No one has ever woken up in the morning with 15kg more than the day before: it doesn’t work like that. The body has a certain inertia.
On the other hand, many people gain weight little by little, imperceptibly. Take 120gr per month, it is not noticed … except 10 years later, when one morning you make almost 15kg more!
These imperceptible, gradual changes are caused by our habits, what we do repeatedly (and sometimes without thinking about it).
Our habits have important consequences (positive or negative) when we consider the long term.
Based on this observation, it is essential to:
-1- Identify situations (or meals) where habits have taken over
-2-Act to correct them, that is to say choose habits that generate positive consequences in the long term
These very usual meals
Two meals are strongly influenced by habits: breakfast and a snack.
Breakfast
Breakfast is a meal that we often take without thinking, reproducing the menu of the day before. Most people eat the same thing day after day for breakfast. It’s a ritual.
Try it out: ask someone around you what they eat for lunch. This person should answer you, shrugging your shoulders:
” Lots of things; it depends. At lunchtime, I eat a starter, a main course, a dessert, but it depends on the days. ”
Your question is a bit odd…
Now ask her what she eats in the morning, and suddenly your question will seem far less preposterous.
His answer will be much more precise, and there is a good chance that it is something like:
“In the morning I eat toast with jam and honey, sometimes a croissant, a bowl of cereal with milk, all washed down with fruit juice. “
Of course, this type of sweet breakfast is not ideal for the body. But above all, this answer reflects the fact that breakfast is a very routine meal, very codified.
The person describes to you, day after day, their morning ritual, their habit.
However, beware of habits!
The snack
The situation described for breakfast is ultimately the same for the snack.
When you are a little hungry, you generally have a particular affinity with a food type. One person will nibble on a Mars, another will eat cookies.
We will look for a snack without thinking about it too much. These special foods are stored in the corner of a cupboard, in a certain desk drawer, always in the same place. A familiar and… usual corner 🙂
Thus, we reproduce certain behaviors day after day, but sooner or later we will have to bear the consequences: as well make them pleasant and positive!
In the following I suggest a solution to replace some bad habits with better alternatives.
Four steps to change bad habits
This four step process should help change some bad habits:
Recognize, without blaming yourself, that certain habits are bad.
Find better habits to replace
Implement these new habits
Observe the changes in order to convince yourself, and perpetuate these new habits
- Identify bad habits
This is about becoming aware of the consequences that certain habits can have.
The idea is to review reflex behaviors, for example by making a list:
your breakfast menus
snacks
combinations of foods with situations (eating popcorn at the cinema, or an ice cream in front of a film, etc.)
Look for times of the day when you have a ritual, something that you routinely do, and that you don’t mind doing if you’re traveling, for example.
Then go over them: is it paleo? Is this a good habit or a bad habit, that is, what consequences can I imagine in the long term?
Warning !
The idea is not to blame yourself, to want to take away all the pleasures you can have with food, to seek to become perfect.
It’s simply a matter of assessing habitual behaviors and trying to understand their long-term consequences.
- Consciously decide to replace them
Once the automatic behaviors have been identified and assessed, you may want to replace some of them.
To do this, look for paleo alternatives to your breakfast, or even list snacks that will make you happy, without compromising your health.
We must try to understand the reason for this or that habit, in order to find a healthy and satisfying alternative.
- Implement new healthy habits
Finally, the action, strictly speaking.
Remove temptations as much as possible, and surround yourself with these new foods (paleo, a priori) that will replace your old habits.
Our eating habits are a direct consequence of our consumption habits, so the best way to change is to stop buying what is hurting you!
On the other hand, the idea is not to deprive yourself, so treat yourself to the new paleo alternative that you chose in the previous step.
Don’t try to change everything all at once. Many beautiful resolutions from the first of the year end in oblivion because they are too ambitious:
“This year I get into sport AND I eat better AND I quit smoking AND I spend less time on the Internet AND I go to bed earlier AND …”
“And I won’t do any of this after all” …
On the contrary, aim for gradual, even insignificant, changes. A series of small wins is better than a big upheaval that lasts only a few days.
Examples of small victories:
“The next time I’m hungry, I eat a handful of almonds rather than a Snickers”
“At break, I only put half a sugar in my coffee”
“Tomorrow morning I eat a hard-boiled egg which I prepare the day before so that it will be easy”
You get the idea. Find ways to change that are easy and perfectly acceptable.
- Observe positive changes in order to convince yourself
Finally, for them to become new habits, these changes must convince you. Because if you don’t believe it yourself, nobody will believe it for you!
Write down your impressions, try to understand what is different following the implementation of these new habits: feeling of hunger, alert level, fatigue, …
Of course, if the changes are gradual, your impressions will be vague at first, but that’s okay. If you feel that something has changed positively, you are on the right track.
When you notice effects, and they are positive, you will find new motivation to continue replacing your bad habits with better alternatives.
A kind of snowball effect that goes in the right direction!
To you: what are your bad habits? What do you plan to replace them with?