8th April 2014
Sleep solves everything!
Well yesterday I got back on
track (AGAIN!), mmm apparently it takes 21 days to break a habit, of course
that’s not completely true, some say it’s 66 days, that’s not true either! It can take an entire lifetime to break habits;
it’s easier to replace them by making new habits. There
is research to back up the 21 days thing, for example it apparently takes a
person 21 days to get used to their new home if they move, and it usually requires
a minimum of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change in a mental image
following plastic surgery. The truth is
the 21 days is a bit of a myth, to form a habit takes longer and best estimate
is 66 days, but the real truth is everyone is different and it takes as long as
it takes!
Changing any behaviour is
damn difficult, especially if you’ve done it continuously for years, especially
if it makes you feel better in some way but if you don’t keep trying then…
So about a month ago I
decided to stop biting my nails, I’ve managed it so far, all except a nibble
last weekend on my thumb, am I ‘cured’ of that habit, heck no, I’ve done it
before and grown them long then reverted back to a nail biter for whatever
reason. A habit that ingrained can come creeping
back at any time.
That’s why permanent weight
loss is so difficult because we have so many habits to break / replace / change
that the really ingrained ones probably never really go away they just get
muted for a while. How many of us have
reverted to our “old eating” habits when something goes wrong in our lives?
So yesterday I decided to
try the 21 days short term habit change, instead of committing to changing
forever, I’ve just committed to changing for 21 days, then if that works I may
try another 21 days, we shall see. What
habit am I going to work on? Well which
is my worst habit? Drinking of course,
so for 21 days I shall be abstaining from the lovely stuff that is
alcohol! WHY? Because I heard myself speak these words last
week, “If I didn’t drink I wouldn’t have a weight problem, I reckon I’d get
back to my goal easily”.
Mmm, is that true, let’s
find out shall we, let’s see if it’s the red stuff that’s getting in my way! I also read yesterday when looking up this 21
day thing that if you tell your mind you want to try something for 21 days it
won’t be so unwilling to co-operate. We
all talk to ourselves, we have hundreds of internal conversations every day, so
apparently if you decide to ‘start something or give something up’ you’d
normally say “right that’s it I’m giving up forever”, your brain will
immediately think “FOREVER, no glass of wine ever again” then it’ll do what
mine started to do yesterday and start thinking of all the situations when a
glass of red wine is devine; when I’m in a restaurant and it comes with a
delicious meal or on a Friday afternoon when my working week is done, or in the
bath on a Sunday night! Yep my brain
stopped thinking about all the benefits of giving up and started focusing on what
it was going to lose out of, after all my brain can’t think about the benefits
because it hasn’t yet had the benefits of giving up drinking but it knows the
supposed pleasures that drinking brings.
This is why I’ve decided 21
days, it’s an experiment me and myself have agreed to see if it does make a
difference, to see if I do feel any benefits from giving up for 21 days, to
experiment – to find out if staying on track and losing weight is easier when
alcohol is taken out of the equation.
Will it work? I don’t know!
Am I happy to try? I am now I
know it’s only for 21 days and I get to rethink the decision in twenty more
days – day one’s done :).
I do know that I don’t want
to continue having a good week and losing weight to then follow it with a not
so good week and gain weight, I’m maintaining brilliantly at the wrong weight!
Yesterday I managed a
completely on track Filling & Healthy day and ended it Full & Happy, it
looked like this;
Is there something you’d
like to change? Could you stop or start
a particularly habit for 21 days? Why
not join me in the challenge…
My plan for today is to Eat
Gorgeous & BeYOUtiful, I’m focusing on the healthy & happy!
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