Creating Habits for a Healthy Lifestyle
Motivational
Readiness
Dave Blomquist, LCSW
Employee
Assistance
Program
(EAP)
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• Employee/Dependents
• Professional Staff
• 24 hours 7 days a week
• Confidential/Voluntary
• Counseling at no Charge
• Prevention
• Any life problems
• Marriage, family issues
• Elderly Care, financial,
• Alcohol/drugs, Depression, Stress
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Like a cake recipe you need
several ingredients.
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One
Steptoatedit
a Time
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Master title style
• Take every step
• Don’t get left behind
• Don’t fall into the trap of merely
learning then doing
• Don’t accept the notion that a step
by step process is beneath you
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to edit
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Step
1: Honest
Evaluation
Ready, shoot, aim?
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Question
1 title style
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Master
What holds you back from attempting to
change your health habits?
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Question
2
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What are the long term consequences
of unhealthy habits?
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Question
3
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What will your life be like in 10 years if
you don’t make changes?
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Question
4 title style
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Master
What would be the most important benefits in
your life if you chose to change your health
related lifestyle habits?
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“A healthy lifestyle can do more to improve your
health than any other single medical breakthrough in
the past 100 years.”
Steven Aldona
The Culprit & the Cure, 2005
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How do we go about make
the decision to change our
health habits?
Is
it
really
that
simple?
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• Make decisions on
cost/benefit ratio
• Programmed if/then
choices
• Underlying emotions
• Habits
• Fading memories
• Physical desires
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How
do we
hard on ourselves?
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tomake
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1. Coerce ourselves with fear and guilt
2. Coercive motivation = trying to avoid something
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tomake
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HowClick
do we
hard?
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• The “Should” or “Ought to” strategy
• The “Have to” strategy
• The “Avoidance” strategy
• The “Substitution” strategy
• The “Fear of forever” strategy
• The “I’m not enough” strategy
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TheClick
problem
withMaster
coercivetitle
motivation
to edit
style
• We resist when coerced
• Coercive change is a battle
• Give power to what we fight against
• Where we resist persists
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Constructive
– A powerful
solution
Click tomotivation
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title style
Become highly motivated by
what you want to achieve
rather than by
what you want to avoid
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Constructive
– A powerful
solution
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title style
Rather then focusing on
negative consequences of bad habits
focus instead on
positive effects of good habits
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Constructive
– A powerful
solution
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title style
• Look at the big picture, not just the
present moment.
• Look beyond the action to the
consequences of the action.
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motivates
you?title style
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• Many good reasons to change
• What are your reasons?
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Motivates
You?
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to edit
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title style
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
I want to be thinner, sexier or more attractive.
I want to improve and maintain great health and vitality this year.
I want to be happier and better able to maintain my motivation.
I want to increase my feelings of self control and be the master of my
own life.
I want to increase my daily energy, stamina, and physical strength.
I want to improve the health and well-being of those whom I live with
and love.
I want to reduce the likelihood of facing chronic or disabling diseases.
I want to live longer and be healthy and active as I grow older.
Other _________
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edit
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title
Which
areto
your
highest
priorities?
style
Which 2 reasons are most important to you?
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Make
Click
toYour
editMotivation
Master Powerful
title style
• What would you most like to see
yourself doing?
• What is your scenario?
• Make it compelling, full of emotion and
color.
• “Vision of the future”
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“Of the many important reasons to change
your enduring health habits, which one is the
most important to you?”
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Share your ‘vision of the future’ and explain
why it’s important to you.
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Click
Brain
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1.) Neurons cannot divide like other cells in the
body…therefore the brain cells you are born
with do not change. When brain cells die they
are never replaced.
•
FALSE – The adult brain can add brain cells well
into the 80’s. New cells develop in the brain
where new learning takes place.
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Brain
Quiz!to edit Master title style
2.) The brain is shaped experiences from outside
events and activities. The brain itself cannot be
changed by mental activity.
•
FALSE – Brain changes can be generated by purely
internal mental activity. Intentional and willful thought
can alter the brains physical wiring and pathways.
