Living the Lifestyle (LTL) Wednesday May 3, 2017

gadgetgirlIL

Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.

Monday - Jimb376mfp (Jim) & 88olds (George)
Tuesday - Podkey (Biker Bob)
Wednesday - GadgetgirlIL (Regina)
Thursday - misterhub (Greg)
Friday - TimDumez (Tim)

Today's topic: Habits

What tools do you employ to establish a new healthy habit or to remove an unhealthy habit? Do you take part in challenges to help you get the habit established, such as exercising for X days out of Y, tracking X days out of Y, eating X servings of vegetables & fruit?

How about apps? There are numerous apps out there (such as HabitBull) that let you track how many days you have performed a new behavior or avoided an old behavior.

goldenfrisbee

The habit that I've developed is checking in here every day and tracking everything I eat, good and bad. I think I'm coming up on a year straight that I've been checking in, and 2 1/2 months of tracking every meal every day.

gadgetgirlIL

I've been part of a subscription-based habit project for over a year now. The daily check-ins as to how we are doing with our habits helps me a lot.

One habit that has stuck was adding more veggies to my morning egg mixture. I've been putting in 4oz of frozen spinach for well over a year now (this is the person who wouldn't touch a green veggie as a kid). My eggs look very sad if I have run out of spinach.

The habit I'm currently working on are my back exercises. It can be a challenge to find the time to fit them in but I've been pretty successful the past few weeks at doing them at least 5 days a week.

88olds

Easiest way to take on a bad habit is to try to find a replacement. Not always possible. But with a little focus I got to saying "steamed veggies" as easy as I was saying "rice pilaf".

Sometimes you just have to focus and do it. I had to force myself to the stairs in my building for a while, now I don't even think of the elevator.

Good news is that good habits are just as habitual as bad ones. Turns out that what I thought were some of my worst problems in life were just some bad habits.

podkey

X days out of Y?? Yup especially when X=Y. I move every day and do not worry so much about the formality of activity as I do about doing some movement every day. With our horrible weather I have managed to bike over 90% of possible days since Jan 1 and have walked about 90% of available days too. I don't recall any days I have not done at least one or the other.

So I am use to doing something. I have a long time friend of the family whose kids went to school with ours "forever" whom I met out walking one day. We make a point of walking together which works out to about 5 days a week and I walk on my own the other times.

Our blood sugar stays in very good balance when we move and is most stable when we have been doing 3 days in a row which could be a motivation for having the habit for some.

I followed WW in good fashion and allowed the habits to put me in good stead (notice I did NOT say perfection here but good habits nonetheless). I spent an entire year at goal tracking (except when out of country or other distant travel) at which point I switched daily to more of the simply filling approach. I now have the program memorized so I don't do daily journaling because of my habits.

Ooooh sorta by accident I too have started adding veggies to my daily omelet like gadgetgirlIL.
I found that our local market sells a mixture of mostly shredded Kale plus shredded carrot, red cabbage, and often red onion. I am lazy but buy this and make my veggie omelet daily paired with my tasty Carribean hot sauce.

Jerdtrmndone

Habit measure and weigh most every thing possible.
I should make a habit of eating more fruits and veggies especially in the evening when I am more vulnerable to snack on anything.

goldenfrisbee

gadgetgirlIL wrote: »

One habit that has stuck was adding more veggies to my morning egg mixture. I've been putting in 4oz of frozen spinach for well over a year now (this is the person who wouldn't touch a green veggie as a kid). My eggs look very sad if I have run out of spinach.

I have eggs every morning, so I think I 'm going to do this too.

minimyzeme

Hmmm, I guess I'm not much good on starting new habits. The last one was WW . But now that you mention it, I think structure is an essential part of habit-building for me. That (and my readiness to do it) are probably why WW worked for me.

At a secondary level, I guess repetition also works for me. If I do a new thing often enough, I'm more likely to continue it. In reality, unless it pushes my buttons in a good way, that can often lead me to stop doing it to but for most habits that don't come naturally to me, I need 'practice'.

I haven't tried any apps. Interesting idea but I will definitely need to explore the possibilities...