“Good habits, once established, are just as hard to break as are bad habits.”
Robert Puller
Well, ain’t that the truth! I’m amazed at how cranky I become if I don’t get my desired amount of exercise in each week. Or how my mind automatically runs through “acceptable” choices when I’m deciding what’s for dinner. These are habits now and hard to break.
It’s that “once established” part that sometimes proves troublesome. (It’s always the fine print.)
I start out with all good intentions of adopting a new and better way to do something, but…well, you know. To borrow (and mutilate) a phrase: the road to obesity, sloth, disorganization, clutter, and other hellish things is paved with good intentions.
With holidays and home remodeling projects kicking into high gear, the next month or so will probably be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants exercise in maintaining my weight and my sanity. Not a great time for good habit building, and that’s okay. My eyes are on the prize(s), and I’ve got my already-established good habits to see me through. That said, I can still explore possibilities, can’t I?
One possibility I read about on MakeUseOf recently is habitforge. This app uses the “21 Days” method of habit building as a guide. You name your challenge, they send you an email each day (at a time you designate) asking if you’ve done it, and you respond accordingly. They track it for you, and if you miss a day, they start the clock over at Day 1. Looks pretty nifty, huh? And they’ll never see you blushing when you respond “no” two days in a row. 
Some people have better results with visual motivators. A good tool for that is Joe’s Goals. It’s a really simple interface that allows you to track your activities (or lack thereof) in building good habits.
Those are just a couple of easy-to-use online tools to assist in building good habits. If you’ve got any others, sing out!
Or maybe you’ve got other good-habit-building tricks up your sleeve you’d be willing to share with us? (Pretty please, with agave, honey, or turbinado on top?)
Related posts
- The More Things Change...
- How Corporate America Helped Me Lose Weight
- Makeover Monday: Have a Heart
- Makeover Monday: Spring Cleaning with a Twist
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
That's been one of the surprising things about my current weight-loss journey: just how ingrained those good habits are becoming. As hard as they were to establish, I honestly believed it would be a never-ending fight to do right with my eating and exercise. However, once I got in my groove, it's become more second nature.
Good read, Cammy.
I think for me the building good habits was a process. I started by cutting out the junk, etc as my first step. Then I had to really get rid of the ten thousand million bad habits I had before I could really own the new ones.
Be afraid, be very afraid!!! You will be held accountable!
Great stuff Cammy… although I am very good with my health habits, it is always the stuff beyond fitness that gets me!
agave please
timely post, it would be great to get new habits started now and get a jump on the new year's resolutions. maybe there will be no need for them by new year's because we'll all be so fab by then!
and i think it's silly to only make resolutions once a year. i want to start new habits all the time. i agree with the 21 days to start a new habit idea. with that in mind, i'm going to the gym tomorrow!
Wow – those sound very cool. I may have to check them out – I need help!
I remind myself that yesterday I didn't have a late snack. If I did it yesterday I can do it today right? Right? (walking past pantry – averting eyes)
@laughitoff
Oh, cool links.
I need you to do well this season because you are a Role Model for me. No pressure or anything
I started out my weight loss journey telling myself : Just try it for 21 day, see what happens. Well, those habits stuck! I had a big calender and I marked off each "habit building day" with a big red X.
Now, if I skip a day of working out, if feel like something is missing. Crazy.
"once established" is what I'm trying to do right now. It isn't easy, but it's worth it. I'm not far enough into the process to give advice yet.
I'm not a weight loss expert, but I really like this post because I believe that it's the establishment and maintenance of a habit that's key to a healthy outcome. Pattern, a repetition is what we respond positively to the best. So, these are great tips.
Now, I will say that if I had arranged for early morning emails to goad me to workout, I'd probably be in jail right now.
Good links, I'm really digging Joe's Goals. Thanks so much!