David Bennett|
I began my series of tips on weight loss suggesting it is important to get excited about weight loss, but now I am going to spend a lengthy post about something that is at least as, if not more, important: being into health for the long haul, and turning good health into a habit.  One way to define the term habit is to consider it your "default setting," developed by years of doing something a certain way. Related to health, ask yourself this question. When you "slip" into a habit, or default way of doing things related to your health, what do you slip into? A healthy or unhealthy lifestyle? Or something perhaps in between? I think for most Americans, being unhealthy is certainly the default position, while being healthy is the anomaly. Wouldn't it be great if our habit, our "default setting" was healthy? Imagine the reduction in health care costs and the increase in quality of life! I hope that making health a habit is ultimately the goal of any long-term weight loss and maintenance program. Most of us are good at temporary adjustments. We can stick to eating whole grains for a month, but a year later, will our cupboards be filled with refined grains again? Will the regular exercising last? Will you be eating those healthy recipes that excited you so much in January by the time March arrives? Will you gain back those 20 pounds and then some? These are depressing questions, but they must be addressed, because the initial excitement about weight loss won't last forever. So how can we turn temporary good health adjustments into long-term habits? Well...let me tell you from experience, it isn't easy. I have been "into" health since 1993, read many books, visited thousands of websites, exercised many hours, tested countless healthy recipes, and so forth, and while many healthy habits come much easier now than in 1993, it is still not always easy to "default" to healthy. However, I have to say that I have turned a lot of temporary health improvements into habits, so it is possible. Very few people, myself included, are probably going to develop completely healthy habits, but I think you make yourself much more likely to lose weight, and keep it off, when you develop at least some healthy behaviors as habits. You will find that not only do you stay thinner longer, but when you do gain weight, you do so more slowly. Let me share some of my habits that I have developed (and one I just can't quite get!). |
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When I started drinking sugar free-drinks in 1998, it was tough. Prior to this, I assumed that sugar-free drinks weren't manly, so I only drank ones with loads of sugar. Yeah...it makes little sense now, that somehow eating sugar and getting fat and fluffy is somehow manly. At any rate, my friend Dave got into diet drinks, and when we hung out on weekends, he usually bought me what he bought, so I came to like sugar-free drinks (he got a good job right out of high school, so he usually paid!). I really haven't touched a sugared drink for years, unless as a dessert. So drinking sugar-free drinks has become a habit, i.e. my default.
I also try to avoid snack foods, like potato chips, Doritos, and tortilla chips in the house. I have kind of made this a habit. I haven't had potato chips in the house for years, nor Doritos. Regular tortilla chips (with salsa!) are a weakness of mine, and I had them in the house regularly last winter, and I paid for it too. I ate too many of them and gained about 7 or 8 pounds. But nonetheless, I tend to keep these out of the house, and this has become a habit, the default, even if I do go through some extended periods when I have them in the house.
Another example of a developed habit is eating non-fried seafood regularly. In 2004 I read that DHA, an Omega-3 fatty acid present in a lot of seafood, increases brain power. I was studying for the GRE at that time, and decided to eat a lot of white tuna and salmon, rich in DHA. Before this period, I ate some fish, mostly fried. After learning to love seafood to prepare for the GRE, I almost always choose a seafood dish over a poultry or red meat dish. This is a habit I have kept up. I have white tuna, shrimp, and grilled salmon regularly, supplying probably three times the Omega-3 fats I got in the years previous. I am not sure if I am too much smarter, but I enjoy eating the seafood.
I have been a little more inconsistent making exercise a long-term habit, but over the last 15 years since I got into health, I have regularly exercised more often than not, but there certainly have been embarrassing periods of inactivity sandwiched between the good times. Thus, I can say exercise has become a habit, the default, even if barely. Exercise has become more of a habit for me as I have gotten older, primarily because I like the way regular exercise makes me feel. My senior year at Ohio University I had let myself get so out-of-shape that I got winded climbing one floor of dorm stairs. That made my body (and ego) feel pretty bad, and I don't feel going there again anytime soon. I look back now and regret that I spent over half of my college years heavy because I didn't exercise enough.
One thing I haven't been too good at is restricting calories. I would love to make a habit out of eating less. I have always had a huge appetite, even when I was younger. This is why I need a program to track my food intake, like Fitday. I also have to choose foods that are filling, yet not calorie dense, so I feel like I am eating quite a bit, without the calories. Eating generally healthy foods is a habit for me, but eating less of all foods is still a struggle.
How did these become habits for me? Below I detail some of the ways that I went from temporary adjustment to longer-term habit. I hope that these help you do the same.
1. I Care About My Health - Do you know anybody who is a talented and seasoned basketball player who hates basketball? I don't. If you don't care about your health, then you won't be able to turn temporary fixes into long-term habits.
