Habit or Motivation
I read an excellent article on the 'Paleo Leap' website which caught my interest. The article discussed what it is that we need to do to create long term success, whether in losing weight or becoming fitter.
We all wake up looking for that magic MOTIVATION to inspire us to eat well that day, to avoid unnecessary snacks, to go for a walk or a run, or make it to the gym. "This is the day I change" we will say. Unfortunately that motivation is often short lived. Life gets in the way. A stressful day at work, unexpected demands, visitors, a sore throat; almost anything that happens and our ‘motivation' is lost. We are too "tired" to go for that walk; we lose our focus on what to eat or simply eat mindlessly due to stress or fatigue. The day of healthy eating and exercise is lost and we are discouraged. Inside ourselves we will say "I lost my motivation".
We need to cultivate HABITS. Habits that are so ingrained, we do them anyway no matter how we are feeling. The analogy here is driving to work. Most of us will go the same route a thousand times. It is so automatic that we may intend to go to a store instead yet automatically continue on the exact same route we always take, and not be aware we missed out turn.
The same goes for eating or exercise. If we create the habit of not eating snacks after supper over and over again we are much less likely to go searching the cupboards for something as we watch T.V. in the evening. If your aim is to eat off a luncheon plate at supper, then do it repeatedly until you do it automatically.
Exercise is also a great example. We all see runners out there in all kinds of weather at anytime during the day and wonder 'how do they have the motivation to do this?' To them, it's habit. They don't think. They don't question. They just go, simply because it has become part of their routine for each and every day, and they will begin whether tired or not.
Possibly we spend too much time working on the emotional side. "What is going to motivate me not to snack", or "I need someone to convince me to go for a walk or run.” These thoughts can be exhausting. Changing habits takes long term work and it's the only way to actually make things stick.
When something is a habit, you do it whether or not you're motivated. You do it when you're tired, when you're sick, when you've had a bad day and when you don't really care. To make healthy lifestyle changes in the long run, you have to be able to keep them up even when you are not "motivated".
Start somewhere. Possibly the best areas are to work on not having mindless snacks in the evening, or those snacks between coming home from work and supper. After a while, you won't be torturing yourself with that internal debate between 'I want', and 'I shouldn't.' The same goes for getting in exercise. We must make it part of our daily lives. Obligate yourself to do something, every day. A walk. Some stretching. Some crunches or squats. Something. Anything. But do that something every day until it becomes a habit.
To quote the article; "Creating new habits isn't very glamorous or dramatic, but it gives you a solid base of healthy defaults, which is the only way to keep your positive changes going in the long run.”
You can do it. Just keep trying, and never ever give up!
Dr. Doug