Season 2: Journaling

It can take up to 8 months to change behavior! It takes awareness, planning and self control to go through so preparation is the key. Take the driver’s seat and buckle up! We are up for a great long drive! Our journey is life long, it just has pit stops along the way to get gas, check the tires, the fluids and get the necessities. Have fun!

Please do not jump into making changes on a whim. Starting to lose weight in the spring to be able to wear a bikini in the summer is not a goal that will work for the long run if you want to maintain a healthy weight. Deadlines only give you anxiety anyway.

  1. Please do not evaluate yourself.

  2. You observe your progress and adjust as needed without judging. You don’t need to label yourself along the way, or give yourself marks as if you were in school.

  3. Track your journey. It will give you insight about details that you might have missed all your life. The reasons your stress level or mood change, where and with whom you are when these things happen. This way you can eliminate triggers and plan more efficiently so your habits will serve you.

  4. Test and experiment, keep what works and discard what does not. Please do not follow other people’s examples just because they said it worked for them. You are not them, your life is different.

  5. Have a support system around you so you can lean on them when the going gets tough. Be mindful though, please do not keep around people who want to push their own ways on you. Choose the ones who would rather be there to provide practical feedback and gentle emotional support.

  6. Evaluate your circumstances and stress level before you make any change. You might know what the outcome you are looking for but any change needs your full attention and you cannot give it to yourself in a stressful situation! Wait until you can support yourself fully as well - when you are ready!

Phase out old habits:

  1. Identify and evaluate

  2. Catch yourself in the act

  3. Do you have a replacement habit?

  4. Keep it simple! If you follow a good advice or example, try it out!

  5. Then customize it to your own needs.

  6. Evaluate. Is it working for you? What works, What doesn’t, how, why when where? Specific times and places would make all the difference in some cases.

Phases of developing new habits:

  1. Observe yourself

  2. Develop new habit 2 weeks

  3. Identify triggers and high risk situations and work out alternative solutions Plan A, B, and C! (Self Control Implementation Intention) Plan ahead for situations.

    1. Count on Social pressure and work out your response!

    2. What about your own physical responses like hunger, or pain?

    3. Emotional triggers?

    4. Environmental triggers like smells?

    5. What about your own thoughts?

  4. Prioritize sleep and exercise to get energized!

  5. Fit new habit into your schedule

  6. Get everything you need for it. New clothes, different food, supplements, equipment etc.

  7. Start-up: Practice new habit for two weeks.

    1. look forward to not back down!

    2. Practice forgiveness on yourself!

    3. Observe and note when it worked and when it didn’t. Journal!

  8. After the initial two weeks stop and think about modifications to strengthen and personalize your habit.

  9. Practice, journal, observe. Keep the big picture in mind, lapses are fine! Just don’t relapse! Curb negative talk.

  10. Every three weeks or so evaluate, modify, solidify. Practice as long as you need to get into the habit, and make it a routine.

  11. Maintain it forever, with modification along as needed!

Goal Setting: SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time specific or Trackable, Evaluate, Reward or Re-do )

Type of goals: Performance goals (it is the journey) and Outcome goals (end of the road, long term goals)

Preparations to achieve your goals:

  1. Identify triggers and high risk situations

  2. work out solutions ( Implementation Intention from Self Control)

    1. Deal with social pressure

    2. Deal with your own physical triggers like hunger, thirst or pain.

    3. Deal with your emotional or mood changes

    4. Deal with environmental triggers

    5. Deal with your own thought when you suddenly try to find excuses, explanations, start ruminating.

  3. Deal with stress before you embark on a journey to change.

  4. Prioritize energizing activities to be able to deal with situations. Get enough sleep, some exercise and nutrition to have self control energy for the whole day!

  5. Delegate! At home or at work, You might be able to balance the field out to give yourself space.

  6. Lapses are part of the journey! Anticipate them and give them a forgiving smile just as a baby trips when tries to walk for the first time.

  7. Every person is different in personality and learning different things. First you need to get to know how you learn better and more efficiently. Time limitations are restrictive and not give you a proper feedback on your progress. You need to know why you are or you are not progressing as you anticipated.

Dealing with stress: Internal stress is the interpretation of how you evaluate your reaction, and external stress objective, outside of yourself

Motivation: Intrinsic motivation is the only way to go! You need to desire the outcome! Describe it in vivid details, imagine, see it, color it, smell it, touch it!

Mindfulness: Keep yourself rooted in the here and now! Your breath is always with you, wherever you go, it helps you take your mind off the what if’s, the I should’ve and all the rumination we do instead of living our lives now!