Healthy habits are key to a healthy lifestyle!

Have you ever changed from driving a European car to an Australian made can and can't stop turning on the windscreen wipers when trying to indicate??? This is because driving your car becomes a habit. A habit is 'a routine or behaviour that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously', and we want you to develop habits, like driving your car that help improve and maintain your health! 

The first and most important thing to considering when talking about habits is that they take time to be developed. You cannot develop a habit overnight, and to successfully cement a habit into your lifestyle it can take up to 6 months. Patience and persistence are therefore vital!!! The next most important thing to consider is that it's ok to slip up along the way! Most human beings will slip up and have a few weeks where, for example exercise and healthy eating are neglected. All you need to do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again, and your new starting point will be ahead of your original starting point :)

There is a process involved to form a habit. Firstly, a habit requires a trigger to start a behaviour, then a corresponding reward is received for completing the behaviour and if this pattern is repeated for long enough a habit will form. Lets take a look at a bad habit that a large majority of us have - snoozing the alarm in the morning.... me included! The trigger is your alarm, the behaviour is to press the snooze button and the reward is extra time snoozing in your nice warm bed. As a result the behaviour is repeated because the reward continues to be received and a habit is formed. Have you ever pressed snooze without even realising??? I have!!!!

We therefore need to start thinking about strategies to develop some new 'healthy habits' because they are key to adapting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle! Stay tuned for some tips next week!!!

Ginny :)

GM Active Farmers