Between the weather, the economy and just the overall busy-ness of your daily routine, it's easy to get into a rut with your health habits. And when you think about it, our health really is pretty much the sum of our habits. As Joel Osteen said in a recent article entitled Feed Your Good Habits, "Your habits - whether good or bad - will greatly determine your future." He talked about a study that showed that 90 percent of our daily behavior is based on our habits.
When I thought about that, it occurred to me that this is the good news and the bad news. The reason it's the bad news is that many of us have some bad habits, and, let's face it, habits are hard to break. But then, when I really analyzed this concept, I realized a couple things about habits. For one thing, when they become routine, we do them automatically, and thus, they require very little thought or effort. For instance, I bet you've never stressed or deliberated over if, when, where or how to brush your teeth or put your makeup on in the morning. It gets done the same way day in and day out. That's a good thing about habits. They get done routinely and effortlessly.
For example, one good habit I've formed over the years is that I have a protein shake for breakfast every morning. Never once do I find myself opening up the cupboards, wondering what I should make for breakfast. Never do I think to myself in the middle of the morning "I shouldn't have eaten such a heavy breakfast because now I'm so tired." No. I do the same thing and get the same result every day - Monday through Sunday. If everything in my life worked like my breakfast habit, I'd have it made. (Hold that thought!)
Another thing about habits is that we can change them and replace them with different habits. The scientific studies seem to show that it takes about 21 days to break a bad habit and replace it with a good habit.
Then the lightbulb went off: Wait a minute - why can't more things in my daily routine work like my breakfast habit? Well, the answer is: they can! Since the bad habits get done like clockwork, no matter what - just because they are habits, and that's how habits work - and so do the good habits for that matter - what if we introduced some more good habits?
Easier said that done you might say. Yes, that's true. We are inundated with so much information about health and self-improvement and successful habits that, quite frankly, it's a little overwhelming. So what I decided to do with myself is to sit down and brainstorm about every conceivable good habit. Get them all out of my head and onto a pad of paper. Once I purged my brain of all these good ideas, then I went through them and crossed out those that are clearly impractical in light of my personality, my schedule, my appetites, etc. Then I went through the remaining ideas and threw out the ones that looked like they'd be too drastic and too much of a struggle for me. I wanted to set myself up to win, so I decided to keep it simple.
When I had a small handful of ideas left, I sat with them for a while to determine which ones resonated with me. Then, ultimately, I picked a few and sat down and scheduled them into my routine. One such habit was automating my meals, so I can eliminate the multiple daily opportunities for bad food choices. I joined Nutrisystem and arranged to have my food delivered and planned out for me. Now, I realize this is not a lifetime commitment, but I plan to follow it with a similar pre-planned meal schedule.
I view this as a very pragmatic approach to improving health. Everything we do in moderation is probably ok. But the things we do habitually are what have a cumulative effect on our health. If we have to be creatures of habit, we might as well throw some healthy habits into the mix. Give the brainstorming process a try and let me know what you think.
To your health!
Lori Somekh, JD
Healthy Aging Coach
