Habits, whether good or bad, are difficult to break or let go since your mind and body are used to it, not to mention, some minor adjustments are not easily applied.
Amy Cook discussed Duhigg’s explanation for a habit’s life cycle. It all begins at the cue stage where the brain notices a certain pattern in your actions and “switches into autopilot.” Once you carry out such actions repeatedly, you’re already in the routine phase. Lastly, the reward phase is where your brain decides whether the cycle is worth remembering.
Bad habits are pleasurable, but it can also endanger your health and finances and hinder you from growing your career or relationships. No worries, though, because you can turn things around if you are willing to change your bad habits and live a healthier life.
Here are some habits that you should start working on just like Ralph Wunsch:
- Bad Habit: Skipping meals, especially breakfast
Skipping meals is a usual occurrence especially when you are too busy with work or too lazy to prepare or buy your food. Despite knowing that this has a lot of negative effects on your body, you still skip meals and end up feeling “hangry” and binge-eat at the end of the day.
This is obviously not a good practice because it drains your energy and disrupts the flow of your metabolism. It can also result in weight gain and mood swings.
Benefit of Breaking the Habit:
Eating your meals on time will prevent you from having hunger pangs, mood swings, and overeating. Additionally, you won’t have to deal with weight gain or weight fluctuation. So, if you think that skipping meals will make you lose weight, then think again.
How to Break Them:
When you want to break this habit, you should get used to eating at a certain time. If you’re not yet hungry, then at least eat a small serving of food rather than skipping it entirely. You can also prepare your meals ahead of time so that you won’t be lazy to prepare or buy your food when it’s meal time.
- Bad Habit: Stress Eating
Stress eating, according to Mrs. Marjorie Nolan Cohn, is a type of emotional eating. It urges you to consume those additional calories and may lead to unhealthy weight gain if frequently done. Additionally, stress makes you crave for fatty or sugary foods both categorized as unhealthy.
Even though this has become a common practice, it still does not hurt if you try to veer away from this habit.
Benefit of Breaking the Habit:
Stress eating is totally tempting especially if there is more than one reason you are stressed. However, always remember that not giving in to any temptations will be very rewarding in the future. You wouldn’t want to have health-related issues caused by eating too much, right?
How to Break Them:
Harvard shared two ways to counter stress: exercise and meditate. Whereas exercising curbs the negative effects of stress, meditating helps people think properly and not impulsively, especially when ordering or getting something to eat.
- Bad Habit: Drinking Too Much Alcohol
While drinking alcohol can sometimes be beneficial for you, overdoing it can take a serious toll on your body and health. It’s an established fact that drinking frequently may incur damage to your health. Your brain, heart, and especially your liver can develop serious complications or severe diseases.
Benefit of Breaking the Habit:
If you start limiting yourself from drinking on a regular basis, there’s a greater chance that you will eventually stop and save yourself from damaging your body further.
How to Break Them:
Start by reducing your alcohol intake gradually. Set a certain goal to achieve and reward yourself if you can accomplish it. For example, if you’re used to drinking 5 bottles of beer every night, have one or two bottles at least once or twice a week. Slowly lessen your intake until you have finally stopped or quitted drinking.
- Bad Habit: Smoking Cigarettes
Smoking cigarettes is known to be a bad habit that is, according to several smokers, very difficult to quit from. However, you should always consider the long-term damage that it can cause to your health if you don’t stop smoking.
Benefit of Breaking the Habit:
Smoking is not only tied to lung cancer, but it can also increase your risks of developing other diseases. Additionally, the recovery of your lungs and cardiovascular system will occur as soon as you put off your cigarette. Your endurance, sense of taste, and sense smell will also be better.
Other than that, your breath will smell fresh, your skin will look younger, and the cigarette’s smoke will not stick on to your clothes.
How to Break Them:
Since such habit can affect your health negatively, it’s better to stop it entirely. It does not have to be done immediately. Take it slow and let yourself adjust to your condition until you’ve finally stopped smoking.
It’s true that it’s easier said than done, but the fact that it can save you from severe illnesses will be worth it.
- Bad Habit: Staying Up Late
There are times when you just feel like staying up late because you’re binge-watching your favorite show, catching up with a friend or a lover, or you just really can’t fall asleep.
Regardless of the reason you stay up late, avoid doing it because it affects your mood the next day, as well as your whole being in the long run.
Benefit of Breaking the Habit:
When you start sleeping early, you won’t have to feel groggy in the morning and sleepy throughout the whole day. You would also crave less for food because your energy for the day is not yet depleted and eventually, this would help you lose weight.
How to Break Them:
Since there might be times when you’re caught up with what you’re doing and fail to notice that it’s already deep into the night, try setting up an alarm to remind yourself that you need to sleep at that certain time.
No matter how intense your activity might be getting, try to stick to your scheduled bed time so that your body can adjust accordingly.
It’s true that bad habits are hard to die and giving advice such as these are easier said than done. There is no fixed method on how to break these yet, but it isn’t too late to slowly change your habits and stop it completely.
The key here is to start disciplining yourself because the only thing that hinders you from breaking away from your habits is yourself. Just try your best and commit to it. What’s important is that you are willing to try and change to live a healthier life.