Simply thinking and imagining to be playing the piano
leads to a measurable change in the brains motor
cortex.
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Brain
Quiz!to edit Master title style
3.) What you pay attention to does not have an
effect on the physical brain.
•
FALSE – Attention increases neuronal activity.
Attention literally sculpts the physical form of the
brain. This means that you literally shape who you
are in each moment by what you choose to pay
attention to.
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Brain
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4.) The brain’s ‘set point’ is fixed and cannot be
reset. Long term status of joy, happiness,
optimism are not attainable.
•
FALSE – The brain’s set point can be reset. Specific
brain states related to feeling of peace, calm,
optimistic and happiness are measurable.
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is a Habit?
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to edit
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1. Practiced in the past
2. Predictable
3. Automatic
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Whatto
does
a Habit
Looktitle
Like?style
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edit
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1. Pathway bridge/neural
chemical connection
2. Naturally changing
3. More practiced,
stronger, automatic
4. Involves multiple areas of
the brain (thoughts,
emotions, behavior).
5. Not consciously aware
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Habit formation
is your brains
top priority
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Your brain is efficient –
the most effective way
to be efficient is
through the formation
of habits
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Not alltoHabits
Functional
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title style
Reoccurring, self
defeating patterns of
behavior
Why not simply
change?
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Stuck
with
Habits
that
are
Self-defeating?
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1. Trigger –urge – act
2. We’re changing all the
time, naturally
3. Difficulty with selfdirected change
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Stuck
with
Habits
that
are
Self-defeating?
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We try to stop the firing
of the habit pathway
STOP IT! STOP IT!
Woefully inadequate strategy
Rarely results in change
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• Stop fighting what brain
does naturally
• Create new health
habits
• Grow new habit
pathways
• You can actually change
the physical structure of
your brain
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Brain is wired
through repetition
and works quickly to
make behavior
automatic
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Consistent
repetitions “practice”
hard wires habits
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Anything we
persist in doing
becomes easier
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Replace
those
Self-defeating
Habits
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1. Grow new pathway in brain rather than
stop an old pathway
2. Physical connection:
21 days of practice
(42 days if practice every other day,
147 days if practice once a week)
3. Attempting to stop or extinguish a
habit takes at least 6 times longer
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to edit
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Starting
a New
Pathway
•
Recognition that your
enduring health-related habit
is not going to give you what
you really want.
•
Clarifying what you really
want instead.
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10Click
Common
Habits
of
Thin
People
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
They don’t diet
They keep track of their weight
They exercise regularly
They don’t solve problems with food
They stop eating when they are full
They don’t surround themselves with temptation
They allow themselves treats
They eat breakfast
They move stand and fidget
They don’t skip meals
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Starting
a New
Pathway
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title style
Step 1: Honest Evaluation
•
Depth or intensity of
your realization
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Two:to
Make
decision
edita firm
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title style
A habit pathway really connects
at the point that you make a
firm decision.
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StepClick
Two:to
Make
a
firm
decision
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More than just considering your options. I
choose to: __________”
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Step
Two:
firm decision
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toMake
editaMaster
title style
What decision are you ready to make now?
1. To give your body what it needs
2. Implement Julie’s Ideas
3. Targeted self-defeating habits
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Step One: Honest Evaluation
Step Two: Make a firm decision
Step Three: 21 days of practice
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Summary
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•
•
•
•
Habits are pathways in brain
Change habits when we replace old pathways
with new.
Recognizing the need to change and honestly
evaluation
Speed this process along by verbalizing what
we really want, making it visual, graphic,
emotional, and important.
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Summary
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•
Growing a new pathway to the point of being
automatic takes about 21 days of practice.
•
Making a clear, well reasoned decision makes
the connections physical and real. Deciding on
how and when you will implement the decision
really helps.
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Time
ForMaster
Homework
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edit
title style
1. Review the Reading Materials
2. Create Your “Vision of the Future”
3. More Honest Evaluation
4. Make a Firm Decision
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