2. I Focus on the Long-Term, Not Just On "Quick Fixes". Are you the guy or gal who dismisses new ideas or pretends that a brief crash diet is all you need to get back on track? Is your only concern getting in shape for bikini or football season? Then, you probably won't make long-term changes, because you aren't thinking long term. You have to care, and have to want to make a long-term lifestyle change. If a quick-fix is all you are looking for, then you won't make long-term changes.
3. I Am Always Educating Myself. If I wasn't concerned about the effects of excess sugar on my body, I never would have even considered lowering my intake of refined sugars. Educating ourselves about health, fitness, and weight loss is extremely important, because approaching being healthy from every possible angle makes being health much easier, and allows us to avoid eating and doing things that make us less healthy. For example, if you think that it is healthy to eat rice cakes and water, I can tell you that you won't (and shouldn't) develop that as a habit. My tip number eight, Get Informed explains ways to educate yourself to lose weight.
4. I Am Not Afraid To Branch Out, Be Creative, and Try New Things. How could I develop a habit of liking low-sugar foods if I wasn't even willing to try them? Convincing yourself you hate broccoli because you hated it when you were three is not a very healthy way of thinking, because preferences, and taste buds, change. I have met many people that take this view, mostly overweight people not surprisingly, who refuse to try new things, yet remaining strangely puzzled why they can never seem to lose weight. If you want to make eating more vegetables a habit, you should try every vegetable possible, find them fresh, and find tasty and healthy ways to prepare them. Don't boil broccoli, declare it awful, give up on vegetables, and reach for the nearest ho-ho.
5. I Sometimes Just Have To Do What Is Right, Because It Is Right. In religious and philosophical circles, we call this a virtue, fortitude, so I will use a religious example to illustrate my point. I am Catholic, and there are some Sundays I go to church because I know I should. Some mornings, I would rather sleep in, or do something else, but I go to church out of habit, out of a conviction that it is right. Some people may criticize this, saying I should only go to church if I am excited about it, but are they seriously saying we should only do what is right when we happen to be excited about it? Some days we are just going to have to do the right thing because we know we should, and this includes being healthy. Some days you may hate the thought of working out, but you know you should, so you do. You feel better afterward, but that isn't the point: you did it because it is right, even though it is tough. Perhaps this is called toughness. Whatever you call it, this is when you really start to develop health as a habit, because you are doing what is right despite the challenges you are facing.
6. I Continually Keep Trying. One thing I learned from high school football is that you get knocked down about every play, but you get up for the next one and carry on. My weight has fluctuated more than what is ideal over the years, but I can really see a pattern of increased success in fighting weight, and it is getting much easier. In high school, my weight usually fluctuated by 10-15 pounds in the course of a year, every year. When I lost weight in college, I remained thin for a year, then fell off, then repeated this same pattern. My senior year in college (in 2000) I was 40 pounds overweight, but I lost it all by January of 2001. I kept it off until 2005, then I started gaining 30 pounds again slowly. I got down to a good weight by my wedding in September of 2007, and I am going strong now. My point? I am keeping the weight off longer and gaining it more slowly as I get older. Each time I slip up, I eventually get back on track, and with each new attempt to get healthy, I am further training myself, further developing my short-term healthy actions into long(er) term habits.
7. I Have Progressed Incrementally. One mistake dieters make is to try to make too many changes too quickly. It is easy to throw out all of your desserts and replace them with rice cakes...for about two weeks, and then, the excitement dies down, and the taste of slightly-salted cardboard...er...rice cake, becomes boring. Developing healthy habits takes time. Set small goals, and build incrementally. If you can't quite give up Twinkies, then don't. First, cut down to three a week, and go from there. There is nothing worse than stopping Twinkies cold-turkey. Making incremental changes is also important for developing an exercise routine. One mistake a friend of mine makes is to start off with guns blazing, running two miles the first day! He kills himself, is sore for a week, and tired of exercise after just one day of doing it. A more realistic, incremental, approach would be better. As my friend Fr. Joshua Wagner told me, some days his goal is to touch the door handle at the gym! It is simple, and attainable, and he knows that once he touches that handle, he never turns back!
Weight loss and maintenance are not easy, and it will take strength, effort, and focus to get, and stay, healthy for the long haul. Keep long-term goals in focus, and over time, your temporary healthy adjustments will become longer-term habits, your "default" position.
Tip Number Twelve: Cut the Cable
More Weight Loss Tips from David
Weight Loss Ideas and Resources at Life in Your Years
Disclaimer: These tips reflect the insights of one or more individuals about weight loss and other issues of health. These insights are based on personal experience and scientific research, to help you live a life of greater wellness. They should not be construed as medical advice or the services of a dietician. Before beginning any weight loss or exercise program, you should consult a physician.
Life in Your Years
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