Habit, in psychology, is any regularly repeated behaviour that requires little or no thought and is learned rather than innate. A habit—which can be part of any activity, ranging from eating and sleeping to thinking and reacting—is developed through reinforcement and repetition.
Have you ever heard the saying we are what we repeatedly do?
I always teach my clients that we learn new skills through repetition.
As a kid, my father taught me how to tie my shoelaces and click my fingers by making me repeatedly attempt to get it right. I remember being a bit frustrated and as far as the clicking of the fingers was concerned I can actually remember a bit tears being involved. I had an army dad but so the methods were different however, the lesson still applies and through repetition, I learned new skills.
What has stayed with me all this time was not how frustrating it was having to attempt something over and over that, I just couldn’t get right, but rather the fact that if you give something enough time and attention – no matter how hard it seems at that specific moment in time, you will prevail and end up in a far greater situation than before.
Repetition over time becomes muscle memory and finally becomes a reflex. A reflex is something that takes place without us trying to think about how to do them. If I asked you to click your fingers or tie your shoelaces, it wouldn’t take much thought as to how to do that. You’ve done it so many times that it just happens.
What once took every ounce of concentration and practise is now something that we can do without any thought.
This is the same for nutrition and the process in which to lose fat. This is also the same for us diabetics trying to get the balance of diet, lifestyle, the effects of carbs to insulin ratios, and activity right.
Being able to write the user manual to your body and get yourself in the best shape possible is not going to happen without practice.
We all know that practice is the hardest part. It’s important to remember that this will pass and the end goal is what you need to keep your eyes on.
Skills are not easy to learn. That’s what we call them skills!
Learning to track your calories, lose weight, gain muscle, make healthy choices, and even balance out the unhealthy choices so its not a train smash when they do happen is a skill set that must be learned.
The more skills you have in your toolbox the more successful you will be in any and every facet of life.
In order to change any facet of our life, we need to alter our behaviours and habits. In this case, I’m talking to you about nutrition… and exercise – but ultimately fat loss.
All the habitual behaviours that you do right now that are contributing to an outcome or life or physique that you don’t enjoy are all coming from something that you started doing not stopped doing. People try to change this by stopping to do certain things.
You cannot create a habit by stopping something. It lacks the qualities required for something to be habitual.
For example – people will stop eating sugar, stop eating carbs, stop going to bed late at night whatever it might be.
You must start something in order to create NEW behaviours instead of giving up on existing behaviours.
Yes giving up bad habits is a good idea but as much as energy balance is imperative for fat loss so is balance in everyday life.
Starting nutrition plans or exercise regimes can be tough – however, it is meant to compliment your life and not take away from it, or complicate it.
The way I do my nutritional guidance for my TopShape members is not normal: “give up sugar”, “no more of this and no more of that”.
If all you do is just take away from people it becomes unsustainable and unenjoyable.
On my Diabetic Athletic online program, I get my clients to learn new skills and habits. Instead of spending all your time deleting your old habits and behaviours, we rather concentrate on creating new ones.
Your focus is on the creation of new habits and in turn skills. These newly acquired behaviours become your focus and become your strengths.
You start to see above-average results and still have that feeling of building yourself up rather than taking things away.
Always remember that learning new things will always come with a challenge. If you want to lose weight and live a healthy life with better diabetic control, remember this as your end goal because that’s what counts. That’s what you want for yourself right now. We tend to lose sight of this when we are on the journey and things become challenging.
Rough seas make good sailors. Nutrition, diabetes, and training are all one-day games. Today might be harder than yesterday. You wake up the next day and give it all you got again and again. These small efforts each day paint a picture.
How your picture ends up is how you approach each day.
Stay strong, remember why you started, accept the challenge and remember that when you reach that end goal it will all seem worth it.
If you’d like to find out more about my 3-week FREE training and nutrition plan for diabetics just click HERE.
If you’re interested in what carb counting is, why we carb count as diabetics and how you can apply carb counting to your life as a diabetic – you can watch my Carb Counting Masterclass HERE.
If you want to see what my Diabetic Athletic Mentorship Program is about, you can click HERE and have a look at what the Diabetic Athletic 10-week flagship program is all about.
If you want to talk to me and ask me any questions you can message me HERE
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