Stop The Slide To Your Former Habits

Bad habits have a tendency to creep back into peoples' lives long after their initial banishment. The reason that people slide back to their old ways is that those habits are comforting and easy. Eating more than you are supposed to eat is simple. Pushing yourself away from the table is not. Skipping your workouts is easy because workouts take time and effort. Sitting at home and watching reruns does is easy. It requires a battle of your conflicting wills and desires to make sure that you stop those former habits from returning. Here are a few ways that you can fight the battle.

Remember the Past

The saying that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it is very true. Just because you look and feel good now, you have to remember when that wasn't the case. Remember to a time when your muscles weren't a strong and lean. Remember when you had to buy larger pant sizes in the store, much to your embarrassment. Remember the pain you felt when you looked into the mirror. Those bad habits were the cause of that pain. Do you really want to let something like that back into your life?
If you have some photos of yourself before you began your transformative journey, look at them whenever you are feeling weak. It will help you remember how you felt back then, and it should provide you with the conviction you need now to make sure that you stick to your new way of life.

Remember Your Accomplishments

You know that losing weight isn’t easy. You've been there and gone through the struggle of changing your eating habits and dropping weight with exercise. When someone makes some great strides in their weight loss, it is okay to feel happy and proud of that accomplishment. You will be able to remember the way you felt when you reached your goals, and the remembrance of that feeling can help you stay away from your old habits as well.

Beware the Bargaining

One of the tools that the mind uses when it tries to justify a return to the bad habits is bargaining. The mind tells you that it's okay to have a slice of cake or an extra helping at dinner because you will just work it off tomorrow. The mind says you can skip your workout since you had such a rough day at work. In these cases, your mind is working against you! Whenever you hear your inner voice telling you that you can always "make it up later", stop and think about it and then avoid that slide. If you do not, you will find that the next slide is easier. Eventually, you will be right back where you started.
As long as you are aware that staying healthy requires vigilance, you should be able to avoid the temptations and the slides that will lead back to an unhealthy lifestyle. Stay strong and keep on living healthy.