Letting go of bad habits one step at a time

I think it’s important to be fit and healthy. It’s only when we don’t have good health that we realise how precious it is.

As leaders, our physical, emotional and spiritual health is essential to enable us to have the stamina to lead in often challenging environments and situations.

The thing is… I’m low on energy at the moment. I believe that we are what we eat so I know that my low energy is down to what I am putting into my body. I normally eat a healthy diet and drink lots of water. For some reason, I’ve allowed my normal habits to slip in the last few months.

Telling on myself

I’m telling on myself as a first step to get back on track:

1. I’m drinking too much caffeine
2. I’m not drinking enough water
3. I’m eating too much bread which causes erratic sugar levels
4. I’m eating a lot of chocolate and cakes, further exacerbating my sugar craving
5. I’m not eating 5 portions of fruit and veg a day
6. When my husband is away, I’m not cooking properly for myself (hello Paul, yes, I can see your eyes rolling in despair!)
7. I’m eating more processed food than normal (I normally only eat freshly prepared food)

So what has gone wrong? These are all bad habits that I have a tendency to slip in and out of periodically. For some reason, I’ve allowed them all to slip at the same time. and for longer than usual so that they have become the norm.  By allowing these bad habits to take over, my energy levels have slipped and I’m lacking the energy to make the effort to plan and prepare healthy meals.

So I’m telling on myself because by making it public and writing it down, I’m accepting this it’s not ok. I’m accepting that I have bad habits that I’m not proud of, that I  am being lazy, that I am making looking after myself more difficult than it needs to be.

Getting back on track

The thing is that now I’ve accepted it, it seems like a mammoth task to get back on track. There are so many bad habits to let go of. So I’m going to make it easy and start with one step at a time. This morning, I had porridge with banana instead of toast. That’s a start. It seems a small step and it is. Deliberately. Because I know that that is a habit I can keep up for the rest of the week. And next week, I can focus on cutting out another bad habit.

So in 6 weeks, I should be back on track. Of course, I’d like to think I can get back on track in 2 days… and I’m realistic. I know that if I set my expectations too high, I set myself up to fail. So instead, I’m making it easy and taking one small step at a time.

You see, I realise that adopting bad habits is quick and easy and they have become the norm. When I think about it, it’s been a steady decline of unhealthy eating over the last 2-3 months. And letting go of each bad habit will take a similar amount of time if I am to stick with it long term. If I take it slowly, I can make it easy to let them go and in 6 weeks, I can be back on my normal healthy diet again.

What bad habits have you adopted either as a leader or in your personal life?

What will it take to get you back on track?

Putting it into practice

1. Consider an area in your life where you have allowed bad habits to creep in. It might be food, exercise or at work.
2. Identify the 5-6 bad habits.
3. Choose the easiest one to change and do it for a week. Then in week 2, choose an additional habit to overturn and so on until you are back on track.
4. Post your comments below and let me know how you are making changes for the better.

Letting go of bad habits can be difficult… or we can make it easy. What will you choose?

With love,
Jude. x

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