Old Habits Die Hard

This will be just a quick update. In the past few weeks I have received dozens of emails from readers. The majority of them have had what I consider to be a common theme.

Falling back into old habits

I have failed at losing weight more times than I can count. I’ve tried many diets and even though I did lose a bit of weight it would always come back.

You’ve heard it a million times before that diets don’t work over the long term. A lifestyle change is what you need and replacing old habits with new habits is the way to do it.

Easier Said?

Old habits die hard and replacing them is sometimes easier said then done.

We’ve all built unhealthy habits over many years and to think that they can be completely eliminated in just a few weeks is crazy. Falling back into your old habits is almost common place among people trying to lose weight.

Here is the Fix

There are 2 things that I did to break the cycle.

1. Small Changes

Giving up your favorite junk foods is hard, very hard. I realized this when I tried to quit Soda Pop cold turkey. My first attempt lasted 1 day. For me the fix was to make a small minor change in how often I drank them.

4 per day was the norm for me. So for the first 7 days I replaced 1 can with 1 bottle of water. I didn’t even notice the difference. After the next 7 days I was down to 2 cans and after a month I was drinking just 1 can a day.

I stayed at 1 can a day for another week and then cut back to just 2 cans per week before finally replacing them with water/juice. All told I had made those small changes over 7 weeks and in that time the cravings slooowly disappeared.

(Note that I had tried the cold turkey method a few years ago and it did work for while. The problem was that I cut it out too quickly, don’t make the same mistake)

2. Breaking The Pattern

This is where the whole concept of trusting yourself comes in. At lunchtime I couldn’t trust myself to walk by a McDonald’s without ordering something weather I was hungry or not. It was an addiction and a terrible habit.

The fix was just to not carry my wallet on my lunch break. I left it at the office or in my car so even when the urge to buy came up, I had no way of making the purchase.

After about a month of doing this my desire for a Big Mac combo dropped quite a bit and I was able to walk past the store without even looking at it. The most important thing was that I had broken the pattern of just buying regardless of hunger.

Doing whatever you can to break your normal eating patterns is such a huge part of changing your lifestyle for the better.

Conclusion

Falling back into your old habits can happen but by making small changes over a long period of time you can prevent them from coming back. Breaking your current unhealthy eating patterns is also key to your long term success.

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