<p>Well, I’m putting it to the test. I’ve decided that for the next 21 days, I will get up in the morning, brush my teeth, and go to my gym. I’ve found that on too many days, I never get around to my exercise/yoga program because I leave it for “later”. I’m not even holding myself to specific activities at the gym, just that I walk in that door every single morning. I managed to do it this morning after staying up til 4am waiting for my D to get home last night!</p>
<p>Anyone else want to join me in this experiment of establishing one good new habit? (I was inspired to start this thread after all the amazing year-end accomplishments over at the health & wellness thread.)</p>
<p>I actually attended a seminar in this - the theory that a new habit takes 21 days. It was sponsored by our local PBS station. I used it to help along my better eating habits I had already started, but found it to be a good length of time.</p>
<p>I have spent a lot of time in the last year researching ways to establish and reward positive behaviors. I mentioned two books (Switch and Don’t Shoot the Dog) in the books thread, specifically because they’ve helped me create new habits.</p>
<p>Herewith, a summary of what I’ve learned about my own motivations, in hope this will help you.</p>
<p>I work best on specific immediate rewards for specific behaviors. For example: if I want a chocolate bar, I have to get on my bike and bicycle to the store to buy the chocolate bar. Behavior: riding my bike; reward: chocolate bar. I made that deal with myself, and it’s been very easy to stick to. The question I ask myself, every time, is “how badly do I want that chocolate bar?” (We live at the top of a hill; any bike ride involves sweat.)</p>
<p>Another self-reward has been: $1 for every mile I walk. I put the $1 in a separate pile. I’m not sure what I’m saving it for, but I’ll know when I get there. In the meantime, it’s a tangible reminder of how much I’ve walked. </p>
<p>A less tangible reward: I asked my husband to join me in the evenings for a short walk with our dogs before bedtime. We walk about a half mile at a moderate pace, but it’s one more bit of activity every day, and I enjoy his company. I’ve really appreciated his support. </p>
<p>When I’m having trouble getting motivated to walk or ride my bike, I find “oh, I’ll just get my cycling tights on” usually does the trick. Once they’re on… well, a short ride doesn’t seem so daunting.</p>
<p>I think it must take much longer- say you can retrain yourself at the very basic level perhaps in three weeks, but for instance my H has quit smoking at least three times, once for almost two years- but is still is smoking several packs a week.</p>
<p>I also had been going to the gym 4 or 5 times a week, for two hours at a time, but once I had skipped a week ( or two), it was like I had never gone, in terms of motivation.</p>
<p>Potty training, I hope is a little different.
UNless there is an emergency, who wants to go in their pants?
( I also never put diapers on for night time as I think some parents do- I think that is confusing)</p>
<p>Emeraldkity, I know what you mean about missing exercise and sort of starting all over again. I’m a bit worried about having taken this week off. </p>
<p>One thing that hugely has helped me stick to exercise this past four months is this new gym I joined that requires you to make RESERVATIONS! It only lets you do it a week in advance, on line. The nice thing is it forces me to put it in my calendar as a priority, in advance of my work week (instead of what I used to do, which was find exercise time only in my ‘downtime’ and… I have so little of it). And just like I’m not one to blow off a meeting in my calendar, I don’t blow off these ‘meetings’ I’ve schedule for myself. </p>
<p>I have always found ‘getting out the door’ to work out to be tough, but scheduling something well in advance is easy…so when it comes to getting out the door, I have to go as I’ve already made the commitment and I’m too cheap to give up the fee I’ve paid for it. Without the reservation, I would always ‘go later’…yeah right.</p>
<p>I wonder if I could find another way to use this idea of “in-advance reservations and you lose something if you are a no-show” to create other positive changes.</p>
<p>That’s a little more complex. Nicotine use is an actual physical drug addiction, with very well understood – and profoundly addicting – brain chemistry changes. Nicotine hijacks brain receptors responsbile for releasing dopamine, which in turn is the brain’s way of teaching up to keep doing whatever we were doing that triggered the dopamine release. The mechanism is closely related to the brain chemistry of heroin and cocaine addiction.</p>
<p>An ex-smoker’s brain chemistry will revert to “normal” in a month, but there is an addict’s imprinting still in place. One cigarette will hijack 89% of those brain receptors, causing a dopamine release, and a response that is so well trained that the addiction is fully re-activated. Ex-smokers can never touch nicotine again. 95% of them relapse to full smoking. Those odds are much worse than playing russian roulette. If you aren’t prepared to live by the mantra “never take another puff”, then save the aggravation and don’t even bother pretending to quit.</p>
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<p>BTW, having stopped smoking and stopped eating like a pig in the last few years, I think it takes more like 4 months to learn or re-learn habits. Four months is a very common point where ex-smokers start feeling like ex-smokers rather than smokers quitting. Four months also seemed to be when I stopped having to walk down the Pringles aisle in the grocercy store and read the nutrtion label to see if a cannister was still 1000 calories.</p>
