Ep: #47 Making lasting changes: tips for keeping your new, healthy habits

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Hello Hello Hello and Welcome to episode number 47 of the Wellness 4 Women Show

Making lasting changes: tips for keeping your new, healthy habits

Tell me... are you trying to form new, healthy habits what are they? what are you working on right now in life & weight loss?

Are you struggling to get some traction?

If so you definitely are not alone.

It can feel tough to make lasting changes, but that doesn't mean it's not worth the effort.

Forming healthy habits can have a huge positive impact on your mood, energy level, overall health and life in general.

If you're looking for some tips on how to make forming healthy habits a little bit easier, you've come to the right place.

Today I'll be sharing some tops so whether you're just starting out or you've been struggling to stick with your new routine, these tips will help you gather some momentum.

Start implementing these tips today and see how they work for you and keep us posted in Wellness 4 Women: Life, Weight Loss & Everything Between Facebook Group. Leave a #gem plus your comment. Likewise got a question, the group is the place to be for community and support.

So coming up in today's show:

1. Habits - what they are and how do they work (obvious but bear with me!)

2. Beware the rulebook

3. How to make lasting changes in your habits

4. Tips for staying motivated and consistent with your efforts

Super quick intro as usual for those new to my world, I am Faye Casement. I'm here to help you put together the pieces of life & weight loss. Life is too short to be on a diet that sucks, so let me help you find a way to lose and sustain weight loss that fits your unique life. Your Life, Your Weight Loss, Your Way. Release the diet drama and find more joy in the process.

Reach out to me on any of my socials.

So back to habits.

What are habits

You are here because you are working on weight loss and your well-being. I bet you could list a bunch of habits right now that you wished you could change or thought perhaps you 'should' change.

According to research, up to 40% of our daily activities are habitual.

So 40% of our activities in a day we just go around on autopilot, not thinking just doing.

(https://www.sciencedaily.com)

I'd wager there is a study somewhere that shows it is more, this is just the first one I found.

This can be both a blessing and a curse I guess.

On one hand, it means that we can accomplish a lot without putting much effort into it. We just zoom around getting shit done without taxing our brains.

On the other hand, it also means that we can easily get stuck in patterns that do not serve as much without even realising it.

And what about the ones you perhaps do not know about yet?

Really when we are working on weight loss though, although we talk about habits we are generally talking also about behaviours.

Grechin Rubins distinguish the two as a 'behaviour' is something you do and a 'habit' is something you do without thinking.

What I would say is that sometimes the 'habit' or 'behaviour' you really need to work on is curiosity. Questioning what is going on, challenging yourself to establish if something is working or not working, or true or not true.

The good news is that habits and behaviours can be changed if you want them to be. It just takes a little time, patience, and commitment to figuring it out.

But something to note is that they can also change back just as easy.

The key is sustainability.

We could all go on some kind of gruelling diet that leaves us miserable and maybe last a few days, a week a month at a push but what then? We go back to the same old.

I want to help you form habits you can keep and a toolbox of behaviours you can dip in an out of depending on your needs.

Be Mindful Of The Habit Rulebook

Do you ever feel like you're the only one struggling to make changes in your life and to make progress in your weight loss or with your well-being in general?

I bet the answer is "Yes".

We've all been there from time to time.

But the truth is, making lasting changes to our habits isn't always easy and it definitely doesn't happen overnight.

However, it is possible to make progress if we're patient and work on being consistent with our efforts.

There have definitely been times when I felt like giving up on my weight loss journey, especially when it felt like I was the only one struggling. When I felt like everyone around me was making more progress, having better results than me.

What helped me most though was ditching the rulebook and the all-or-nothing thinking I had developed after years of dieting. Working on being patient and building flexibility in my methods and learning how to be kind to myself.

This allowed me to focus on progress rather than perfection, which helped me stay motivated and consistent with my efforts and whatever I was working on at the time.

As humans, we have a tendency towards black-and-white thinking. So often habits are considered as something that's either good or bad.

Just like over the years of dieting you have likely developed a habit of saying certain foods are good and bad. Not true

What you have in effect been doing over the years is building your own rulebook. It works for other things, not just weight loss.

You've been absorbing things that have been said to you, programs you have been on,

books you have read, social media, tv shows, the news etc, and deciding which ones you want to adopt as your own.

A lot of this of course is subconscious too.

The rules though can be where the suffering comes from and why diet drama can exist.

Boooo to drama.

It is in the judgements you apply to habits and to yourselves.

What if you could turn down the heat on yourself?

So rather than beating yourself up for what you believe are your 'bad' habits, instead you work on neutralising the drama.

The same goes for food. What if you could work on believing there are no good or bad foods, there is only food.

How much more freeing would that be?

This is what I encourage my clients to work on, finding food and life freedom by reducing drama and finding more joy.

When we start to see things in this way, it becomes easier to form new habits and make lasting changes because you will feel better about yourself and about your life and habits if you kind, not mean to yourself.

How To Make Lasting Habit Changes

You'll never guess how you can do it!! Yep, unless you are new to my world... you guessed it with my super simple framework the Triple-A-Way! Boom

Identify your habits (Awareness)

How many times over the years have heard the saying, "you are what you eat"? In a number of ways, this is true of course. The food you put into your body can have a significant impact on your overall health but it really is only part of the story and I don't know of one 'diet' that really emphasises the life part as I do.

What about the other things you do every day? Your life habits also play a role in your health and well-being and this knocks into your eating and vice versa.

Maybe you have a habit of playing computer games before bed. Maybe you then do not go to bed at a decent time. Maybe you do not sleep as soundly. What happens the next day? You are tired and cranky with loved ones. You have food urges and sugar cravings. You have higher stress levels. You overeat in the evening. So is the habit the sugar here or other computer games? Maybe it is a bit of both but if you have a super narrow focus and just focus on dieting you are not solving your weight loss holistically.

