TURNING HABITS INTO HEALTH: HOW 1 STEP AT A TIME CAN MAKE THE CHANGE (ISSUE 63)

By Diane Gold

Turning Habits Into Health is just another way of saying we are committing to nurturing ourselves and matching our behaviors with our current goals and game plan.

Habits, as we know if we think about them, are patterns of behavior reinforced through repetition until they are almost involuntary action. Here’s a short list of these responses: eating oily, salty or sugary snacks to satisfy a food craving; verbally reacting to a child because that’s how we were raised; using mind/body-altering substances (prescribed or not) because we are tired, bored, nervous or emotional;  shutting down our emotions because it’s safer than experiencing pain; acting out anger when someone challenges us; eating processed, unhealthy foods to escape; meditating before breakfast; brushing our teeth; taking our shoes off before we enter a residence; swimming after work; praying
before eating.

Obviously, diverse behaviors serve us at various times in our lives. Most of the time, we aren’t even aware these habits are developing. And, usually, we don’t focus on them until our body, mind or spirit call out in despair. Weighing too much signals that our bodies are imbalanced. Pain in our teeth makes us examine our oral hygiene and diet. Emotional over-reaction makes us look at our stability. Our comfort level with the questions of our position in the universe arouses our spirit and calls for grand examination.

Because we are all so universally tied to habits and we all have them, WarriorsOfWeight.com now honors moms, daughters, fathers, sons, teen girls, teen boys, grandparents in focusing on and educating about Turning Habits Into Health and discussing all the astounding techniques to help each one of us along the way.

Whether we speak about personal development techniques like tai chi, free dance techniques, music and its effects on balance, involvement in social change to get us personally where we want to be or the science of proper nutrition to maximize our bodies;
WarriorsOfWeight.com aims to share material for all our supporters. From now on, our new tag line is (drum roll, please)

Turning Habits Into Health!

And we are focusing on solutions for all of us.

So what are the ways to make this miraculous change in habit? Do we have to turn ourselves inside out?

The answer, of course, is no. The prospect of making the change may seem as if we have to climb a mountain. The actual journey, if approached step-by-step, is only as difficult as each individual step.

ACTION STEPS

1) Step 1 is to look as far as the first step. The first step is the beginning action step. It’s like the running a race. When we look at 1 more step, and only 1 more step, we get to continue without collapsing – for that 1 step only.

This step could be changing 1 meal to vegetable juice or overcoming the fear of crossing the street or drinking apple juice instead of wine. With all of these habits, there is a first step, the golden step, the one that will begin the habit change.

2) Step 2 is a repetition of step 1 except that we have actual experience doing step 1. We can note that the original habit began because we repeated the same action over and over again.

Therefore, changing the habit is going to require repeating the same action over and over again. Thus, we repeat step 1.

We know we have looked at step 1. We have also looked at step 2. They are the same. So are the next steps.

3) As we get used to this step, we can repeat it more easily each time. If we continue to take the step as a replacement for some negative action that is not supporting our goals, we will begin to replace the habit.

Our journey for change starts out as a cold mountain.

With repetition and confidence, as we begin to get familiarity and control with our new actions, our journey becomes a mountain of joy.

CONCLUSION

We can change a habit with 1 step. It is the way. There is nothing mysterious about it, and the technique is as straight forward as normal breathing. We always have our collection of habits, all of them. Whether we allow them to trigger depends on how well we have replaced them using any means necessary, but usually the 1-step plan.

If we follow each individual step on blind faith, we don’t get distracted with other thoughts. In time, we can take a look at what we’ve accomplished, but not while we are doing it.

ACTION STEPS: THE HABIT CHANGE PROCESS

This section overviews The Habit Change Process. The “snack” habit is chosen so that we can act out the process without getting stuck on which habit to change. The method of 1 step, then repetition of the same step, then repetition of the same step again and again can be used for all habits.

OBJECTIVE

Replacing 1 snack a day with healthy food instead of cookies, chips, soda, anything else. (If you only eat raw food, have an allergy to 1 of the foods; please substitute. If you don’t usually have a snack, please add it for 21 days, just to be part of this process.)

1) Buy veggies (the culinary term “veggies” which would include mushrooms): carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic, spinach, mushrooms.

2)  5 minutes ahead of the broccoli, steam sliced carrots. Then add broccoli and steam for another 7-10 minutes.

3)  In another pot, use some water to brown sliced mushrooms, re-adding water several times as needed. so they don’t burn.

4)  Once the steaming is complete, in a wok or saucepan, heat a small amount of olive oil, add garlic to cook, 30 seconds later, add onions.

5)  In a couple minutes, add mushrooms, steamed carrots and broccoli.

6)  Add low-sodium soy sauce or amino acid liquid, a few drops of sesame oil, black pepper, rice vinegar, if you like.

7)  Stir fry until everything is tender.

8)  Add spinach for 30 seconds.

9)  Remove from the stove.

10) When cool, separate into 7 snack bags, 1 for each day of the week.

11) Refrigerate.

12) Now, you have a mid-afternoon snack for the next 7 days.

13) Set a phone/computer/clock alarm to facilitate this snack.

14) Do this for 7 days.

15) Repeat 1) through 14) for 2 additional weeks in a row.

16) Congratulations. You have gone through the steps to change a habit. Keep it up, and it is changed.

17) Grab your certificate below!

FEEDBACK

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition.

