Tweet

Changing One Habit At a Time

Guest post by: Keith Hanna

Article Overview: Not just for the short-term but for the long-term

Changing One Habit At a Time

Today I have completed four weeks of workouts without missing a single one. I even rearranged my work schedule today to make sure. I worked past the natural limit of my will power with the support of my trainer Ras Sahota. The past two weeks have been challenging. I've wanted to miss several workouts and I hand-crafted very compelling reasons to do so, like the day after I went on a very challenging and tiring ice climb. I could barely move the next day when I showed up for my workout and found an unsympathetic trainer: "this'll be good for you; it'll loosen you up." He was right. I did feel better after my workout. Who knew?

I've survived the first month of a new habit. I workout everyday. Not just for the short-term but for the long-term. And I'm feeling better. That "feeling" is what is driving me now. I don't need will power. I'm over the hump now, even though the habit is still unstable. I'm vulnerable to slipping back into my old ways and old excuses and so for the next two months, Ras will keep on me until the "I work out everyday" habit is solid and stable. I'm just starting to see results now, but by then, I will have succeeded in implementing an important lifestyle change. The results I'll have then, will have justified all this work. And my body will remember the experience of breaking through the crust on my old habits. The feeling is stored in my cells.

My goal for this habit is to return to my optimal weight and body mass. I had picked up about 10 pounds over the course of the fall and I had gotten to the upper limit of what I was comfortable with. So at a party at a friend's house, after eating about 3 dozen shrimp, I made the decision that regular workouts would become a permanent part of my life.

Of course, working out is only part of the solution. One pound of fat is the size of a large grapefruit and is equivalent to 3500 calories. Exercise consumes 10 to 20 calories per minute and so a pound of fat requires a lot of working out. The other part of the equation is food.

The key to my new exercise habit was to make a permanent lifestyle choice. That is rather than tell myself that this was only a temporary measure to hit a goal, after which I would allow myself to return to my old habits, this habit is for the rest of my life.

I have similar choices to make about how I eat.

While I reserve the right to eat whatever I want in restaurants, for the moment anyway, my new eating habits are going to need to be very different if I am to attain and stay at a healthy weight. Excessive sugar, eating late in the evening, portions that are needlessly large. These are on the way out.

All of this can seem overwhelming and it's easy to get intimidated and just quit. But food choices are also lifestyle choices, I can make permanent changes in these too, just by picking one at a time, layering on one after the other.

The food habit I'm working on now is to eat cleaner by eliminating simple carbohydrates in the afternoon. My new habit is to learn to reach for a more nutritionally complex afternoon snack to deal with the energy lull after lunch (organic nuts, low glycemic fruits, lean meat). This sets me up for a good evening without binging.

The process will be the same. I'll spend the next four weeks with the support of my trainer to build the "I eat healthy afternoon snacks everyday" idea into an unstable habit. We'll figure out how to make it work and get through the drama of the creative excuse phase. After four weeks I can add that to my list of unstable habits and then pick another food habit to work on.

By the time New Year's rolls around next year, I'll have made 10 new permanent lifestyle changes and will be close on two others.

Related Articles
  Habits, life choices, decision,health,personal growth,personal development,spirituality
  Create Habits That Will Serve You Well
  Guidelines To Success
  Create New Success Habits!
  The Art of Transforming Subconscious Habits Behaviors The 3Step Super Shift Process
  Is Your Procrastination Hindering You In Your Internet Marketing Business Opportunity?
  Powerful Ways to Break a Bad Habit For Good
  Make The Move From Bad to Good
  Three “A’s” to Total Success
  Habits: Good or Bad, they drive current performance
  Quality is Not an Action, It is A Habit
  Changing the Game
  The Action Habit And How It Helped My Internet Business
  How to Develop Conscious Habits.
  Good Marketing is Like a Bad Habit
  SMEs internal reasons for business failure
  Overcome Excuses And Achieve The Success You Dream Of
  Are you scared to change?
  Is that Top Producer Accidentally Successful?
  How to Check In On What You're Attracting

Article Tags: change, feel, habit
Referred by: http://www.infinity-pr.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Search Engine Optimization - A lot of SEO in terms of on-page optimization is trial and error. Changing just one word can have a huge impact on your rankings.
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.
Re: Half of 2011 is gone - It's flying by so quickly! Still have plenty to do that I wanted to have done by now. Time to really step it up!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What To Do With a Troublemaker?

3 Competencies of Leadership

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.