Building Healthy Habits

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This November I Will....

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themedalist
themedalist Posts: 3,212 Member
edited October 2021 in Social Groups
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Happy November! And welcome to the homestretch of 2021!

With the holidays on the horizon, now is the time to double down on the healthy habits that will help us through this hectic time of year. What’s one small habit you could create this month or pick up again that would help you? Please don’t overlook small self-care, stress reducing ideas, such as deep breathing, micro workouts, and meditation. If you know that the increased darkness negatively impacts you, maybe purchase a light therapy lamp and see if using it over the next few weeks makes a difference to you?

There are more than 60 days left in 2021. That’s plenty of time to create a couple new small habits. What do you want to accomplish? How do you want things to be better for you on January first? What can you do now? What WILL you do now?


🌷Denise & 🌸Maddie
@themedalist & @MadisonMolly2017


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NEWCOMERS:
If you are new to our group, welcome! Please let us know what you will be working on this month and how we can help! A suggestion: set a reminder to check-in periodically with us. Check-in daily, weekly, or as often as works for you, but let us know how you are progressing! We're here to support and encourage you, but if you don't post, we can't cheer you on!

IF YOU ARE NEW TO BUILDING HABITS:

Building new habits is a structured, time-consuming, and repetitive process. It doesn’t just happen overnight. But it’s well worth the effort! Having good eating, exercise, and sleeping habits makes it much easier to lose weight and achieve your other health goals. You won’t have to rely on feeling motivated. You’ll act on your new habits because it’s just what you do. We use the recommended approaches of noted habits experts BJ Fogg, James Clear, Wendy Wood, and Charles Duhigg to guide us through this process.

We have 2 different strategies we recommend. Both are good tools for habit formation, they are just different methods and one might be better suited to you than the other.


METHOD 1: HABIT STACKING
We highly recommend habit stacking as a great way to build a new healthy habit. Simply attach the habit you want to create to a habit you already have using this structure:

AFTER I ________________________

I WILL __________________________

EXAMPLES:
  • After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.
  • After I drink my afternoon coffee, I will put on my walking shoes.
  • After I put away my breakfast dishes, I will prep 3 servings of vegetables for the day.
  • After I clean up after dinner, I will plan tomorrow’s dinner & move necessary items from freezer to refrigerator.
  • After I weigh myself in the morning, I will drink 2 cups of refreshing, cool water.
  • After I start my coffee brewing, I will stand on each leg for 30 seconds.

METHOD 2: HABIT LOOP

Frame your goal along these lines:

1. My goal for this month (This November I will...")
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible)
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? (Small positive feedbacks reinforce the habit you are trying to build.)
6. What help do you need from us?
7. What does success look like to you at the end of November?

TRACKERS

Since all new habits require lots of repetition to make them stick, we highly recommend you use a habit tracker to log your daily progress.

Tracker Types:
  • Paper - plenty of free ones or create your own. A simple sheet of paper works! Check out the trackers of @77tes in past months!
  • Calendar: Denise (@themedalist) uses these. Daily check marks work just fine!
  • Tracking apps - some are free
  • Physical - move a marble, paper clip, etc into a jar each day or color code them
  • Emoji - @TexasGardnr @nebslp & @MadisonMolly2017 are fond of these! Look in prior month’s to see how effective they are!

Whatever helps you celebrate your baby steps and successes will work. But please use a tracker. It makes it more likely you’ll change your behavior and it’s fun to see your progress!

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Replies

  • themedalist
    themedalist Posts: 3,212 Member
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    I'm still thinking about my November goal!
  • Mrs_Hoffer
    Mrs_Hoffer Posts: 5,194 Member
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    nebslp wrote: »
    1. This November I will tidy up the house every evening.
    2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal: I will check kitchen table and counters and put away things, also pantry counter, living room and bedroom spaces, and back entry for stray items that need to be put in their proper place.
    3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Finishing dinner, before getting involved in projects or TV watching.
    4. How often will you do your new habit? daily
    5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? My best rewards are intrinsic. I will do a walkthrough after clearing things up and feel good about the way the house looks.
    6. What help do you need from us? Cheers!
    7. What does success look like to you at the end of November? I will get up in the morning to a clean house, and I'll feel freer to pursue fun projects without looking at yesterday's clutter.

    Happy November :)

    I love this!! I've been doing my kitchen this way and am going to expand on it. I always finish dinner before hubby (he's a VERY slow eater and I'm super fast!!) I can clean up the pots/pans from his making dinner, load the dishwasher, and clean up the kitchen... and he's STILL eating dinner! Lol. I've been making more of an effort to clear my counters off and make sure that everything is put away!!
  • themedalist
    themedalist Posts: 3,212 Member
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    jamcnewman wrote: »
    This November I will …

    Sing one song every day! I love to sing and I was so happy when our Philharmonic Chorus returned to rehearsals (with strict rules for health and safety). We’ve now had more cancelled rehearsals than actual, and my motivation to just keep singing that repertoire anyway has waned.

