Form a Habit

Habits can make or break your health depending on whether they are good or bad. Unbelievably, a lot of the things that you do daily are based on your habits. What time you get up, what time you go to sleep, how much water you drink, how many chocolate bars you eat, how much you sit down, how much alcohol you consume on a weekly basis. These are based on your habits. If you regularly have a glass of wine every single night, that is a bad habit. If you regularly get up from your desk and go for a walk every 20 minutes, that is a good habit. Most things you do are based around habits.

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Now, there are numerous studies stating exactly how long it takes to form a new habit but to be honest, the time frame isn’t the most important thing. You can read studies that say 2 weeks are all it needs where as several studies recommends 60 days. What is more important to forming the habit is consistency. If you are not consistent in the habit that you are trying to form, then you are not forming a habit. It’s simple really. If you want to form a new habit to drink more water and you decide to break it down into a mouthful of water every 20 minutes (just to make it more achievable), if you stick to the 20 minute time limit – congratulations, you are well on your way to creating a new habit. But if you are good for 1 hour, then skip the next hour and then try and make up for it in the next hour, guess what? You are doing nothing at all to form a habit.

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I could give a million examples but the same goes for your exercise habits. If you get in a habit of going to the box/gym 3 times per week, then that becomes a habit. If you only go whenever it suits your busy schedule, then that is also the habit you are creating – inconsistent exercise. It means that if you have a super busy week, your health and fitness goes on hold.

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You can create habits for almost ANYTHING. Choose something, anything that you would like to create a better habit in and commit to changing that. Work out a plan about the habit that you are going to change and write it down, verbalise it with someone. It might be get up and go for a walk at work every 20 minutes. It might be mobilise for 10 minutes after EVERY workout. It might be not to consume alcohol after work during the week. Choose something that you would like to create a healthy habit in and commit to it for a minimum of 2 weeks.

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There are multiple apps available on your phone to help you form a new habit. These can help you monitor your progress in creating your new habit. You put your goal into the phone with a time frame and you tick it off every day / hour / minute. It then rewards you for consistency to sticking to your goal and gives you tips on how to stick to it. It sounds simple but honestly, this is exactly what we need. There are also apps out there to remind you to drink more water.

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Now you have absolutely zero excuse to EVER be dehydrated and not form good habits.

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Keep track of your habits!

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Nathan Wiese

Nathan Wiese is a highly qualified personal trainer with many years’ experience in the health and fitness industry. He believes that we live in a society that is constantly becoming more and more sedentary and we as humans must take action to guarantee that we maintain our health, fitness, vitality and movement. He also believes that everyone is entitled to a long, high quality healthy life – but this doesn’t come without effort and we need to do something about it every single day. He helps clients improve this side of their lives through exercise, nutrition and education. He also helps to improve clients’ energy, vitality, mindset, strength and fitness so they are all running at their peak, always.