Forming Good Habits

I'm slowly learning that in order to look the way I want to, and stay that way (which I have yet to master), I can't simply go on a diet. I have to change my eating habits and my lifestyle concerning food. I can't eat well some weeks, and then do everything opposite to what I know for another few weeks. Nothing good will last.

In The Body Fat Solution one of the chapters talks about setting goals. It has some good suggestions on how to create healthy habits and get rid of our unhealthy ones.

Here's what I got from the book:

Tell yourself this:

• If it's not for physical hunger, then why am I thinking about eating this?
• What will be the immediate/long term consequences of eating this?
• What will be my rewards for saying NO?
• Is eating this worth it? Will it move me closer or farther away from my goal?
• I AM WHAT I EAT
• Fruit is nature's candy.
• Food is fuel.
• I deserve a good free meal on the weekends if I had a good week.
• Your brain CAN be reprogrammed.
• 95% of your behavior is unconsciously chosen.
• 90/10 rule. Eat 90% well you can have 10% of what you want.
• It tastes good, but nothing tastes as good as being lean does.
• It's not about missing out on sweets, it's about missing out on being a lean person.
• It's not about losing freedom to eat what I want, it's about not being a slave to food.
• It's not about eating with family but BEING with family.
  

Overcoming Emotional Eating:

1. Realize that eating bad will make me feel worse, not better
2. Develop an alternate coping mechanism: walk, run, take a bath...

"Emotion follows motion. When you move your body you change the way you feel. The worst thing you can do is NOTHING."

Setting Goals:

• Describe your goals in detail: Write goals as if you already achieved them. Set what you want to get and not what you want to avoid.
• Example: What size clothes do I want to wear?
• Have multi-year goals, 1 year goals, 12 week, weekly and daily goals.
• If you think of a goal all the time, your brain knows it's important to you, so it brings to your attention everything in your environment that has any relevance to getting your goal. But remember the same thing happens when you focus on what you don't want, too.

"Put productive eating and exercise behaviors on autopilot. Anything can get turned over to habit with enough practice or repetition. 21-30 days to form a habit."

AWARE Acronym:

1. Become AWARE of your eating habits.
2. WATCH OUT for your emotional eating triggers.
3. ARREST the behavior patterns when they happen.
4. REPLACE the old emotional eating behavior with more constructive alternatives.
5. ESTABLISH new beliefs about food and the right reasons for eating.

"As your strength, endurance, and fitness levels increase, you need to challenge yourself. Gradually expand into more advanced workouts if you want to keep making progress."