Breaking Habits

I've been doing a Biggest Loser competition at work since January.  Although the competition only lasts for 12 weeks, we "piggy-back" one competition onto the next so that the last week of one is also the first week of the next.  July began my third consecutive season. What was I thinking?!

I've known for quite some time that I needed to lose weight. But it's remarkable how long you can simply acknowledge that fact about yourself and DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. Well, thanks to good ol' holiday photographs, I was faced with the reality of my situation in a highly motivating way.  Thus, when the competition started in January, I joined with enthusiasm.

Now, rather than resorting to the extremes of a crash diet, or flush of my system, or unrealistic workout regime--I determined to simply try and change my habits.  I gave up desserts and sweets (boo!) as well as alcohol (double boo!) and did my best to "be more active."  The first three months (January - March), I did great and lost about 10lbs.  I even placed 3rd in the competition!  The second three months (April - June) were a little more up and down and in the end I only lost 3lbs.  I'm feeling motivated again (why can't it be a permanent state?) and hoping that July through September show more progress.  Here is my weight log thus far--I'm glad that I'm below the "trend":

All this was to say that I'm learning a lot through the Biggest Loser about breaking habits.  I've heard people say that it takes at least 30 days of doing something for it to become a habit.  I wonder what the measure is for breaking a habit?  My experience throughout the Biggest Loser is that it takes much longer to BREAK a habit than it does to form a new one.  Wouldn't you agree?

Since a lot of "bad" habits are things that bring us pleasure (like eating chocolate, for me), when we try to get rid of them we know exactly what we are missing.  No wonder it's a struggle to change.  And if my bad habit is not exercising, boy I am going to feel the agony of getting muscles into shape after being inactive!  If my bad habit is staying up late (ahem, like tonight), then I'm going to feel like I'm missing out if I go to bed early.

A friend once told me - the easiest way to lose weight is to never gain it.  SO TRUE. And true with physical activity too; the easiest way to stay in shape is to remain active.  I wonder why we focus so much on changing bad habits instead of preventing bad habits from ever forming?  Obviously, we're prone to "bad" habits and have to change, but I believe more steps can and should be taken to proactively counteract bad habits from forming by concentrating on good habits.

I believe there is a spiritual parallel here too - do you see it?  What does it look like in your life right now?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and on good/bad habits--even weight loss!

Thanks for reading.