Forming Good Habits
In health and everyday life we have a choice! A choice to think for ourselves and make our own decisions. I tend to think how you start your morning will typically show throughout the rest of your day. For example, if you start your day eating unhealthy and being bitter, your day will probably consist of you eating junk the whole day and your day being negative if you choose to allow it. So, the big question is, "how do we form good habits"? It has been said that 21 days forms a habit. This is true and false depending on who the person is. My husband and I am are firm believers that not every "one thing" works for everyone. God created us all to be different, and we all are good at that. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a certain blood type, metabolism, strength, ect. As for you, you may have some of the same traits but we're all made differently so what works for you may not work for someone else. You always hear about people, especially woman trying this diet or that diet and having different results. We get discouraged when something that works so great for someone, doesn't work for us. But, through all of this there is one thing that we all should realize and here it is….wait for it! God made us all different! Don't get discouraged but get motivated and embrace it.
I was reading an article recently about habits. The article was called "Habit Formation: The 21-Day Myth". You can check this article out at Forbes.com . In this article it talks about 3 phases of habit formation. Here are the 3 phases.
1. "The Honeymoon"
They characterize this as the "this is easy" phase. Most of you married people can probably relate to this on some aspect. There's that rush and excitement from just planning a wedding, the actual big day, then your official…Mr. and Mrs. This is where the honeymoon begins. Let's be honest though because at some point the honeymoon will end and that's where life starts. This phase is also related to attending a conference and getting all the motivational and inspirational talks and your fired up. There's an excitement in you and a rush to go out and act on it instantly, but at some point, this too will end if you don't choose to keep it going.
2. "The Fight Thru"
This phase is when the honeymoon ends and life starts. There's no beach and honeymoon suit anymore, but yet a house that needs repairs, your truck just broke down,and your spouse and you just had some tension on that certain subject. You find it hard because "life" is going on and your having struggles that you find yourself not focusing and praising God through those struggles. Old habits that you had before you were married come up, or bad eating habits crash your good ones but you have to choose what your going to do. The main key to overcoming is choosing to win. Whether this is choosing to eat healthy and pushing through your work out, or staying positive in a sticky situation you have to choose and make that happen. Once you do this each struggle after that will continue to get easier because you then are using the mind of Christ and taking every thought captive and moving forward and fighting through.
3. "Second Nature"
This last stage is the "I'm flowing through it all stage". This is where you finally are getting the hang of eating right, working out, and pushing through the hard times of life, marriage, kids, work, and healthy eating habits. You don't stand still, but you keep your feet moving. You know that the enemy will try to throw something at you and you have to keep going. You keep your head held high and you are fully trusting God in all things.
Wow! That's some good stuff. Whether your in your journey through eating healthy, working out or just living life I encourage you to find what works best for you. For me, I started out my journey in January. I had a friend who offered me to do a 24 day challenge of eating healthy and working out. This was a 24 day habit formation and for me it worked. I learned to write down what I was eating everyday. This helped me to see what I was eating and the portion size. Even if I was eating healthy, I was overeating healthy, yes it can happen. But through all of this I committed myself to workout everyday too and push through on the days that I didn't feel like working out. The push through and seeing results for myself is what changed it for me. This also changed my family too. My husband and my son got on board eating healthier and working out. There is nothing more precious than seeing my son follow what my husband and I do. At this stage in life, he is a sponge so it's super important that we lead him in all things because he will follow what we do. So with all of this, remember one thing. Take care of your body, whatever that looks like for you! God gave us a temple to take care of and He loves you so much that He wants you to live a healthy prosperous life. You are all amazing and so glad that we get to share with you every week.
This blog post totally just went a different way then I intended it to, but maybe someone needed to hear it this way!
Till next time, XOXO Cooped Up Cowboys Wife
Kirste