Kicking The Habit

It's that time of year. Half the world is feeling the effects of the holidays and are out trying like mad to lose the necessary pounds to squeeze back into their favorite jeans.

I'm one of them.

But there are other folks out there too who've just plain given up. Dieting doesn't work for them. They've tried every trick in the book and though they maybe lose some pounds, they put them right back on.

. . . hold on. So they aren't saying that their efforts aren't working. They lost weight. That's exactly the goal! It's not the diet that's failing, it's their habits.

I go way way back when I talk about habits to when I was in 7th grade and we were reading some Ben Franklin. He had some firm opinion about habits [he had opinions about a lot of things...]. He stated that you could not get rid of a bad habit, you could only replace it.

Now, I was one of those kids who would just drop whatever I was holding, anywhere, and keep on going, be it an apple core, a wet towel, my shoes . . . whatever. It was requested that I stop leaving my wet towels on things as they were going to destroy the furniture and thus end the human race. Yes, it was that critical.

So, I resolved that this would be my Ben Franklin habit.

What did I do? Well, rather than say "I'm going to stop leaving my towel lying on things" since that leaves one no recourse but to stand there with the damned towel in your hands, instead I resolved "I will hang up my towel as soon as I'm done with it." Simple, right?

But actually, interesting.

I never ever leave towels out anymore. There is a two step process that's been lodged in by brain, a habit, that goes something like this: if towel; then hang_up; else feel_unsettled; end.

I cannot suffer a damp towel to lie out... even one that's not mine. Hotels that ask you to leave your used towels on the floor really mess with me.

Now, what about the rest of life. We were talking about dieting, right? What does this have to do with towels?

Well, diets like The 4Hr Body aren't meant to just help you lose weight. They're meant to help you create habits that you enjoy better in the long run than the habits that were killing you.

A simpler answer would be my two methods of quitting smoking.



1) If I want to smoke, instead, eat a carrot. Nervous habit dealt with. Really, I just needed something to do with my hands. Side effect: I actually turned a bit orange for a month. But it worked. . . for a while. When there weren't any carrots around, I didn't have an alternative habit to fall back on.

2) If I want to smoke, read/post to twitter. This one worked. I'm surprised that they haven't monetized this somehow. This one continues to work, though I no longer consciously want a cigarette. I have replaced the succor of my nervous energy with mucking with my phone rather than pulling out a cigarette. It's not something I do on purpose, it's a habit.

Now, diet. If you diet so that you can lose weight with the explicit thought of "Then I will be skinny and I'll be able to eat whatever I want!" you are going to fail. I'm sorry. You just will. Those people who are skinny and eat crap are a million to one. Most of them will eventually kill their excessively manic metabolisms and then balloon up like the rest of us normal people.

If instead you look at a diet as "I will learn to enjoy things that are actually good for me rather than craving junk all the time" that might actually work for you. If you pair it with "I want to be able to run and jump and skip with ease" and start some regimen of exercise, even better. When I skip my morning run, I'm cranky. It doesn't mean I like running. Not yet. But I already have the beginning of a habit going.

Just like if I had missed my morning cigarette with my coffee, missing my run throws off my day mentally, as well as physically.

All that is going well for me. Getting those habits locked down. Quitting smoking this past year was a huge one for me. After 18yrs of puffing away, starting with one a week, to one a day, to a pack a day and more... I've come back over the other side. I'm over it.

What I need to do now is get into this habit of writing. I'll have to see how I build that out, but it will have something to do with a dissatisfaction in having an idea in my head for too long.

Wish me luck.