<p>I know when I have got in the habit of exercising, I get where if I miss a day I get really antsy. Unfortunately getting *out *of a (good) habit seems to take a shorter time than getting into one.</p>
<p>I know they say the same sort of thing about food and sugar. I noticed this recently. I started eating steel cut oats with just some dried fruit and nuts. I was in a hurry one day so zapped some of the instant maple brown sugar oatmeal I have eaten and liked for years. I took about 2 bites and found I couldn’t even eat it, it tasted so sweet and sickly. I was amazed that my taste buds had changed that quickly.</p>
<p>interesteddad: smoking… well, nicotine is hugely addictive. 28 years after quitting, I could still see going back… say, if there was a firing squad. As for the cycling tights, well, they really are a LOT more comfortable than regular pants if you’re going to sit on a bicycle seat.</p>
<p>Not me. I wouldn’t smoke a cigarette if I were walking to the gallows. I’ve worked pretty hard to get to the point where the thought of it is revolting.</p>
<p>Yes and no. I have my MS in Physiology and behavior change (psych). There is a lot of truth in the 3 week studies resulting in a new behavior being integrated --a.m. exercise in this case. Look up Behavior Change Theory – it will give you all the factors that contribute to this being a success or not. Exercising at a consistant time, and the morning being a time with more energy, has the best results. If you have a gym membership, then look through the classes and get them written on your schedule/appt. book (the eliptical, stairclimber, or treadmill on days you don’t have a class you enjoy to go to). Alternate days of cardio workouts, with strength training workouts (try spinning, Body Pump, yoga, pilates, kickboxing, try it all to find what you enjoy, but go at your own pace). </p>
<p>So what happens at the 3 week mark that seems to make people recommit themselves? You see some nice results ;). The first 3 weeks are mostly just about getting yourself to the gym consistantly. Important to note, people are more apt to keep going those first few weeks if they actually take it slowly and less intensely. Those that go in too intensely can cause injuries, enjoy workouts less, and are more apt to quit. So I think you already have a good attitude – just get yourself there and “do it”. Next month, when you start to see some nice tone developing, and the exercise is becoming easier (better cardiovascular health), and you have lots more energy, you will WANT to keep going.</p>
<p>Well, day 2 and I’m still on track. Don’t laugh, that is a minor miracle for me. I am the world’s most inconsistent human being, in addition to which, I am a freelancer. Not exactly a formula for regularity. You would think that setting my own hours would make all this easier but in a way, it’s the exact opposite. I think starbright’s gym, with the reservation idea, understands this about people like me.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement – dmd77, I ordered the Switch book. Anyone want to try this too --just 21 days, and see where it takes you. Doesn’t have to be a big commitment, you could floss for 21 days!</p>
<p>“I’ve done two days!” is actually one of the thing they mention in Switch. And tomorrow it will be “I’ve done three days!” As it adds up, you begin to see things differently.</p>
<p>I got myself out the door for a short bike ride this morning simply by deciding to get out of bed and put my cycling tights on. Well, that and the popcorn that gets me for tonight’s movie night! My motivations are simple: chocolate, popcorn, and money.</p>
<p>Yes! Thanks for thinking of me, dmd77!<br>
Last night I found myself thinking, I really don’t feel like doing this again tomorrow morning, I’m getting kind of bored, I feel like maybe I’m coming down with something, etc etc. I even contemplated what I would do with this thread if I didn’t go to the gym, would I just let it die a natural death or – gulp-- lie and pretend I did it? Geez, the obstacles I invent for myself! I realized that it would be easier to just go to the gym. So, I went. Day 3!</p>
<p>Not to discourage anyone from a plan to exercise 21 days in a row, but that kind of goal may actually work against a plan to “move more” in the same way that an unsustainable diet works against a plan to “eat less”. You don’t have to set impossible goals when the attainable will suffice. If you make your goal “climbing Mt. Everest”, you probably won’t do it. But, if you make your goal walking a couple of miles, with some hills, two days a week when the weather is nice – you might well find that you really enjoy doing that.</p>
<p>Almost all the fitness stuff I read suggests setting a goal of working out three days a week for 45 to 60 minutes and then, to whatever extent possible, fill in your “off-days” with stuff like walking or whatever is fun.</p>
<p>The whole trick is to turn “moving more” into something that you enjoy, not making it something that you dread.</p>
<p>That makes sense, idad, and probably is the right approach for most. I’ve always found that I am more likely to stick to a workout program if I exercise every day, but for a relatively short period. If it’s too long, I get bored, and I’m more likely to start skipping days. Or maybe it’s too hard to fit in the time. So, when I used to run, I ran relatively short distances. Now I walk on a treadmill almost every day, but for just 25-30 mins. Not optimal for cardiovascular benefit, but at least I am doing something!</p>