    I feel happy and energized when I sing, and a girlfriend shared this great visual. I am going to follow along during November using the prompts.

    emyxoxn1nz8z.jpeg

    I have printed it out and will mark a check, my song choice each day, and save my selections to Apple Music.

    Off to choose and sing my selection for day one. 🎼🎵🎶🎵

    Today’s choice is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (cover by Sara Bareilles).

    https://youtu.be/Ozd2ja7mAgM

    Be well everyone,
    Julie
    🥰

    Julie, I just love your November challenge!

    I can’t wait to hear your daily selections. Great choice for Nov 1st!
  • 77tes
    77tes Posts: 7,913 Member
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    Oh wowzers, so many great goals! @nebslp I’m doing a 5 minute pickup every night too, and @jamcnewman I really like the song challenge, I think I’ll try that one too! I need to work on tightening up my food choices because I’ve been backsliding! I’ll try to formulate a good I will (or maybe a couple I Won’ts). 😅

    Okay, what colorful song should I sing?
  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 18,215 Member
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    @jamcnewman
    I love the idea of the song challenge. I would love to join you. 🎵🎶🎵

    November Song Challenge
    1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
    2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
    3.
  • Mrs_Hoffer
    Mrs_Hoffer Posts: 5,194 Member
    edited November 2021
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    Yoga:
    😳 (that's a NO!) :disappointed: (If I don't do my yoga RIGHT after breakfast, then I have a procrastination issue).

    10k steps:
    👟 (that's a YES!)

    Clean the kitchen:
    👏🏻 (that looks like a "cleaning hand" to me, so that's a YES!) :smile:


    <3 😳 ❣️ 🤸‍♀️


    @77tes and @jamcnewman I'm looking forward to your singing challenge! What a cute idea! ❣️
  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 18,215 Member
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    I will continue with consolidating my established daily habits, plus the following new habit, and challenge.

    For my November I will …
    After I switch off my devices at 11 pm…..
    ….. I will do a quick pick up sweep of the downstairs before I go upstairs.
    🧹🧹

    🎼🎹November Song Challenge🎹🎼 I will use YouTube videos for the lyrics of songs I don’t know. I might even have a go at some of the songs others post. I love to sing.
    🎤1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
    🎤2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
    3.

  • 77tes
    77tes Posts: 7,913 Member
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    Hmm, @texasgardnr my 5 minute pickup felt like I was creating procrasti-clutter like Dana White calls it. But today was wild, starting with a dead car battery.

    @TerriRichardson112 I had to use YouTube for the words to Red River Valley and When I’m 64 because, I could hardly remember the first song at all and could only remember the refrain for When I’m 64. Now to go find the lyrics to my summertime song although I’m pretty sure I know it all.😉
  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 18,215 Member
    edited November 2021
    Options
    I will continue with consolidating my established daily habits, plus the following new habit, and challenge.

    For my November I will …
    After I switch off my devices at 11 pm…..
    ….. I will do a quick pick up sweep of the downstairs before I go upstairs.
    🧹🧹

    🎼🎹November Song Challenge🎹🎼 I will use YouTube videos for the lyrics of songs I don’t know. I might even have a go at some of the songs others post. I love to sing.
    🎤1. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
    🎤2. Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran
    🎤3. Summertime- Billie Holliday. This was one of my mother’s favourite songs so I know the words. 😂



  • everydaywechoose
    everydaywechoose Posts: 270 Member
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    Love love love the song theme that is spreading within this group. You are all very inspiring.
    @Mrs_Hoffer I had a huge smile reading about you and your hubby's eating speed. It's the same in our household.

    I am on day 16 of a 21 day personal challenge. I have been exercising and eating non-processed......make my own kombucha, sourkraut, pickles..you get the idea...but weight was not budging. So, with the challenge I cut the alcohol(only temporarily of course..love my wine) so that was an easy 600+calories per day. I'm also 'temporarily' counting my 'macros' and for me, it seems I function best, and lose weight when I keep my carbs between 50-70gper day.
    Anyways, these tiny habbits challenges is what motivated me to do this personal challenge.
    After 16 days I'm doing great. Calm mind, peaceful inside. I guess it's part of the whole thing, doing meditation and yoga before bed for an hour instead of having another glass of wine. As far as the weight thing goes I've shed about 6 or 7 lbs so far.
    My ultimate goal is to avoid spinal surgery...so get the excess weight off, get more mobility, and maintain and regain my quality of life...So that is exactly what I am doing!

    So after the long tale, my tiny challenge is to continue my 21 day challenge for another round.

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