Living The Lifestyle Thursday 06/16/22
imastar2
Posts: 6,780 Member
This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!
Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.
Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Flintwinch (Tim)
Wednesday - misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard
Today's Topic: Routine or Habit.
Do you contribute your weight journey current or past to be a routine or a habit.
Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.
Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Flintwinch (Tim)
Wednesday - misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard
Today's Topic: Routine or Habit.
Do you contribute your weight journey current or past to be a routine or a habit.
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Replies
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Routine or Habit ? Either way I'm currently not in a habit or a routine. I have a routine of doing certain things first thing when I get up. One is to weigh after certain bodily functions have been performed. To me that's a routine then on to other routine items.
Then when the routine gets interrupted things get all jumbled up. I then regroup and do my best to start back where I left off. My weight journey tends to get interrupted many times and I'm pretty sure when my routine gets out of wack my weight journey does to.
My habits don't often change like my routine would. Their more ingrained in me and regardless of what happens I default automatically back to my habit. So there has been a time when my weight journey might be considered a routine to which I considered the on going process to become a habit.
So as I'm typing this response and continuing on I'm beginning to get more confused and LOL!! @ myself about this topic. I thought it was a great topic that would have some interest but it's not making a bit of sense to me the more I put on paper. Even having read the dictionary description of each I'm still getting myself confused more than when I started. So I'll hang back and see what you guys have to say about routine vs habit. Seems clear as mud to me.0 -
I consider routine and habit more or less the same thing. Once a routine or a habit is established, it tends to stick. It's important for me to stay with some eating habits while allowing for some flexibility. If I eat according to plan 80% of the time, I generally do ok. It also helps me to follow a good eating pattern if I exercise regularly and sleep well, which I do almost every day.0
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Well, Derrick, you apparently stumbled onto an interesting topic. You managed to confuse yourself, Tim thinks habit and routine and the same, and my first reaction before reading any responses was that they’re different. 😉
The reason I think that was embedded in your post. For me, a habit is something that occurs automatically rather than as a process or a thought process. A routine is a pattern that I choose to follow, but it’s a conscious event rather than automatic. For example, each morning, I choose to start my morning stretches. Some morning I need to talk myself into doing them and some mornings I want to do it, but it’s always a bit of dialogue. It’s a routine, but it’s not a habit.
So for me, my results are due to the routines I’ve established. To me, “routine” isn’t a bad word, but rather the result of an evolutionary process of trying different things to see what works best for me. When I’m thrown out of my routine, things are tougher because I’m blocked from doing “what work best” and have to try to make “the better choice”.
My habits don’t seem to help me. My habit, without thinking, is to eat everything on my plate. My habit is to eat quickly, and I have to deliberately choose to slow down my eating. My habit is to look for the best tasting option rather than the healthiest.0 -
I think this is a pretty interesting topic, and I had to think about it for a bit to get it sorted out in my mind. Here's my take
A routine is a planned process or series of actions. I plan to get up early, and I plan to go for a run before breakfast, etc. I can plan changes to my routine that I think would be beneficial. For example, I can plan to read a book at night instead of sitting on the couch watching TV.
Habits are the ingrained baseline processes and actions that don't require any thought (or little thought). For example, at night I sit down to watch some TV and I immediately start craving a snack or an alcoholic beverage. I'm not hungry, and there's no need to drink, but it's become a habit to go grab something to eat/drink while I'm watching TV.
The connection between these is the key part. Performing routines repeatedly leads to the formation of a habit.
So, to your question, it's important to actively think about what you want your routine to be and to implement that routine regularly. As an example, I'd rather drink a cup of tea than eat snacks or have alcohol at night. There have been times where I actively made that my plan, and so every night forced myself to grab a cup of tea instead of a snack. Over time, that became a habit. Unfortunately, that habit didn't stick around for long, and I "reverted" back to old (less-useful) habits. Nevertheless, I think one can force themselves to establish new habits.
In the weight loss world, there has to be some effort to decide on a routine and to stick to it initially. However, it's much easier if you can change those routines into habits that require essentially no thought.2