She is more excited about the idea of looking at 1-step until that 1 step is completed. She says,

“When the mind is focused on 1 thing, it is not focused on 2 things. Of course, we need to do a physical act to make the concentration happen, as opposed to intellectually thinking about it.

“When we want to take a step for our betterment, whatever it is, if we focus our attention only on this 1 step; we are less distracted. Imagine walking a tight rope, for example. Because the risk is so great that we would become injured with less than 100% concentration, we concentrate.

“If we don’t take the same care with changing a habit, we can get off track. Easily. So, concentrate on the physical action we have decided would be in our best interest. And we will be happy with the results.”

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS THAT WORK: WEIGHT LOSS, 2012 (Issue 9)

by Diane Gold

New Year’s Resolutions? When the calendar changes from December of one year to January of another year, we reflect. We take note of our accomplishments, our failures, our destiny, our direction. Whether we are more successful than at any other time in our lives, whether we are making slow progress towards our objectives or whether we are in a funk and working on nothing; we reflect. We use this time to help us set priorities, persevere, motivate, initiate, produce and thrive.

Why is this so universal?

Every day, we, who have freedom of choice and just enough to eat, make decisions about our day, every day. Each time we do our school work or our professional work; we choose a path toward our greatest current priority. Whether we want to stay in our family’s good graces so we have a roof over our head or whether it’s to make enough money to pay for our home or kids; our actions, for the most part, are a conscious effort to proceed toward and, hopefully, succeed at our goal.

Let’s talk about some of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions that pertain to weight loss.

1)    I will lose 100 pounds this year.
2)    I will lose 10 pounds a month for 6 months in a row.
3)    I will stop eating sugar.
4)    I will skip breakfast.
5)    I will skip lunch.
6)    I will eat one meal a day for 3 months.
7)    I will stop eating carbohydrates.

What all these resolutions have in common is that they are extreme, not gradual. They cause a biological roller coaster that puts the body into a tailspin. The biological effect of skipping a meal or eating less or changing foods can be big. The idea of eliminating a food or a meal may be disastrous. The psychological effect for anyone with an “urge to eat” issue is huge. The combination of mental and physical effects can cause anything from depression to reduction in kidney function.

The tricky thing about severe diets is that the diet can seem to work as pounds drop off. The body feels better because of the psychological elation from weighing less. There is also a chance that the diet may tax the organ systems, which could cause medical problems. If the body does well, what commonly occurs after the initial period of losing weight is that it is difficult to maintain the weight that has been lost.

We all know that practice, practice, practice gets us to our goal in whatever discipline we are. In music, we always asked, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall,” with that same answer. Practice works in weight loss, too.

Learning a new way to eat requires a regulated and consistent period of time. It cannot be cultivated by removing a main component of an eating plan in a speedy fashion. The dietary change in extreme diets is so intensely different from the old plan that the body doesn’t get the time to adjust to it.

Similar to the idea that we need to eat slowly so that we take the 20 minutes the body needs to realize it is being fed, we need time to acquire the will power to maintain each new step of our new diet. We need to stabilize the new additions or subtractions we make to our diet for several weeks to a month (this would change depending upon the individual) before we go to the next step in any diet. This way, once we have taken the step, we could, potentially, maintain it without returning to the old patterns of eating that brought us to need to lose weight in the first place.

I’d like to emphasize here that some people can handle extreme diets. This is a given. But, on average, for people who have difficulty with weight loss plans, the “slow and steady wins the race” diet usually prevails because the preparation for maintenance in speed diets is usually missing.

So what’s a good New Year’s Resolution for weight loss, and how do I know how far to go?

We all have to look at our own situations. What are our own personal controls? Do we have any medical issues that we need to factor in? What are our motivation and our final desire? Once we answer these questions, we can choose what we want to do. Since the choice, ultimately, is ours alone.

Some interesting ideas might be:

1)    To reduce the sugar in my coffee by half.
2)    To drink water before every meal.
3)    To eat a large green salad with one meal a day.
4)    To add one serving of vegetable juice to one meal a day. (Remember that tomatoes are fruits.)
5)    To drink one ounce of wheatgrass juice once a week.
6)    To use chopsticks, at least, once a day, to see whether they slow down the speed at which we eat.
7)    To do one exercise before each meal (personal choice on how long the exercise will be).
8)    To reduce our intake of whatever we believe helps us gain weight by one serving per week.
9)    To chew our food 20X per mouthful, at least, one meal per week.
10)  To eat our last daily food of any kind (meal, snack or dessert) one hour earlier, at least, one day per week.

These kinds of resolutions start to shape a different way to eating. Each one of them, alone, does not traumatize the way someone eats. The slight adjustment that each causes is hardly noticeable. Yet, each starts to become a new habit, if continued, each of them a good habit. And, even, if we decided to do all of them, at once, they would not disrupt the way we are.

CONCLUSION

The most successful New Year’s Resolutions are those that can be executed in small steps. Their commencement can result in big changes, but they don’t rattle an entire lifestyle. The way used to form who we are is the same method used to form who we become. Each time we learn something new, we incorporate it into our lives. When we learn about adding layers to our lives, we know about maintaining what we have achieved.

We have a better chance of growing with a solid foundation than we do by building on a roadway of sand.

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Moms For Healthy Daughters, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music pro and stress expert and a dedicated mom. She believes that we can will ourselves to accomplish tremendous things. She says, “We each deserve our own priority. When we know what it is, we can walk toward it.”