More about changing habits

It's easier to make small changes than big ones. For example, to give up sugar in your coffee or tea can be accomplished by gradually taking less. First, we can heap the spoons a little less each week. Then take less and less (even a grain or two) in one spoon until one spoon has gone, and so on. The same with low fat versus high fat milk. I remember trying skim milk in coffee and tea and it tasted terrible! But by moving down from whole milk (4%) to 2% or adding a little skim milk to whole milk, gradually whole milk will taste like cream. If these changes take a year to accomplish, it's not a problem. These are long term changes, new habits.

To increase physical activity, the same principles apply. We begin by being kind to ourselves. We set our expectations low. We can use what is known about behavioral psychology to help ourselves develop new habits towards increasing physical activity. For example, instead of walking for two miles the first day, feeling exhilirated and pleased with ourselves for a really good effort, we may just walk out to the street and go back inside. If we have a treadmill, we might go to it and just stand there for a minute. When that is a habit that we do every day, we can add on a minute or so. If we continue to do this each day, eventually we will want to add on more.

A gem of a book about how to effectively make small changes is "One Small Step Can Change Your Life" by Robert Maurer (See more about the book to the right at Amazon).

For more information on changing habits see the posting on Self-efficacy and locus of control.