A Healthy Lifestyle

Habits as a Lifestyle

A habit is just something that you do on a regular basis without thinking about it, it’s something that has become a part of your life through repetition, it becomes a part of who you are. Your lifestyle is just a collection of habits, good and bad. What, when and how we eat and drink, what, when and how we exercise or don’t exercise, how we see the world around us etc. The good news is that since they are habits they can be broken, reshaped and reformed and it’s easier than you might think to do so.
There’s a reason why people who ‘diet’ specifically to lose weight, tend to gain the weight back and enter a physically and emotionally destructive and unhealthy cycle of weight loss and weight gain. When you diet successfully and lose weight, weight loss becomes a habit. All the things you did to lose weight become a part of your day-to-day life through months of repetition and you feel good about it. People compliment you, you buy new clothes, everyday activities are easier, you take up new hobbies, it’s like a new lease on life. Problem is that the only new habit you formed was how to lose weight and this habit is unknowingly reinforced by you and others so you feel good continuing it. What you didn’t learn was how to stop losing weight and maintain it. So you either have to continue losing weight until you are unhealthily thin, which happens, or break the new habit which leads to weight gain again. Voila`, the vicious cycle of dieters.

You should never diet and losing weight should never be the goal but rather forming new, healthy habits, living a healthy lifestyle should be the goal and losing weight will be a consequence of that lifestyle. An unhealthy lifestyle is a collection of unhealthy habits and a healthy lifestyle is a collection of healthy ones.

Forming New Habits

Exercise
Forming a new habit just means doing something repeatedly every day. It doesn’t matter when you do it, where you do it or how much you do, all that matters is that you do it. So the most important thing in forming new, healthy habits is to just start doing something new and healthy every day and remember: it’s a marathon not a sprint! The goal is not to lose weight but to form new, healthy habits that define a new and healthy lifestyle and your body will equilibrate its weight accordingly.

A common mistake is that people try to do too much, too fast and they find it physically hard and psychologically discouraging so they give up. Remember, how much you do is irrelevant, it’s forming the new habit that matters. For example, walking is a great low impact exercise to strengthen your cardiovascular system and burn calories so getting in the habit of walking every day is an excellent new and healthy habit to have.
Every day after work, take a walk, it doesn’t matter how far, just take a walk. Start out by walking down to the end of the driveway and back, seriously. Easy enough and your mind is creating the new habit of walking every day. Then when you feel comfortable increase it a little bit, say walk down to the end of the street and back. Still easy enough, your new habit is being reinforced, your body is already beginning to change and your progress is encouraging. You don’t feel intimidated by the walk. Doesn’t matter how many weeks or months you spend walking no further than the end of the block because forming the habit is what matters. Remember it’s a marathon not a sprint! When you feel comfortable increase the distance a little but do so in small increments to ensure you don’t try to do too much too fast and get discouraged.

It’s not a problem if you take a break from time to time. If you are feeling overwhelmed, if you are sick anything it’s okay. Better to take the break than to give up. You’ll notice that once you have the new habit formed, your mind and body will miss it when you take a break and it will feel good when you get back to it.

Eating
Water
Water is a necessity of life and plays a key role in metabolism which burns calories and produces energy. Most people don’t drink anywhere near enough water every day which slows their metabolism, deprives them of energy, sucks water from other organs and leads to fat storage. So, we need to form a new and healthy habit of drinking more water. Don’t think that there’s a particular amount of water you should drink every day because then that’s setting possibly unrealistic expectations that you can’t meet which will be discouraging. It’s the new habit that is important so you can start with something as simple as making it a habit to drink one glass of water each day. Even though you might already drink water in different settings, make this one glass a day a priority so it becomes a new habit. You can fill a glass at night and set it on the nightstand and drink it while you’re getting ready for work. You can put a glass on your desk at work and drink it throughout the day. You can put a glass in the cup holder in your car and drink it on the commute but make it a habit to drink one glass every day. And here’s an important point: don’t drink it from a bottle, drink it from a glass. It’s easier to drink from a glass and you get more water in every drink which makes it easier to finish. Small but important point.

After a while, when you feel comfortable that you’re in the habit of drinking a glass of water every day, increase it to one and a half, then two etc. until you feel hydrated all the time. You’ll find that even without making any other changes in your life you will already have more energy and start losing weight.

What to eat
I don’t think it matters what you eat as long as you eat it in moderation. There are healthy people who are meat eaters, others who are vegetarian or keto, still others who follow the old school food pyramid. When it comes to food better to eat what you enjoy in order to keep the process positive and not come to dread eating things you don’t like. If that happens then you’ll end up cheating anyway so what’s the point?
There are some common sense practices to keep in mind:
 Eat a variety of foods
 Limit sweets and alcohol
 Only eat portions of food, don’t eat munchies (If you can’t count everything you ate in a day then you’re not eating portions, you’re munching)

When to eat
Eat when you are hungry and stop eating when you are no longer hungry. If you are hungry first thing in the morning then eat something until you are no longer hungry. If you are hungry mid-morning then eat something until you are no longer hungry. If you are hungry at noon, mid-afternoon, evening then eat something until you are no longer hungry. Forget all the cultural rituals of breakfast, lunch and dinner, nobody even knows where they came from.

The only reason not to eat at night is because your sleep will be disrupted by your body’s metabolism and will cause weird dreams and restlessness so you won’t sleep well. You’ll be more tired during the day which can affect your exercise routine and how much energy you have.

Sometimes we like to use foods as a reward and see it as a guilty pleasure or an escape even from our problems or even to fill the void of boredom. This is a principle habit that needs to change. Eating only when we you’re hungry and putting the fork down when you’re satiated is key to forming new healthy eating habits. When you eat out and they serve you with a portion big enough for two, eat till you’re not hungry anymore and ask to take the rest in a doggy bag. It will be weird or hard at first but once it becomes a new habit you won’t even think about it because that’s what a habit is.

How to eat
Yes, it matters how you eat. Make a point of focusing on your eating habits. Sit down somewhere, eat one bite at a time, put the fork down and chew that bite thoroughly before swallowing. By eating one bite at a time and chewing thoroughly you give your body more time to feel ‘full’ and make it easier for your body to metabolize the food. Don’t let anyone or anything interrupt your meal.