How To Change Your Unhealthy Habits

 How To Change Your Unhealthy Habits

Most 'unhealthy' eating habits live in your unconscious mind and if you leave your unconscious mind in control of these habits, they will resurface over and over again.

This is never more important than when it comes to successfully reaching your preferred weight and being able to maintain that weight thereafter. The problem is the general mindset for weight loss is to go on a 'diet' which is generally a period of deprivation, confusion and feeling like all the pleasure has been sucked out of your daily food consumption. There are many reasons why the diet approach has been failing for a very long time, one of these reasons being it does not address any 'unhealthy' eating habits you may have lodged in your memory banks just biding their time until you decide either you've had enough of the diet battle and give up, or you successfully reach your target weight. It's at this point, your habituated learned behaviour's gradually resurface as your mindset returns to 'normal' eating.

Habits are an essential part of our day-to-day living, without them we would struggle to remember all the things we need to, this is why we form them, to reduce the amount of time we have to think about things we do on a very regular basis, freeing up our mind space for all the rest of life's important details and information.

The problem with our unhealthy eating habits is that quite often they can be a big part of the reason why we end up being a weight we are unhappy with, and so when the habits return, they bring the original weight gain along with them, making us feel like it is impossible to maintain this weight we so desire.

This is why it is now commonly recommended to make lifestyle changes rather than consider dieting as your option for weight loss. This is often easier said than done however, those pesky habits are usually well ingrained from years of repetition, so what's the answer?

Within my personalised plans I recommend a 6 step process to addressing unhealthy eating habits
1-The first step is to identify the habits that you would like to change, take some time with this and make a list of anything you think you do on a regular basis that could be contributing to weight gain. This could be things like snacking on unhealthy foods, eating too quickly, mindless eating, boredom eating, stress eating, eating portions that are too large etc. (even if you eat a reasonably healthy diet, if your portions are too large it could still cause you to gain weight)

2-Once you have completed your list, look through it carefully and select one habit that you feel will make a big difference if you were to be able to change it, the one you do most often perhaps or the one that seems the most 'unhealthy'.

3-Choose a way you could alter this behaviour to something more favourable. So for example if the habit you have chosen is snacking daily on unhealthy foods while at work, perhaps you could alter this behaviour by preparing your weeks supply of healthy snacks that you really enjoy, at a convenient time so you don't have to think about what to eat or whether you have it in the cupboards or not when you're rushing out the door in the morning, you are just ready to grab and go every day.

4-Set phone/clock alarms to help remind you that you need to do this extra preparation until it becomes your new natural habitual behaviour that you do almost without thinking.

5-Review your progress with this habit replacement, if it's not working then something about the change you have made needs adjusting to make it more convenient for you, or more enjoyable, maybe the healthier foods you are choosing are not enjoyable enough, making you miss your unhealthy snacks? Make your adjustment and reset any necessary alarms or planning/preparation.

6-Repeat step 5 until you realise you make this new choice almost without thinking, then it is time to choose habit number 2.

Don't try to change more than one habit at a time, research shows that we have an 80% success rate when we try to change one habit, but this drops to 0% when we try to change two or more at a time.

Once your new habit is pretty well ingrained and you rarely even think about what you used to do, then is the time to revisit your habit list and select another one.

Change your Mind, Change your Body

Personalised weight loss plans can help to ensure long-term successful weight loss that you find comfortable, easy to adhere to and dare I say it, enjoyable even. Along with all the latest food and nutrition, diet and fitness information the plans cover changing habits, behaviour patterns and the way you think about food in relation to eating healthy, feeling great and being able to lose weight in a way that suits you and your lifestyle.