and there is no
"one way fits all" concept.
If, for example, you are middle-aged and have back
problems that make exercise difficult, don't just become a couch potato.
No single magic formula works for changing every habit -
depending on what you are trying to achieve, different approaches and
expectations will be required.
Changing a habit doesn't happen over night; you didn't
get your habit overnight; be patient and as long as you stick to your goals let
it take time.
Research published in the European Journal of Social
Psychology found that it can take 18 to 254 days for behaviors to become
automatic when performed repetitively.
The good news is that missing the occasional day didn't
affect the process, the researchers found.
Another study shows that although changing a behavior can
take a lot of effort to begin with, it does become more automatic and therefore
easier over time.
And once we form a habit, even if we stop it, it will be
easier to reintroduce next time around because patterns in the brain that were
formed when we established the habit quickly re-emerge according to US
researchers who examined behavior in rats.
On the other side though, this is also true for bad
habits.
So if you want to make your resolutions stick, here are
some golden rules to developing healthy habits:
* Don't try to
change too much at once. Focus on just one or two new habits at a time.
* Be clear about
your goals.
* Focus on why
you are trying to change. Know the benefits of changing and the consequences or
costs of not.
* Make time for
your new habits. Get up an hour earlier if you intend to fit exercise into your
schedule, or give yourself time to walk to the train station instead of
driving.
* Create an
accountability system. Keep a diary.
* Get regular
reinforcement through reminder systems or visual cues such as photographs.
* Monitor your
progress. This can be through your diary, regular records of your activities,
etc.
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