To lose weight permanently, you need to change your bad habits and develop good, supportive habits. The best way to change a habit is to change it slowly over time. That means breaking the big bad habit into small bad habits. And after that braking each small habit in 30 day periods.
For example: Let’s say, you like to stop on the way to work in nearby Starbucks to buy your usual muffin and late and maybe you like your late tasting sweet, so you put some sugar in it. And you have been doing this for several years regularly.
And now, if I tell you to stop visiting your favorite coffee shop and don’t go there anymore because of the empty calories you are consuming on regular basis, you will most likely not succeed with this strategy. Unless of course, you are an ambition driven animal. You were developing this habit for a long time now and it will also take some time to brake it.
So instead of changing this big bad habit at once, you brake the habit into small bad habits and change them slowly over time. Next time you go to the coffee shop, you will order only late and skip the muffin. And instead of that muffin, you’ll pack some apples and peanut butter for breakfast with you at home. Yes, you can still put some sugar into your latte, but you can’t have that muffin anymore. And you force yourself to do this over 30 day period of time.
You will still enjoy the visit to your favorite Starbucks. You will smell the delicious smell of coffee, you get your late and leave. No more muffin! Now you are eating apple and spoon of peanut butter instead.
Drip, drip, drip – slowly move forward
Now let’s say, you were successful with braking this first bad habit. And without any drastic change, you are on your way of changing habits, that will help you to loose weight. Now after the first habit is broken, after 30 days we will focus on other small habit. Yes, you guessed it right. Time to avoid that sugar in your late.
Surely it is just a very small amount of sugar, but it’s still a kind of little habit that doesn’t support your weight loss. And ultimately your weight problem is result of many small bad habits. So for next 30 days, you’ll go to your favorite coffee shop and order late. You take your late, enjoy the environment in coffee shop, smell the pleasant smell of coffee and leave. No muffin, no sugar, just your late.
After another 30 days your unhealthy morning routine is broken. Yes, having a sugarless latte is absolutely fine habit to have if you want to loose weight. Even if that late is made from whole milk. Whole milk and even half and half is fine. Enjoy it!
Drip, drip, drip
This way, you work down your list where you identified small bad habits that create big bad habits and slowly eliminate them. You might think, that this will take you a long time. And it will. But the bad habits you are going to be eliminating will be eliminated for good. And, hey!, you are making some serious steps toward toward loosing weight permanently.
It doesn’t matter how long it takes to loose weight permanently. All that matters is that you will eventually get there. And if you eliminate all the bad habits and install some good habits, you’ll certainly get there.
Adding good small habits
For every three bad habits that you eliminate from your list for 30 days each, stop the process of eliminating for 30 days and install one good habit. It could be a simple habit of drinking 7 glasses of water daily or walking for 30 minutes every evening or morning. Or just eating a bowl of salad every day.
Some other good weight loss supporting habits to introduce
Skipping meals – yes, this is what I recommend people to do. But, to do this, your diet needs to be perfect. And since you are just starting changing your habits, you might want to wait on this one to introduce little later.
Eating more and more vegetables and fruits every day – up to 10 servings and more.
Skipping escalators and introducing more unconventional physical activities in your life, like for example – getting of the buss one stop earlier and walking the rest, gardening, working in standing position instead of sitting, going for evening walks.
Having fresh berries as a desert.
Replacing pasta and rice for salad.
Introducing unsweetened herbal teas.
Listening motivational audiobooks in your car on the way to work.
Unsubscribing newspaper and skipping news in TV – Ignoring bad news.
Seeking good news – plenty of good news out there.
Going to sleep 1 hour earlier.
Loosing weight permanently is an ongoing and never ending process. Your success is the result of your habits. And by staying motivated and not rushing with this process and slowly working on eliminating and introducing habits you drip, drip, drip, slowly move toward your goal – to lose weight permanently and succeed.
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>>How to lose weight permanently – part 2
>>How to lose weight permanently – part 3
>>Success