Today we are going to talk about how to create and maintain new habits sustainably.
A recent situation in my life inspired the topic of today’s podcast episode. I failed at reaching a goal. While doing my thought work in walking my brain through uncertainty, I am choosing how I will see this failure.
Yes, that’s right. I have a choice.
I can choose to look at this failure as if I’m not good enough, and I’m foolish to believe it will happen. OR I can choose to look at this as an opportunity to build my ability to be the new version of myself. The aspect of myself I want to become. Someone who trusts herself at a deeper level and who can make the impossible possible.
I used the same framework I teach all my students and shared in episode 323, which is the process of making a quality decision.
Since this is the time of year that many people are setting goals for the New Year, I will share how you can use this same framework when setting health habits.
What is a Habit
The dictionary defines a habit as a “routine of behaviour that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.”
From taking a shower to the thoughts we have when we look in a mirror, these are all habits. Many of which have been indoctrinated by diet culture. I have found that there are four main elements that diet culture has influenced the way our brains interpret information, which I refer to as the diet brain: perfectionism, black-and-white thinking, people pleasing and body filtering.
If you don’t have an awareness of the indoctrination of diet culture in your thoughts, there is a good chance as you go to set your New Year resolutions, they will be done so via the diet brain which ultimately leads to the all-or-nothing approach when it comes to incorporating new habits.
How to Create & Keep New Health Habits: Creating Sustainable Habits
So how do we create habits in a sustainable, non-diet way? Here are the four steps to creating life-long habits:
Step 1- Enoughness- believe you are intrinsically worthy as a human being right now. Separate your enoughness from the habits you do or don’t do.
Step 2- Decide to incorporate new habits from a place of “I choose too” vs “I have to.” Refer to episode 339 to detach from the outcome of your goal.
Step 3- Clean up your belief about what health habits are and detox diet culture’s influence on your definition of health.
Step 4- Create safety by loving yourself to the new habit. This is what I call courting your goal. How would the person who is already doing the goal act? How would she speak to herself?
Is creating a new habit hard? The truth is yes but it is possible! The to do that is through thought work which is exactly what I am doing inside the Resolution Reset Masterclass, so join now Sister!
What you’ll learn listening to this episode on How to Create & Keep New Health Habits:
- What habits are
- How diet culture has indoctrinated the way we engage with health habits
- The 4 steps to creating life-long habits
