Focus on Improving One Unnecessary Habit

I enjoy reading Amy Berger’s twitter feed; she posts her ongoing daily work on improving negative habits that we all have to deal with. As you know, Amy helped write “End your Carb confusion”. She has a masters degree in nutrition.We all think someone else has ‘it all together’; not so. Each one of us battles the food demons, exercise demons, sleep demons or stress demons, daily.Mine would be evening snacking.

Every day, my goal is to not eat after 7 pm; I know if I do that, and that alone, at very least my weight is controlled; if I slip, the visceral fat increases even though I’m exercising daily.The main thing is to not beat yourself up; it’s understanding the trigger(s) that make the negative habit an ongoing ‘threat’. Fatigue is one; however, for me, it is always the extra paperwork that cannot be completed during the working day.  Certainly, if I allow myself to be bored (I put off the paperwork, and turn on a movie to simply ‘dull’ my brain), I’m more likely to snack.I find TV actually agitates me. I feel I’ve wasted unnecessary hours - time with my brain, when I could have read a book or listened to an informative podcast, or done my paperwork.So tonight, tomorrow and the day after, I will be working on no night snacks. Even relatively healthy ones seem to trigger the “storage response” and nothing happens with my size.

At very least, as I write this, I avoided simple carbs (which always feel physically terrible) and had a watered down protein shake to sooth my ‘lonely mouth’.What is a habit you would like to work on?Daily movement?Avoiding dessert after supper?Avoiding evening snacking (when you and I know we aren’t really hungry!)Better sleep? (This is paramount; however it really does mean turning off your smartphone and laptop one hour before bed, and actually getting into bed with the intention to sleep.)

Pick one negative habit and work on that; don’t try to be perfect at everything. From a weight perspective, most often it is extra snacks creeping in when we ‘want’ but aren’t truly hungry; but we do forget movement is incredibly important; as is sleep. Work on that habit daily. Be proud of all that you do to better your health.

Never give up. You can do it!

Dr. Doug