Well yes, but that's not the kind of habits I'm talking about. I'm talking about the sit-on-the-couch-and-watch-tv-while-eating-a-big-bowl-of-ice-cream kind of habits and the what-the-hell-is-a-carrot kind of habits that got me into this mess in the first place. Of course, I can't really remember when I acquired these sweet, little behaviors, but here I am and now I'm thinking. It's a dangerous place...
Dictionary.com defines a habit as "an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has almost become involuntary." Hmmm. Interesting. There are a couple of key words in there, did you catch them?
The first bit would be that a habit, according to the web-based dictionary gurus, is a behavior. Now, I realize this might seem elementary, but given my expertise in being a big girl, I have a variety of excuses that would claim that my weight and lifestyle are part of my personality and genetics. But they are saying that it's behavior! Ludicrous! Why, you ask? Because if it's a behavior, and not only that, but an acquired behavior, then I might just have some control over it. Well isn't that just a bag of crazy!
Of course it's not and I know that. But now that I know I might have some control over it, what does that mean? It means that I might actually be able to lose all the weight I'm supposed to. It means I can exercise on a daily basis. It kinda shoots all the excuses I've had for being okay with the status quo right in their big ol' foot. Darn, they were pretty comfy excuses.
Then, those silly masters of terminology went and threw in that a behavior followed eventually becomes a behavior that is almost involuntary. So what is it? Are my bad health habits in or out of my control? Sheesh, take a side already.
But really, how I read that is that while I might have some bad health habits, I am still the only person in control of me and my behaviors. And if I want to change those behaviors, I can do it, because they are only almost involuntary. And, according to this, if I want to acquire a new habit then I'm going to have to follow that new habit until it becomes almost involuntary too. Right? Simple logic, clean, direct, sounds easy.
And it really is. Honestly, when we put our minds to anything we really can do it. It's the putting our minds to it that's the trick. Like how I am at 5am when I need to go workout and I know that I just have to get out of bed and it will be okay. It's the getting out of bed that's the hard part! I'm my worst enemy when it comes to making excuses or ignoring what I really know to be healthy in lieu of something that might make me feel happy, but only for the short term. In the process of changing behavior, it's really pretty simple and at the same time takes A LOT of work. People who haven't ever acquired bad habits (and I'm not sure there's a single person out there who hasn't) and have tried to change their behavior won't understand what that is like. It's a complete mind shift.
I think of it like this: I love sweets. I love everything sweet and delicious. Now, my bad habits/behaviors have always led me toward the cookie table. A real example would be this luncheon I went to last week at work. They had a delicious salad buffet and healthy wraps and right at the end of the table was a platter of oh so yummy looking cookies and brownies and desserts. I caught myself gravitating toward it over and over, hovering, eyes gazing longingly, damn near drooling. It was the habit, the unnatural urge that kept pulling me back that was so unnerving. And yet I was able to consciously stay away with a quick and mindful redirect that my health wouldn't sustain another cookie (this is what I tell myself...) and that honestly I don't want it. Of course my body is screaming at me that I want it , I NEED it and if I can't have it I'm going to wither away. Well, that last part is anything but true, I think we can all agree about that. :-) The point is that it took me three rounds with the cookie tray before my mind was like, uh uh, no way and turned my feet in the opposite direction. It can be very hard to re-train your brain.
These days, instead of indulging that sweet tooth with cookies, I've started to replace it with sweet fruits and they satisfy me just as well and maybe more. The watermelon I have in the fridge is especially delicious. I figure that slowly, as I consciously re-arrange my lifestyle and restrict myself to the natural types of food to sustain my cravings, I will begin to make these behaviors, these choices, these habits "almost involuntary" to a point where my mind will naturally guide me to the salad and fruit buffet and ignore the other parts. Of course, 29 years of bad habits doesn't go away overnight, so this is going to be an interesting process to be sure.
And if you need some clues and ideas on how to eat healthy, I suggest spying on someone who has the complete opposite habits as you do...that's what I've been doing and I'm pretty sure one of my co-workers thinks I'm stalking her. Oh well.
What bad habits are you going to change this week?
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