Kim's Life as a Migrainer: Breaking Habits

Habit: noun - a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

I have really become fond of the pod cast "On Purpose" by Jay Shetty. I found one about breaking habits that I have listened to many times. It really resonated with me and I found that one thing he talked about really hit home with me. It was that the habit actually serves you at that time. I will say that again. The habit serves you at that time! My eating sugary foods has actually served me. I had to really think about that and re-listen to that portion of the pod cast because it sounded so ridiculous. I know I seek comfort in food but to actually have that realization that it has served me. So what purpose does it actually serve me? I had to dig deep on this and came to the conclusion that it gives me a sense of calm. And now came the real mind blowing realization that I am not a weak person giving in to my urge to eat that sugary food. He also said in the pod cast that you have to be ready and willing to let it go. There is such a big relationship with it where you teeter totter between having to eat the sugary food to hating yourself for doing it and that you have to get over that relationship and just let it go. When you are ready to do this you can then work on how to.

Jay stated that the next step after the realization is you have to work through the four motivators to break that habit.

• The first is fear. Th fear of being unhealthy. If I don't fuel my body with good nutritious food I cannot accomplish all that I have to do.

• The second is results. I want to be healthy because I want to prove something. I want a particular result.

• The third is duty. I owe it to my body to feed it nutritious food so I can accomplish all that I need to do. It is a feeling of responsibility.

• The fourth is love and purpose. This is the big one! That by loving my body and the food that I put in it I can accomplish all that I need to do.

You have to go through these steps to be able to let go of the habit and you cannot skip a step. If you are having a hard time breaking a habit you have not gone through the steps. You cannot skip a step either. A lot of us go from fear right to love and purpose and it makes it so you just cannot sustain it as you did not come to terms with the results or duty of the habit.

The next thing you have to do is list all of the triggers for that habit. Do not leave any out no matter how small they may seem. Once you know what your triggers are you can eliminate the ones you can and for the ones you can you create an if/then system. I know my biggest trigger is when I am tired. Especially on doughnut Friday's at work. So if I am tired I then make sure I have lots of healthier options to choose from so I don't go looking for those doughnuts.

You also have to find a replacement for the habit. You can't just get rid of the habit, it is very easy to fall into your old habits. if you have a replacement for it you don't miss it.

I will admit right now I am still working on my bad habit of eating sugary foods. And I must admit I am not ready to let it go just yet. I will keep working on it and one day I will break that habit. The key is to keep trying.