<p>Any advice for <em>breaking</em> a bad habit? I was even thinking of hypnosis.
In my case it’s swearing. It’s not a complete lack of control, of course, but too often I say something bad when I could have/should have substituted something more appropriate. I tell myself I won’t, but then end up blurting something out before I catch myself. I hate it! </p>
<p>I’ve tried notes on hands, snapping a rubberband, mental pep talks. It’s a lifelong bad habit, probably picked up from my father, who swore creatively, intensely and often. Not a habit I want to pass down to my kids!</p>
<p>Ispf72: my question would be “what do you want to do instead?” Would it work to say “son of a gun” instead of “son of a witch”? In dog training, if you want the dog NOT to do something, you train an incompatible behavior: if you don’t want the dog to jump up, you train it to sit, and you reward sitting and ignore jumping up. So, if you don’t want to swear, you reward something else entirely, like saying something different or whistling the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth or singing the chorus of your favorite song.</p>
<p>Ideally I’d like to come to a point where I don’t even <em>think</em> the bad word, let alone say it! In a perfect world, those words wouldn’t even enter my head. But first I need to work on just not saying them.</p>
<p>dmd - I also tend to think of dog training in cases like this (I need someone standing near me with a clicker)! But you make a good point re: introducing a substitute behavior instead of just doing something aversive like the old rubber-band-on-the wrist trick. I do try to substitute words, but if I’m in a foul enough mood, then I rarely think to do it in time :(</p>
<p>I actually cut down quite a lot on my swearing when I started handing anyone who heard me a $1 bill for each word. But I did modify it to a dime for each s*** that I said while driving.</p>
<p>Well, it’s been a few weeks since I quit my new habit, but I’ve noticed that I seem to have a store of self discipline that has helped me considerably in my work life. Even though I’m no longer going to the gym first thing in the morning, I am continuing to exercise during the day and I’ve finished a project that I’ve been meaning to complete for 8 months. And I attribute it to sticking to something for those 21 days – I proved to myself that I had the discipline for that. I guess it’s like any muscle – if you don’t use it, you lose it. And conversely, if you use it, you build on it.</p>
<p>Ispf-- I quit swearing pretty much when my oldest was in the back seat of my car and she was maybe 18 months old and I had to jam on the breaks (my FIL was sitting next to me), daughter, shouted, “Bleeping Idiots!” Before I did. I quit right then. :D</p>
<p>I’ve been holding off doing this. Did not want to join the diet/fitness support thread because I’m still quite nervous I won’t finish what I started. This thread is actually more appropriate, though, even if I am late to it.</p>
<p>What have I decided to do? In late January, as another week of me sitting on my hiney went by, I decided that for the month of February (short month!), I’m going to get 10 minutes of exercise every day. I mean every one of the 28 days. More is obviously great, but 10 minutes is the minimum. So far I’ve stuck with it. </p>
<p>I really have no idea if this will lead to anything or why I came up with it. Many <many> years ago when I was doing more regular exercise (it was Jane Fonda tapes–that should clue you in), my promise to myself was that I could skip any day I wanted to but could <em>never</em> skip two days in a row. That worked out well for me, although that was when life was simpler. Now that I’m a bazillion years old, I’m having a v-e-r-y hard time sticking with any kind of exercise routine.</many></p>
<p>MyLB- I think that is great. I know when I am not feeling motivated to go on my walk I will say I will just go a short distance. I find once I get started I end up doing ny longer walk. Sometimes I end up doing the longer walk without even realizing it till I am halfway up the hill.
I did not make the 21 days to habit challenge I made for myself.
I am starting over. Exercised Monday and Tuesday. Still need to get out today. I did terribly in avoiding the cookies. That is a new start as well.
Good things I have done- I have made it a habit of doing my physical therapy exercises daily. Added countertop pushups to my morning routine.</p>
<p>I think the best thing that happened for me was stumbling into a program that was built around a fixed schedule of Mon/Wed/Fri workouts. Three workouts a week of 30 minutes (up to 60 minutes) is the foundation of an excellent exercise plan. So, knowing that I would be doing those three workouts on those three days every week got me in the habit.</p>
<p>Now, that’s just what I do. I start each week knowing that I’m going to workout those three evenings before dinner and I usually know what workouts I will be doing that week (I find that I enjoy alternating between two different workouts at any given time – enough so there’s a little variety, but not so much that you can’t do a workout enough times to start getting the hang of it and seeing some progress.</p>
<p>If I were just starting, I would schedule a walk three days a week and start looking for a little more structured workout program. It’s helped me to do a couple series of workouts, to see how a complete workout is structured and to see how a good workout plan has definite progression over time.</p>
<p>You know–I was in really good shape <you know–for=“” me=“”> in the months of pt following knee surgery. I think it’s because I was <em>doing</em> something every day (I was really religious about the pt exercises).</you></p>
<p>And if it helps you (or anyone else), that thing I did many years ago really did work for me–allowing myself to take a day off whenever I felt like it but never two in a row. This time I’m trying the every day (at least this month!) for a shorter time period. BTW–what I’m doing is yoga. I record a cable show (although that’s a full 45 minutes with fast forwarding through the commercials), but also have bought several things on iTunes. I like that some of the segments are only 10 minutes long (some 20, some 40-45). I either do one, or a couple of the shorter ones, or <on a=“” good=“” day=“”> one of the long ones. (There was that one day that it got to 8:30 at night and I hadn’t done anything. Sort of made up some poses in the kitchen!)</on></p>
<p>I managed to stick to my 21 day resolution to go to the gym every morning. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the first time in my life that I stuck to anything daily for that long. I think the important things is to start small (10 minutes is great), but also make it simple so you don’t have to think about too many options to get going. For me, that meant promising myself that I would just walk in the gym door. Period. That was the only thing I required of myself, and on those days that I really really didn’t feel like exercising, it was a comfort. Of course, once I was there, I’d tell myself that I’d just go a few rounds on the treadmill or whatever. Most days I did something for at least 20 minutes, but on a few days I lasted about 10. But that was ok because I still did what I’d promised myself.</p>