Another example, is afternoon eating. 

Let's say every afternoon 3 pm you feel tired and reach for the sweet stuff. It will likely be an urge but really your body, mind and soul is trying to tell you something. What happened that morning? Did you have a high protein breakfast or did you have a food that blew through you? Did you have a good lunch or did you eat a salad because your diet told you leading to you feeling deprived? Maybe work was busy? The kids were driving you mad? The content you were trying to right for your business was not flowing the way you wanted it to?

Your brain will tell you that you are broken. That you are not disciplined. That you can't lose weight. That you might as well give up but this is BS. You just need to figure out what works for you and this all starts with awareness.

Step into Action

My aim for the Wellness 4 Women Community is they work on keeping in simple by using the Triple-A-Way™️ method.

The aim is to make small micro shifts and a pure common sense approach.

All you have to do is identify what you want to work on and commit to your basic level of what you think you can realistically achieve then try and level it up a little. You will find you do more than you realise. I did that this weekend. I said I was going to just have a 5-minute tidy of the sitting room which turned into a 1.5-hour deep clean of the sitting room, hall, and dining room. Had I said right I am now going to do the sitting room, hall, and dining room it would have felt like too big a job. I would have procrastinated and not got it done and made a ton of excuses about time.

This way you are hacking your brain. Small, incremental changes that you can stick with over the long term. Smaller the better so you don't even notice you are doing them and it will feel sooo easy.

How can you make it easy? How can you remind yourself what you are working on?

• Put your running shoes next to the door,
• Make the foods you want to eat accessible like doing food prep,
• Put your vitamins next to the kettle,
• Write a note for the fridge,
• Set alerts in your phone.

Just these small things can be enough to remind you and make it easier for you to follow through on the habits you want to create daily. So don't forget, take baby steps and be patient with yourself.

I also recommend building in flexibility with your approach and really checking in on whether you have realistic expectations.

My desire for all of the members is for them to have a life with as much flow and ease as possible. For too many years of dieting, we have treated ourselves badly.

I cannot promise an easy life or one that never has its downs but we can work together to make them less frequent and reduce the impact.

#ditchthedietdrama

Accountability

I wish I had a pound for every time I heard someone say I don't have the discipline or willpower.

Discipline and willpower are short-term fixes.

You may need to use these as a little nudge of encouragement to get started but reliance on discipline and willpower is not a long-term solution as you will burn out.

Anyone who tries to tell you differently, I say steer clear as all you will end up doing is feeling restricted and then down on yourself when you don't stick to it.

Habits are built over time, and so require consistency and repetition in order to stick.

So, if you're trying to form a new habit, you need to be patient with yourself and understand that it's going to take some time.

You need support and encouragement to keep going, especially when you inevitably have setbacks. I have my accountability divas and I do not know where I would be without them having my back daily.

This is where accountability comes in.

When you have someone to help keep you accountable, it's much easier to stick with your goals and form new habits.

Accountability is also about ownership and accepting failure. You cannot be perfect 100% of the time and you do not need to be for weight loss. Not one week in my journey was I 100% in line with what I had set out to do that week. The difference though was I learnt not to let it get to me. I learnt not to then say f'it I will start Monday. I released the judgement through acceptance and kept working on moving forward and you can too.

Tips For Keeping Your New Habits

Some other tips for you to consider:

Be unique

Your life, your weight loss, your way right. This is absolutely key. Take control your way. Find your unique habits and triggers. Figure out what works for you not what someone else tells you to do as part of some diet. Yes look to others for tips, tricks, support and ideas and as a mentor, I can provide this but as a coach, I encourage you to look within you honestly have all the answers my job is just to help YOU to draw them out. Do what brings you the most joy!

Look for wins

One thing to keep in mind when forming new habits is progress, not perfection, is what counts. So don't worry if you don't get it right the first time - just keep at it and you'll eventually be able to stick with the new habit. It just takes a little time, patience, and commitment. Really think about what makes you tick.

Be Patient

No one is going to judge you but yourself and you don’t need to whip yourself into shape either. You have been through a lot of stuff that has got you here, so be kind to yourself.

Have Faith

Have faith in yourself as you can do this and keep trying if something does not work out. It is all an experiment. You just need to tweak as you go. It is ok to adjust your goals and plan, so you do not give up on the habit entirely because of one slip-up or obstacle.

Read all about it

I love a good self-development book me. I love getting all that juicy learning and life hacks. My favourites that I go back to when working on habits as well as using my own models is Atomic Habits by James Clear as well as Everything is Figeroutable by Marie Forleo.

Right, that's it folks, so quick round-up:

Forming healthy habits can feel tough, but it's definitely worth the effort. Disciplining yourself and relying on willpower is not a long-term solution, as you will burn out. Habits are built over time, and so require consistency and repetition in order to stick. When you have someone to help keep you accountable, it's much easier to stick with your goals and form new habits. Tips for keeping your new habits include being unique, looking for wins, being patient, and having faith.

And don't forget to pop into the Wellness 4 Women Group regularly. As a community, we learn from each other, by discussing what comes up and getting support.

Forming healthy habits can feel tough, but it's definitely worth the effort. Vow right now to never give up - be patient, have faith, and keep trying!

Other episodes that could help you work on your habits:

Stepping Into Action For Weight Loss

Ditching Evening Snacking

The Power of Small Daily Commitments

Want to really make sure you are getting the benefit out of these videos then don't forget to leave your #gems in the chat in the FB group.

Need some help with this topic? 

Find out how you can work with me HERE

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Categories: : Weight loss