Intention Deficit Kills Healthy Habits

by | Oct 15, 2020 | Breast Cancer, Healthy Lifestyle, Motivation | 6 comments

How do I change my crappy habits to healthy habits? I eat too much sugar. Don’t exercise. Eat unhealthy food. 

I regularly get questions on building healthy habits and stopping the maddeningly unhealthy ones.

Questions come from private clients. Members of HIGHER GROUND. Readers of this blog.

Seems like EVERYONE needs healthy habits help.

It’s a reasonable question, but it doesn’t invite a simple answer.

The opposite of doing UNHEALTHY things is doing HEALTHY things.

Most humans feel better when they engage in HEALTHY habits, yet it’s tough to keep HEALTHY habits up for the long haul.

Today I’m writing about why your HEALTHY HABITS go off the rails, and sharing tips to help you stop doing all those UNHEALTHY THINGS.

Healthy habit and unhealthy habit foods.

What Typically Happens

You have the best intentions.

You’re committed to doing WHATEVER it takes to eat better, sleep better, move more and practice self-care.

You make a plan.

But the plan doesn’t materialize, or you abandon it after a short time.

What’s Missing

  1. Taking deliberate action
  2. Creating the rhythm of routine
  3. Setting up environment support

DELIBERATE ACTION

ISSUE: You exercise when time allows.

Time won’t ALLOW – ever. YOU must allow for time.

Schedule the thing you want to do (exercise, prep veggies, meditate) in your calendar. Make it part of your day.

Deliberate actions and thoughts are INTENTIONAL. They prevent INTENTION DEFICIT.

RHYTHM OF ROUTINE

ISSUE: You hate routine. You think it’s boring and predictable.

Routine creates FREEDOM. It frees your mind, energy and focus.

A routine doesn’t have to be guided by the clock.

Routine doesn’t have to be made up of things like wake, sleep or work, although for most of us, routine supports all of those things – everything that falls beneath the umbrella of routine becomes effortless.

Your routine can be a COLLECTION OF PRACTICES that support your goals; journaling, exercising, cooking, reading. Do those practices WITHIN your day – day in and day out – even if the timing isn’t routine or scheduled.

It’s the practice of having a routine that creates a healthy rhythm to your life, and the routine of consistently doing intentional activities that creates a healthy you.

ENVIRONMENT SUPPORT

You get off track easily, so your habits never change

According to the author of Atomic Habits An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, habits are initiated by cues. If you want to develop HABITUAL habits, create a cued-up environment.

How many cues do you need to get outside for a walk first thing in the morning?

  • Walking shoes – place them in your bathroom
  • Walking clothes – same
  • Earbuds – next to your house keys
  • Gloves, hat, jacket, sunglasses – next to your earbuds

Create an environment that gives obvious cues to support your new habit and intention.

shame and blame for healthy habits

Healthy Habits Can Be Built

      • Habits = “automatic” behaviors, choices, thoughts. 
      • If you’re making the same “automatic” choices, know that it’s possible to make them be less so.
      • Habits and behaviors can be changed with deliberate, intentional thoughts and actions.
      • Deliberate, intentional choice rather than choice made by automatic default moves you away from auto-pilot habits. 

You’re Not “BAD”

      • You’re conditioned to think that “bad” = “unhealthy”, so naturally if you eat an unhealthy food, YOU are “bad”.
      • Murder is bad. Lying, stealing and cheating is bad. You’re not “bad” because you eat donuts, pizza or any other food labeled “bad” by the diet industry. 

Increase Healthy Habit Awareness 

    • Examine how your habits SERVE you 
      • Are they health-supportive, or health-destructive?
    • Health-supportive habits give to you.
      • Energy, vitality, resilience, strong immunity, clarity of thought; they make you feel powerful.
    • Health-destructive habits take from you.
      • They numb, distract, soothe without healing; they leave you feeling depleted.
    • Get a sheet of blank paper. Make two columns.
      • At top of one write, “Habits That Give to Me”
      • At top of the other write, “Habits That Take From Me”
    • List beneath these headings everything you can think of. 
      • Empty your brain onto those two columns.
    • This exercise will increase your awareness and allow you to change the conversation in your head.
      • When you catch yourself choosing a habit that doesn’t serve you, ask, “Why do I think this habit is serving me?”
      • What you discover will guide you to choose differently. 

Cathy Leman, MA, RD founder and writer

Cathy Leman, MA, RD is a dietitian, personal trainer, nutrition therapist, speaker, writer and breast cancer survivor. She’s the founder of HIGHER GROUND BREAST CANCER SURVIVAL, a monthly membership that helps breast cancer survivors rebuild their health, and writes the dam. mad. About BREAST CANCER blog. 

Cathy also works 1:1 with private clients, and invites you to start rebuilding your health today with her FREE Lifestyle Choices Matter! Get Started Guide.