A habit is something that is routine to us and that werepeat often without knowing it;
Some habits are good
and
Some habits are bad.
Old habits can be hard to break, and New habits hard to make.
But with positivity, focus, support and belief in ourselves we can change/create bad/good habits.
First we need to identify the trigger to the habit, this cue could be anything. Maybe boredom makes you crave food/snacks, or socialising and drinking leads to food/snacks, identifying the cues, helps us understand why we action the habit.
Once we identity the cue, we can make changes to change the habit. When bored instead of heading to the fridge/pantry, have a change of activity planned, maybe a jigsaw, knitting, sewing, crochet, a walk around the block, gardening, preparing your next meal etc...
Changing a behaviour from bad to good is more effective than ending a bad behaviour alone. In fact the new behaviour discombobulates the old habit and averts our minds from going into autopilot i.e. eating a peice of fruit everytime you think 'Chocolate' replaces a positive behaviour from a negative habit.
Keeping new behaviours simple allows our brains to integrate them into autopilot routines, making it easy to adapt to the new habit, changing bad to good.
To maintain the new habit, you have to develop it from the short term satisfaction, to achieving long term goals i.e. health and well-being goals.
By repeating the new change in behaviour we create new habits, and the more we repeat them we cement them into our autopilot routines.
It can take a long time to create new habits in fact months to make them routine, persistance is key.
If you slip back to old habits don't give up - this is common. Just remember why you wanted to make the change. This will help you pick up where you left off.
Habits can be changed, with time and effort, allowing healthy behaviours to become second nature.
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