How To Destroy Bad Habits & Change Your Life
Bad lifestyle habits can destroy your chances of ever getting lean. Here's how to rid poor habits and build good ones!
What is a habit?
A habit is something that you do regularly, often without thinking about it
A good example is when you get ready for work in the morning
You're in autopilot mode right?
I bet if you were on Big Brother and we could watch your movements, it would be near on identical everyday
Unfortunately we tend to pick up bad habits
Smoking or eating a family-size packet of crisps while watching Eastenders of an evening are examples of bad habits
In 2017 I went to Australia for 2 weeks. Lapping up holiday mode I had a pint of G+T and a bath everyday
(That's right. I drink G+Ts by the pint)
I mean that's amazing on holiday, but being half cut by 4 pm everyday is not a lifestyle choice i'd like to develop
Logically when I got home I still craved this habit
I off course shook it, but it's a great example of how habits are easily formed
Examples of Bad Habits
Let me list 2 morning habits from 2 fictional people
Sally wakes up every morning an hour before she needs to be out the door for work.
She uses this extra time to stew some porridge, watch TV and sip tea
She takes the time to leisurely eat her porridge with chopped fruit and say goodbye to her kids
She brushes her teeth, washes her face, grabs her pre-made lunch and heads of the door
On the other hand
Jimmy slaps the snooze button 4 times before flopping out of bed, as he does everyday
He wrestles his work clothes on. Slaps some gel in his hair. Grabs his wallet and he's out the door
Spot the difference?
Now its 8:06 am, Jimmy's already stressed as he's running. He's got no lunch and had no breakfast
These are trade marks of a lazy person. They're also habits.
Being Healthy Is a Habit
Your friends, family or co-workers that you naturally think of when I say "fit people" have developed good habits - not necessarily on purpose, but they'll be there!
Examples of Good Lifestyle Habits:
Exercising regularly
Drinking plenty of water
Eating lots of fruit & veg
Meal prepping or planning meals in advance
Cooking healthy meals from scratch
Examples of Bad Habits:
Binge eating on the sofa
Eating out a lot
Smoking
Buying your lunch out everyday
Skipping breakfast because you're up late
Getting shit-faced every weekend
How many of these are you guilt of?
This is a very select list related to lifestyle and fitness, but the list goes on. For the list of the "worst bad habits" - check out this article by the Times
So if you're serious about turning your life around and becoming leaner and more importantly, healthier, you need to destroy a few shitty habits and create some really good ones!
How to Destroy Bad Habits
There are tonnes of ways to destroy bad habits. I'm going to suggest a simple technique now, but if you're looking for a few more, check out this article by Life Hackers
Step 1 - Notice the bad habit
There are tonnes of bad habits that could be effecting your health. First, spot them.
Then you can deal with the issue (which I'll cover in the next step)
For example, if you eat ice cream until you feel sick every night. Spot it.
If you wake up 10 minutes before work every day. Spot it.
If you find you never exercise, despite your best efforts. Spot it.
If you drink too much booze. Spot it.
Firstly, you need to realiase it's there!
Step 2 - Swap or stop
Step ones's the easy bit. Now you have to take action
Some habits just take a big dose of discipline I'm afraid (initially anyway)
If your bad habit is something diet related, for example foods you know you shouldn't be eating or drinking in vast quantities
You can go cold turkey and completely cut it out or start slowly weening yourself off of it
You could also consider swapping the certain foods for better or lower calorie options
An example would be swapping your tub of Ben & Jerry's for a tub of Halo Ice cream. For those of you who don't know what Halo is, it's a really low calories ice cream. Each tub only has around 320 calories in! Check it out here
Your Task
I'd recommend grabbing a pen and paper. Drawing a line down the middle with the words "Bad habit" and "Fix" on either side
Underneath "Bad Habits" write down all the habits you know you're guilt of and under "Fix" simply write an action plan to solve the problem
Remember there's no correct answer. It's your body and your results, so make a plan that you'll actually stick to
For example if you drink 2 glasses of wine every night don't say "I'm not going to drink wine any more"
Instead say, "I'm only going to drink 1 glass a night" or "I'm only going to drink on Wednesday night and the weekend"
Then make a plan to reduce it down further
I promise that it will become easier over time, you just need to shake those pesky habits!
