making health habits sustainable
Where you are at in any aspect of your life is due in large part to the habits you’ve practiced up to that point. But if you have ever tried to change a habit or implement a new one, you know how difficult it can be. How many people do you know that changed their way of eating and lost a bunch of weight, then gained it all back? The new habits that helped them lose the weight just didn’t stick.
To make a new health habit stick, you have to get good at practicing new habits. Forming new habits is hard. It takes time and energy. It’s not always fun. And it’s easy to get thrown off track. That’s why we find ourselves continually reverting to our old non-supportive habits, why it seems like healthy habits just aren’t sustainable. So how do you get better at sticking with new habits? You get better by practice.
Take meditation as an example. One approach to meditating is to focus on the breath. When you notice your mind wander as random thoughts pop up, you re-focus your attention on the breath. As you practice returning your focus each time your attention wanders, you get better at meditation. You don’t tell yourself, “Well, I can’t stay focused on my breath, so I guess meditation isn’t for me.” You just keep practicing and over time you get better.
The same thing happens in our health practice. You set out to focus on certain components of your lifestyle, the ones that you have determined will result in your optimal health. Then something throws you off the path. Stress at work, a celebration, travel, any number of things that change your circumstances and cause you to skip doing the habits you’ve laid out. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your practice is unsustainable. It just means you’re human and have the same demands on your time and attention that anyone else has. So what do you do? The same thing you do when your mind wanders during meditation. Refocus. Get back on the path you’ve set for yourself, and resume the habits you’ve been working on to optimize your health.
We create a health practice by establishing small habits and building on them. Eating a healthy diet becomes a habit. Regular exercise and daily movement become a habit. Getting plenty of sleep becomes a habit. Getting back on track when you veer off also becomes a habit, and to make it a habit, you have to practice that. If you get off track, and you will, just get back on. And the more you do it, the better you will get.
