Are you ready for making lifestyle changes?


Change is hard, pretty much for everyone. Most of us know this but yet we allow the nasty-mini-me inside each of us to do a number on our psyche every time we slip up.  And slip-ups are the biggest reason for failing to stick to something you’re trying to change. We have the
extra can of soda, or miss yet another day of exercise and we figure, what the hell, why bother?

 

Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to make changes in your diet? There are actually a couple of strong forces at work sabotaging you. I’m going to discuss one of them right now.

 

We’ve all heard people say that dieting doesn’t work; we have to make lifestyle changes. This means that your healthy dietary changes need to become part of your daily routine for the rest of your life. A lot of people can’t stick to a diet or a food elimination program for one week much less the rest of their life!

 

However you want to say it, making a change that, on the surface sounds easy, really isn’t. For instance, have you tried for several consecutive days to drink the recommended amount of water (which is 10% of your body weight in ounces, by the way).  I’m telling you, it’s REALLY hard to do!

 

The reason it is so darn hard is because we don’t have a strategy — a plan — of what we’re trying to accomplish.  Now don’t stop reading because you think you’re going to have to write a lengthy plan just to be successful staying hydrated or cutting back on coffee.  All I want is for you to think about what I’m saying. You’ll see in a minute that it makes sense.

 

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Most of you have heard the theory that it takes 21 days to form a new  habit.  That started in the 1950’s when Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon wrote about a strange pattern he saw among many of his surgical patients when they had to adjust to an amputated limb or adopt new behaviors.  By the way, his book, “Psycho-Cybernetics, sold over 30 million copies.  Lots of us bought into his theory.  But the kicker is, we got it wrong!   Somewhere along the way he was misquoted.  His original statement was that it takes “a MINIMUM of 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”

 

More recent studies were done on this theory by the University College London and were published in January, 2006 in the European Journal of Social Psychology[i]Their conclusions were that it takes 66 days before a new behavior becomes automatic, and that time frame can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person and the circumstances. In their study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.

 

Your inability to make dietary or health-related changes is not because you are weak, lack focus, or are change-adverse so why bother. It’s because, the human brain does not easily adapt to change.  It becomes even harder when we’re trying to change something that, fundamentally, we love having in our life, like walnut fudge brownies.

 

So next time you attempt to make a change and slip-up, don’t listen to the nasty voice in your head telling you to give up. Cut yourself some slack and get back on track tomorrow.  Eventually your brain will start to cooperate.

 

In my next blog post I will talk to you a little more about what else is sabotaging your efforts to make lifestyle changes, how to be successful making dietary changes, and how to create your own “health strategy”.

 

Wishing you health and happiness!

 

 


[i]
Roberts, Brent W. and Walton, Kate E. (January, 2006).  Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 132(1).  “Patterns of Mean-level Change in Personality Traits Across the Life Course:  A Meta-analysis of Longitudinal Studies”.  Retrieved 10/31/14 from www.psycnet.apa.org/

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