Theme: Healthy Practices
Challenge: No Snowballs


It all starts innocently enough.

You join in your family’s nightly ritual of snacking while watching TV at night, despite a pledge to yourself that you’ll close your food diary and stop eating at 7pm. Or your schedule gets thrown for a loop one day causing you to skip your workout and before you know it, you haven’t been to the gym in 3 weeks. Or maybe wine just on the weekends has morphed into a nightly event?

Arghh! You’ve got a bad habit brewing and it needs to stop. This is the week!

Bad habits, just like good habits, are formed by repetition. We do something once, then a few more times, and before we know it, it’s become part of our daily routine, and often something we do without being consciously aware that we are doing it. As with good habits, bad habits are triggered by a cue, such as nightly TV watching, and cemented by the enjoyment or benefits we get from doing the habit. But unlike good habits, the pleasure we get from bad habits is usually immediate, which makes them especially sticky and easy to pick up. Sure, we know that regular exercise gives us lots of health benefits, but a plate of homemade cookies is delicious NOW. Bad habits are like puppies: they are so appealing they are easy to adopt.

This Week’s Challenge: If you’ve started doing something recently that is working against the health and fitness goals that you’ve set for yourself, step in and break the cycle. Make a conscious decision not to do the thing that is setting you back. When the urge hits, find some way to distract yourself or substitute a better habit for the one you want to replace. A short walk is a great intervention. I know it’s not easy, but repetition is the food for all habits. Let’s break the cycle. And if you don’t have a bad habit that’s looming, maybe there’s a good habit that needs some of your attention this week?

Let’s make it a great week!