Establishing habits one at a time
We are going to help you establish healthy eating habits, one step at a time. Because the most important thing to remember is:
“We do not need to change everything, all at once!”
Trying to change everything all at once usually ends up:
- Overwhelming us with a task that is too big.
- Fail to firmly establish any particular habit, causing us to relapse quicker and harder.
So we are going to work on firmly establishing just a single good eating habit over 1 or 2 weeks. Don’t worry about other things yet (we will get to everything eventually) and don’t let yourself get distracted and pinball from one thing to another.
Stay focused on the habit you are choosing and give it time to bed in and become established by itself. Once it is part of your everyday behaviour, we will move onto the next habit and focus on that, allowing the first one to simply carry on by itself.
Following this model, we will work our way through the range of healthy eating habits and at the end, we will have a completely changed lifestyle for the better!
Looking back at your food diary is a good way for you to decide the easiest habit you can change. Be honest with yourself, this is not about being perfect. This is for you to better understand some of the unconscious eating habits you have and to help you make some conscious decisions about how you would like to improve these habits. Ultimately, so you feel better.
A wise man once said:
“Put your effort into changing a few big, important things instead of lots of small, insignificant things”
The habits
Hopefully you have already chosen which habit you want to change for the better, but if you need some inspiration, you can use any of the below…
Planning ahead
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. So have a plan and learn how to stick to it!
Kitchen overhaul
Living and working in the right environment goes such a long way. Set up your environment to help you stay on track.
The less processed the better
Choosing more wholesome, less processed junk food with an eye on a variety of high quality nutrients.
Include more fruit and veg in every meal
No one ever got worse by eating more fruit and veg!
Carb quality control
Choose quality when it comes to carbohydrates.
Know your fats and choose well
Choose quality when it comes to fats.
Include lean protein in every meal
Learn what protein is, where to find it and add it in each of your meals.
Portion control
Once you are eating the right food, we need to make sure we are eating the right amount of that food.
Homework
So this is how we are going to do this.
- Decide which of your habits you want to change.
- On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you can do this?
- Write down 3 things that will help you achieve it.
- Write down 3 things that could get in your way and derail you.
Use the document below to help you plan your habit change.
You can either:
- Download and print it out for free.
- Get a pen and paper and record your answers that way.
The next step…
Decide which of the above habits you are going to try to develop over the next week or 2 (or choose your own), and fill the document and get started!