Being able to focus on habits instead of outcomes relies on our ability to know what’s important. Is the outcome more important than how we get there? Is our weight problem genetic or an accumulation of habits and choices we made along the way?
Growing up, my mother had to shop for me in what was once called the “husky” clothing section. Being referred to as that fat kid, blubber butt, and porky often plagued my childhood memories. And if I complained at home my mother would say, “Oh you’re not fat you just have big bones and lots of baby fat.”
This reasoning may have convinced me as a child but was of little comfort in high school. By the time I entered college, I was able to shed my “baby fat”, but not after considerable effort. However, the struggle with weight has been a constant battle. And this year, I still have a goal to lose 10 kilos.
The first step truly is – Focusing on habits instead of outcomes
It’s obvious to many of us that losing weight depends on our ability to set goals and focus on some outcome. Like the amount of weight lost, ability to perform a desired physical task, or even how faithful we follow some weight loss program. However, I believe every goal needs a good plan. And many plans require a change in behavior. Especially when it comes to our health.
How to build new habits
I found an interesting article written by James Clear called – How to Build a New Habit: This is Your Strategy Guide. Here is a quick summary.
1. Start with an incredibly small habit.
Make it so easy you can’t say no. —Leo Babauta. Research shows that willpower is like a muscle. It gets fatigued as you use it throughout the day… Solve this problem by picking a new habit that is easy enough that you don’t need the motivation to do it.
2. Increase your habit in very small ways.
Rather than trying to do something amazing from the beginning, start small and gradually improve. Along the way, your willpower and motivation will increase, which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.
3. As you build up, break habits into chunks.
It is important to keep each habit reasonable so that you can maintain momentum and make the behavior as easy as possible to accomplish… Building up to 20 minutes of meditation? Split it into two segments of 10 minutes at first.
Trying to do 50 pushups per day? Five sets of 10 might be much easier as you make your way there.
4. When you slip, get back on track quickly.
…Research has shown that missing your habit once, no matter when it occurs it has no measurable impact on your long-term progress. Rather than trying to be perfect, abandon your all-or-nothing mentality…You shouldn’t expect to fail, but you should plan for failure.
5. Be patient. Stick to a pace you can sustain.
Learning to be patient is perhaps the most critical skill of all. You can make incredible progress if you are consistent and patient… New habits should feel easy, especially in the beginning. If you stay consistent and continue increasing your habit it will get hard enough, fast enough. It always does.
When it comes to losing weight, it often comes up with eliminating our bad habits and forming new ones.
Christopher Rither
Habits I changed to help me reach my health goals
- Breaking my snacking habits. My first step was eliminating my afternoon coffee habit because coffee always made me want sweets. No afternoon coffee – no afternoon sweets.
2. Breaking my “I gotta work out for 2-3 hours or it’s not really a workout mentality”. Instead, I focused on short intense work outs spread out evenly throughout the week. This meant less time working out but increased my frequency of workouts. And since I lose appetite after I work out, I ate less.
3. Changing my sleep habits. I’m a night eater so I forced myself to wake up early every morning. After a few weeks, I naturally got sleepy and went to bed earlier. This caused a decrease in calorie intake since I naturally eat less during daylight hours.
4. Changing my habit of eating larger portions. This was probably the most helpful. Especially as I got older. Eating a large pizza is fine when you’re 20, not so good when you’re 60. Yes, I felt hungry and wanted more in the beginning, but now one piece of pizza is enough for me.