HOW TO GET HEATHY WITHOUT DIETING
DARYA ROSE
She gave three ways of doing this today. First, it is important that the new behaviors you want
to develop are intrinsically fun, not merely doable. Choosing things, we don't really like is one of
the main mistakes we make while attempting to develop healthy behaviors, such as forcing our
workouts way beyond our fitness level or eating flavorless foods because they are supposed to
be healthy. This technique works directly toward how the brain shapes patterns and is never
sustainable. You need a prompt or reminder for a habit to form: something that you can see or
hear or sense, like the scent of fresh coffee brewing. It induces an urge in you to take some
action, such as having a cup of coffee. And you're doing this because you expect some sort of
reward or happiness, like that delicious hot drink and that little energy hit that comes with it.
The cue is never repeated without the feeling of gratification and the conduct never becomes
automatic. And it's not a true habit if it's not automatic. This implies that the thing you enjoy,
the incentive, must be a property of the process itself. So, by watching an extra hour of TV
before bed, you cannot start punishing yourself for going for a run. It will not cut it. In fact, in
the long run, these extrinsic incentives, rewards that are not specifically connected to the
activity, have been shown to weaken motivation by turning something you may have genuinely
enjoyed into a chore that you can now speak out of. So, you need to like the activity itself. That
is your reward. The second aspect of your new approach is to increase awareness of your
emotions, attitudes and feelings. Mindfulness is the buzzword for this. The explanation that
mindfulness is so important is that practically immediately your present behaviors occur. Know
that this is a defining aspect of behaviors. You're going through your autopilot day, and before
you know it, you're going to be in front of your screen munching on some of the chips that you
picked up in the break room. Mindfulness is an ability that helps you to become conscious of
your present state of mind. It provides the requisite pause before acting to focus on your
beliefs, giving you the mental stability, you need to choose something different. It is a powerful
strength to be mindful of these individual feelings rather than only responding to them or
attempting to resist them, because if you do it, you can then ask yourself if those feelings are
