Kicking the Habit (Originally Posted 7th February 2011 on WeightWatchers UK)

Meeting Topic: Habits
This weeks meeting topic was about habits, and it got me to thinking about the habits I have developed since starting WW and bad habits I have yet to kick.

I am the first person to state that I am a rubbish weight watcher. I really am, most other people would be at goal already, but here I am two pounds lost, then one back on. Many people would question why if I am sooo rubbish, would I still bother turning up every week? Well although I am rubbish WW has helped me develop some healthy Habits;

1. Going to WW Meetings: Who would have thought I would enjoy getting up early on a Sunday morning?! Going to meeting s is no doubt now a habit, even when I am not in the same town I make the effort to get on the train to head back for my Sunday morning meeting. If nothing else it means that I am not at home eating lol.

2. Drinking skimmed milk: I have had this for so long now I do not think I could ever go back, it is now automatic. Gone are the days I would race my brother and sister to the kitchen to see who would get the top of the milk on their frosties.

3. The Sunday Coffee: Sunday is my day; once the meeting is over I take a walk in to town and head to Costa for a skinny cappuccino. This may not sound like the best habit in the world, but it is what I do there that is. I am usually there for about an hour, and I read my ‘your week’, and then sit and plan my meals for the week, writing a shopping list as I go, and then write down my ideas for my upcoming blog post. It’s relaxing and proactive at the same time. On those Sundays I don’t manage my coffee, I often don’t manage to plan, make a shopping list or actually do any shopping, which mean I then end up eating what ever ready mean I end up finding at Tesco Metro on my way home from work.

I do have some habits that have been hard to shift and I am not sure how I am going to do it;

1. Emotional eating: When I am upset or stressed, food is my comfort. Granted I have been much better but I cannot currently get over it. I don’t have enough emotional support to be able to say I will no longer binge eat when I am feeling unhappy or stressed.

2. Not eating Lunch: I often just don’t have time, but I should try to make some more difficult though it may be. Although it is easy to think I am saving points by not eating during the day, not eating lunch mean I am very hungry when I get home from work. In turn this often means I do not make the best food choices when I get home, snaking on something accessible (and high in points) whilst I am making my dinner.

As well as my existing habits I was also thinking about things I should be doing, and habits I should work on developing.
1. Exercise: I need to develop a habit to exercise more and regularly. A habit takes 30 days to form apparently so I need to think of something that I can do on a daily basis.

2. Eating Fruit: Yes I do love fruit, but when it comes down to it I would rather snack on Haribo than on fruit (despite its 0pp). Eating fruit as a snack is still not appealing to me and it is a habit I need to develop if I want to be any good at this WW lark.

There are so many habits that I have that are sabotaging my weight loss efforts, my next challenge is to try and change them for habits that are going to support my effort to change.