Creating Good Habits

February 16, 2008 |

Some strategies on creating good habits:

1. Get Focused in the Morning. Write what you want to accomplish the night before and you will see your self achieving it easily. Create enthusiasm to accomplish the work. Spend a few moments in prayer. A short period of stretching exercise or a short walk will also help get you focused.

2. Worst First. We try to avoid facing confrontations, problems, hard work and our addictions, but when we do, it feeds into our worries and fears. Face your fears and problems head on. Do the worst first. You will win. It will feel good. Then the rest is easy stuff. Face the worst tasks first. Work on high priority problems and goals first. Do what can be easily done that will have the biggest impact. See the end result and desire for it. Focus on what you can do. Don’t waste time dwelling on your failures and problems. If it is a decision, get it down on paper, look at all the factors, make a decision and then refuse to worry.

3. Face fear head on. You can do it! Make a stand. It may take everything you’ve got. Your knees may be shaking. Emotions may be screaming and every thought shouting, “I can’t.” Tearful eyes see nothing but a long list of past failures. Ears echo with mocking voices. Meanwhile, you feel as courageous as a wet dew worm but don’t give in. The hardest steel faces the hottest furnace. You will come out on the other side tempered, refined and purified. You have nothing to lose but the dross in your life.

4. Shop With Discipline. You should eat what you buy. You have to prepare yourself to face walls of temptations and smells. Plan what you are going to buy, and be ready to resist buying anything else. See yourself shopping, ignoring temptations, coming back with healthy food and making a fruit salad. Expect shopping day to be tough. Remember to feel good about getting past the candy bars and bakeshop. A small amount of discipline in this area can have a big effect on diet.

5. Eat when you arrive home. The weakest time for most people on a diet is getting home after a hard day. Coming home from work, we want comfort. There are ways of getting comfort that are more beneficial than grabbing the fastest available food. Relax with a peppermint tea, unwind, take a shower, spend some time in prayer, do some stretching, take a short walk. Develop healthy ways of recharging your battery. It is good to prepare your mind for getting home. Decide to be at peace and not let things bother you. Decide what you are going to eat, see yourself eating it and feeling good about it.

6. Watching TV. TV is a food trigger. The refrigerator is close, and food commercials are running 200 images per hour into our cerebral cortex. Ever become bored during commercial time? The path of least resistance leads to the refrigerator. You need to put a few obstacles in the way. If food commercials are a trigger, watch nature shows or commercial-free TV. If you are just grabbing anything out of the refrigerator, make something healthy like cut veggies and leave them in the fridge. If boredom during the commercials is a trigger to eat, get some hand-weights and do some exercises, play an instrument, read a book, do some stretching, anything but walking to the kitchen.

7. Escaping the Table. Hanging out at the dinner table is a sure way to overeat. Have an activity that you want to do after the meal. Start to visualize yourself enjoying that activity as you are finishing eating. If it is going for a short walk, imagine yourself enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Imagine looking at the birds and feeling refreshed. When you imagine an enjoyable walk, you will easily move from eating, to get ready for the walk. Whatever you have chosen for your next activity, imagine yourself enjoying it.

8. Avoiding the Triggers. Most of us are overeating for a hundred different reasons. We are eating due to stress, irritation and frustration. It may be worry or overwork. We are eating out of habit and with no real direction or thoughts about what we are doing with our face in the fridge. Here are some strategies to stop the unhealthy triggers from controlling our life. Psychology calls these techniques avoidance strategies. They are used when we get the urge to eat. The urge will pass, but we need to do something else until it does.

Imagine a stop sign, and say, “No, I am not letting myself get away with it.”

Breathe a deep breath, hold for a few seconds, then breathe out slowly and relax.

Brush your teeth.

Drink two glasses of water.

Eat an apple.

Do 20 sit-ups.

9. Seat Exercises. A couch potato’s dream: exercise without leaving the sofa. Find a sitting position that is comfortable for you. Now, stick out your leg in a horizontal position and stretch your big toe out as far as it will go. Hold for 30 seconds or so. Now relax your leg and let the tension. Relax after thirty seconds. Extend your leg again and twist your foot to the right and pull your toes toward you. Do the same action with the other foot. If your arms are stiff from typing or working at a desk, stretch both arms above your head as far as they will go. Stretch your fingers upward. Breathe deeply and relax. Hold this position for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. flow out of it. Stick out your leg in a horizontal position again and twist your foot as far left as it will go and pull your toes toward you.

You can tighten any muscle group for three seconds: biceps, triceps, and even your butt muscles. Tighten for three seconds then release. Cover the entire body in a systematic manner. Legs, back, stomach, arms, and don’t forget the jaw. Tighten your shoulders by shrugging, then relax. Extend your jaw as far as it will go and hold for a few seconds. Stretch your neck up and tense your neck muscles. Concentrate on your face muscles. Tighten them by squinting your eyes, and tightly contracting your forehead and mouth. It will look as if you have just eaten a lemon.

Any exercise or effort will distract you from eating, and give you a workout to boot.

10. Walk. Walk the block for invigoration. That mini-blast of oxygen will vanquish tiredness and mental exhaustion. Leave your worries behind and be in the moment. Look at the birds. Be thankful. Let go, breathe deeply and relax. You may discover God has always been with you!

11. Calisthenics. Great for stress release. Helps dissipate excess nervous energy built up by obsessive thinking or stress. Stretching cleans out the lymphatic system, conditions the tendons and joints, and stimulates the organs. Focus on being relaxed, thinking encouraging thoughts, being at peace and prayerful.

12. Play an Instrument. Easily done if you are at home. Playing an instrument changes the focus of your thoughts and can burn excess energy. If you sing or play happy songs, it will help break the mood of depression and worry. Keep your thoughts encouraging as you play.

13. Read. Can give mental stimulation or relaxation. Reading short stories, a devotional, or just a few verses of the Bible can encourage you and lift a bad mood.

14. Prayer. In the humility of being on our knees, we draw on the highest strength: the strength of. The greatest tool to challenge mood. It can be done while walking, exercising, or at any time. It is calming before sleep, reduces anger and dissolves pride. Prayer reduces better than a tranquilizer. It combats fear, worry and distorted thinking. Kneeling on a cushion while leaning over a chair or a bed is a comfortable position. You can put a towel or a blanket over your head to give you a feeling of seclusion.

15. Clean Up. Your house or office reflects your attitude. Dirty dishes and piles of paper say one thing: this person is unorganized. Organizing is an investment in the future. You reach for something, and it is there. Many people who are depressed and worried let their house and personal hygiene go. Cleaning and getting organized is the opposite mode. It feels good to have your house clean and your life organized. Cleaning can be stress- reducing. You can enjoy it. Use a ten-minute break to organize or clean. Do not get frantic trying to get it done. This is “time out” cleaning where the goal is to enjoy it by feeling good about what you have done.

These are only a few ideas of many that you can do to put an end to unhealthy triggers. Rather than stand in front of the refrigerator, fighting painful battles, take a mini-break. They are the pauses that refresh, peaceful moments in the storm. Time for you to recharge so you have the mental staying power of an Ever-Ready battery.

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