4 Tips To Break Unhealthy Habits

Do you have some unhealthy habits that you just can’t seem to get rid of?

By Jessica Ann

When you decide to start making some healthy changes and living a healthier lifestyle, it can feel quite overwhelming to overhaul your entire life. And a lot of the time, that keeps people from making any changes at all. It’s overwhelming because it completely shifts your normal routine around.

Here are four practical ways to get over that hurdle…

How To Break Unhealthy Habits

1. Find the root of your unhealthy habits.

Most bad habits started in one way or another, so it’s time to dig deep and find the cause of your bad habit. Maybe you notice that you always binge on chocolate as soon as you’re experiencing stress at work. Finding these triggers and eliminating the triggers themselves is like taking the fast track to sustainable, lasting change. Write a list of your triggers and bring awareness to your situation.

2. Replace your unhealthy habits with healthy ones.

This tip will help you ditch your bad habits while you build the good ones. If you’d like to ditch that nightly glass (or 3) of wine because your sleep is suffering and the pounds are packing on, find something healthy to replace it with. Exchange that wine for a healthy sleepy-time tea, and enjoy better sleep as well. This also goes for reaching for a large bowl of snacks at night, try replacing it with veggies and hummus or a bowl of fruit.

3. When it comes to both breaking and building habits, it’s important that you take things slow.

Completely quitting refined sugar cold turkey might work for some, but for most of us, it will result in a relapse and possibly a binge. You can better decide to cut one sugary meal or snack from your life each week and slowly decrease your sugar intake. The same goes for healthy habits, don’t start with wanting to work-out twice a day, start with once or twice a week and build up from there.

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4. Remember not to be too hard on yourself, nobody is perfect, and you certainly don’t have to be.

A small setback might cause you to give up your goal altogether so don’t let one mistake break all the progress that you made. The all or nothing approach simply does not work. Be patient with yourself and be proud of yourself. While you’re using these tips to break old habits and build new ones, it still won’t be easy, but it will finally stick this time. And, you’re worth it!

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