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Habits: bad ones are hard to break, and good ones seem hard to form. The belief is that you can form a new habit, or break yourself of an old one in just 21 days. Seems fabulous! Just do this one thing 21 days in a row and you’re set!
However, there’s research showing that this may not be true. Instead, it may take more than THREE TIMES that to establish a habit. How does trying something for 66 days sound? In our fast-paced “I-want-it-now” world, 66 days can feel like a lifetime. So if you’re trying to establish a habit of working out on a regular basis, this could present sone tricky issues to maneuver.
Proper health and fitness habits can take a long time to establish, but the habit can last a lifetime. What I like about this research is that it shows that a habit isn’t destroyed just because you “miss” a day or have a slip up. The establishment of the habit being formed takes time, but the ATTITUDE toward the habit is what makes it stick. Ask yourself, have you ever gone to workout because you felt like you HAD TO thinking it would establish a habit? How would you feel if you forgave yourself for not making it today because your body was feeling off, but you made it the next day?
There’s nothing that proves you NEED to go to the gym and workout and eat really healthy EVERY.SINGLE.DAY to be healthy and fit, so if tomorrow morning rolls around and your body is telling you that an extra hour of sleep would be really good, don’t feel guilty about it (we can get into a whole other post about the benefits of sleep – stay tuned).
I’m a huge fan of listening to your body and honoring where it is….I’m also a fan of real rest days (you know, those says where you don’t do ANY working out). Sometimes sleeping in and cuddling with my puppy in the morning is going to be better for my health than getting up at the crack of dawn to grind out a hard workout. I hope as you’re establishing your fitness habit that you too will honor where your body is and see that doing something EVERY SINGLE DAY isn’t necessary to establish the long term habit.
There are obviously a lot of approaches to establishing long term, sustainable habits, so the goal is to find one that works for you. We just read another awesome article on doing a teeny weenie part of a new habit daily, and work up to the full blown commitment over an extended period of time that was pretty cool – check it out HERE. Basically, don’t feel like you have to go from 0 – 60 to be successful in creating a habit.