The Secret To Creating Healthy Habits That Stick Long Term

You are a bundle of habits. Your life is governed by habits whether you acknowledge and accept that or not.

From the first thing you do when you wake up (open the curtains or brushing your teeth first) to the route you take to work, where you buy your coffee from, where you place your coffee on your desk, even the traffic light where you cross the street.

Every habit has its purpose

Every habit, healthy or not, has its purpose in the body. Your brain uses those habits to solve something.

It doesn’t make the difference of whether they are healthy for the body or not, it just knows that a certain “thing” will help it solve a given problem.

For example emotional eating. Usually emotional eating involves high sugar or another form of high carbs foods. Your brain struggles and sugars are the way it deals with the struggles, because you gave it this option in the past. Your brains learnt fast and now it asks for sugar or another forms of carbohydrate to solve a similar problem.

Same goes for smoking when stressed. Your brain learnt that smoking calms it down. So it asks for it.

Running can be another example. Many people use running as a stress relief, or to “run away” from their problems. This is a healthier habit nonetheless is can turn into a destructive one.

But I will not talk here about how you can take these habits out of your life. There is a step by step process I teach in The Merisoiu Technique Home Study Program which you can sign up for here.

Change vs Transformation

Before we talk about changing, transforming or creating anything let’s make the difference between change and transformation.

Change implies that what was before was totally wrong and it needs to becomes something else. When you change something the past is suddenly wrong.

On the other hand transformations come from the inside. Here you design your future and work towards it. Transformation is about changing beliefs not just working at the surface. Because it’s more fundamental, transformation is more likely permanent.

If you’d like to read more on the topic please download my ebook. I go into more detail there.

How to transform habits

When you attempt to transform your habits your brain will get confused and try to resist it. But there are ways to work around it so your brain and body respond in a favourable way.

As I said I have a step by step process I teach. Here I will give you 3 of those steps:

#3. Start small and go slow

You need to approach habits transformation it slowly so your body and brain adjust comfortably.

For example in nutrition I like to take my time with my clients, where possible. If I want them to eliminate bread from their diet I start with taking out a slice. Then wait for the body to adjust, then make another adjustment, then wait again.

It’s veeeery slow but it works so well. The changes are so small that there is no disruption in the system.

And most importantly I believe, they learn how to approach other habits in the future when I will not be there. This is empowerment, the foundations of my teachings.

#2. Focus on ONE thing at a time

Trying to tackle 10 things all at once will lead to overwhelm. There are too many things to think about.

Start with ONE thing. Usually one small alternation to your habits follows another and another and another. It’s like a snowball effect.

Simple example. When you workout you tend to eat healthier. Workout one day a week for 2 weeks, then go up to 2 and, with time, you will train 5 days a week and eat healthy 5 days a week as well. Then you also have 2 cheat days.

Boom! You only needed to start training once a week then everything else came by itself. Simple

#1. Accountability

I believe this is among the most important steps in habits transformation. Why? Because of several reasons:

1. you don’t need to think about everything by yourself
2. there is someone you need to report to so you will feel bad if you come with a bad report every single time
3. when things get really tough there is someone there to let you know you are on the right track. You are motivated and know that someone has your back
4. you don’t need to know everything, someone else already has the knowledge and is willing to share it with you

This is how I work with my clients on the Home Study Program. They have all the training in terms of nutrition, exercising, personal development, healthy habits etc and they have someone there, myself, to guide them through the whole process.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can work with me please email me at alexandra@urbanwomenfitness.com

How to easily create healthy habits that stick long-term

Our life is made out of a bundle of many habits. Just think about it, you brush your teeth every morning – habit, you drink your coffee/tea every morning, you lock the door, drive to work, change your clothes when you go to bed, that’s a habit as well. Almost everything we do is a habit, and a habit is automatic and painless.

When you want to improve productivity, focus, reduce stress and be healthier but you struggle, there is nothing better that creating and nurturing a good habit, which comes automatic, it’s fast and easy.

However, to create a habit is easier said than done right? Well, don’t jump to conclusions, there are ways to easily create and maintain a habit for a long time, to make it part of your life routine.

Before you continue, chose a habit you’d like to create, whether it is health and fitness related, business or personal.

These are 3 of the steps I take my clients through when we have a habit we want to create transform as part of The 6 Guiding Principles of a Healthier Lifestyle:

1. Start small

It is important not to just throw yourself into something new. Your body and brain need time to learn the new habit, it’s a change for them. It’s like jumping into ice cold water when you’ve never even experienced a cold shower. It’s all about adaptation.

Let’s say you want to go for a run 5 days a week for 1 hour. Start with a run 1 day a week for 30 min, or even 10 min. After 4 runs, go up to 2 runs a week or stay with 1 a week but add 5-10 more minutes. Simple and painless.

You will see how easy and comfortable you build this habit and stick to it.

You can apply this even in an office environment or personal goals.

2. Focus on the tasks

When you make tasks part of your daily routine, you build a habit that sticks. Instead of focusing on the end goal, create many small daily or weekly tasks which lead to the end result. Then you only need to get those small, fast tasks done, to tick them off the list. That’s it, slowly building to the end result.

3. Design your environment for success

Why make life difficult for yourself? Design your environment so it helps you with your tasks and ultimately your goal or habit.

For example, let’s say you want to take trash out every Friday morning when you leave to work at 5 am. Why not place the bag in front of the door an evening before so at 5 am you don’t run around the house for the bin bag. You will have to pick it up to open the door (if you want to leave the house of course). You will build the habit of taking the trash out every Friday morning.

Again, you can apply this to anything you do, whether you want to create a new habit or to changing a habit

Want to go for a run first thing in the morning? Then get your kit ready next to your bed.

Want to have your own home cooked lunch at work? Prepare something the day before and put it in a plastic container ready to just throw it in your bag. Put a note on the front door so you don’t forget to take it with you.

All simple and painless.

Do you have a habit or tasks you want to implement into your life? Try these 3 steps and let me know how it works out for you.