Be a Creature of Habit

If discipline is too hard for you, then try to develop good habits instead. The problem with most people is that they often like to hear advice about staying fit, but their old behavior of not practicing what is good for them drives against those advices. You can read as many books or top 10 or 50 tips on how to stay fit above 40 as much as you like, but you will not be healthy unless you put those words into action. And that’s because habits work!

The best thing about forming good habits is that even if your brain would sometimes forget, your body won’t. Yes, that’s right! Your muscles have memories and it remembers your routines. Create a habit of exercise or workouts every day and your body will tell you to wake up even before the appointed time. Deja vu anyone? Yeah, have you ever set your alarm clock to ring at 5 am and then after 2 weeks you’ll notice that you wake up in the morning about 5 minutes earlier? That’s exactly what I’m talking about! So, basically all you have to do is go outside or go to the gym or just do yoga in your living room for 2 weeks and the rest will be taken care of by your body.

Incredible isn’t it?!

And here you thought staying healthy was a very difficult task. Wendy Wood, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist at the University of Southern California, considered one of the world’s top experts in habit formation, conducted an experiment with students in the university. She found that the students’ food choices were determined by habits and not cravings as most people would believe and it doesn’t matter whether they’re healthy or unhealthy, they follow their biological “autopilot” in every scenario.

Apparently you can also form habits for your diet, so do away with all those foods that will cause harm to your health and turn over a new leaf. Green stuff, veggies and lots of water will ensure your body’s defenses against microbes and bacteria. Be selective when eating meat, especially red meat as it is not good for the heart, but white meat like fish and poultry is good. Fish has omega 6 and 9 which are good for your heart and if you want to look and feel younger, then eat your apples and drink red wine occasionally. There is no time to waste so start developing good habits right now!

People who belonged to the baby boom generation are now more active than a decade ago, in fact, most of them have undergone knee and hip replacement surgeries and are even actively engaged in sports (some even prefer extreme sports). Now we’re talking about people who are beyond 60 years old here! Where is this drive to become active come from? Habits of course. So, now that you’ve heard everything, it’s your turn to revisit your days of vigor and blast off to an amazing transformation that defies old age. Good luck!

Johanna Oosterwijk ND