Habits

Developing the habit of eating for health can be a challenge, especially when you haven’t yet figured out what harms your body and what helps. But there are some habits that can lighten your stress levels — without too much effort.

You can solve a lot of digestive problems just by eating regular meals at approximately the same time every day. We think we’re too busy to stop and eat, or that we’re special and can go without regular fueling stops…

Our bodies don’t see it that way.

I’m not against fasting for a good reason, but being forgetful or thinking you’re too busy to eat is not a good reason. It you’re eating, do it regularly so your stomach knows when to produce acid.

Leo Babauta wrote about habits in his 29December2011 blog ZenHabits. The gist of his post is to change one habit each month instead of making resolutions that frequently don’t last out the month of January. They say it takes 30 days to create a lasting habit, so this makes total sense to me.

Figure out a replacement for the habit you want to break. And just focus on one habit. Every time you’re aware of that particular habit, stop. Then do the new behavior you’re wanting to put in its place.

Leo’s Compact Guide to Creating the Fitness Habit has a lot of information about fitness, but you can use it to replace any habit. You work on one at a time and they add up — twelve life-changing habits each year — or you can do one every other month and have six life changing habits each year!

He lists a few habits you might want to change, but I’ll add some here:

1. What is going on inside your head? Do you pay attention to it so you can recognize the lies? Do you believe all that negative self-talk? You are the only one who can do something about that. Replacement habits: gratitude, singing, appreciation of what you have and are, think of the opposite and see if that might actually be true. More info.
2. Are all of your meals balanced? Do you put the food on your plate mindlessly? Replacement habits: stop and check before you begin eating, look at your plate and see what needs to be added or subtracted to be balanced, make sure you’re not over-eating or under-eating. More info.
3. Are you going straight to the computer when you get up? Do you wish you would exercise instead? Replacement habits: no computer/TV/games/email until you’ve moved for at least ten minutes, dress in work-out clothing when you get up and work out without thinking. More info.
4. Do you drink sugary or (worse) artificially sweetened bottled or canned drinks? Replacement habits: stop spending money on drinks that harm you and drink water instead, take water with lemon with you, stock your fridge with water in the same place you used to keep your drinks, try adding a bit of 100% cranberry juice to your water with some lemon.

Thank about what habits you want to break this year and brainstorm what you could do instead. Then focus on replacing that habit this month. You can make the new habit enjoyable. And you can make the new habit social. But according to a lot of research over the past 85 years, telling someone about it does not help.