Have you been ignoring your health needs on a daily basis? Are unhealthy habits taking over your daily routine? Like me, are you also struggling to keep your body, mind and soul in tune and hence be habitually healthy?
If you know me from childhood, you would know that I was a sporty person, very active in all kinds of fitness games and activities.
Maintaining my fitness was never a challenge because I loved the rush of sweet adrenaline during an athletic sprint or the thrill of the game during a competitive badminton match.
I enjoyed it all!
When I was fit, I was consequently eating healthy, as well. My parents who were “nutrition conscious”, used to ensure I had nourishing meals. I picked up fruits from my fridge as often as twice or thrice a day. I loved everything fresh those days. Physical activities also helped me to take in sufficient water.
But as life moved on from school to college to work, I found myself moving away from all these things. I really missed taking a run or playing a sport.
Sometimes after work, I used to walk home from the metro station, just to feel that rush again. But I never had the time to do it as often as I would have liked.
Marriage happened and then motherhood. I also moved to a country, which is extremely hot in summers. My focus completely shifted to my family and I found myself losing out on all the healthy habits that I once had!
I’m not regretting that I prioritized my family, but I wish I had tried my best to stick to what was healthy for me.
Then and now
So here I am, now in 2019, quite overweight for my age, with no energy to drive the days or rest peacefully at night. I wake up tired, I run through the day like a robot and I sleep exhausted.
I have no strict routine, no exercise, disturbed sleep patterns, no sense of thirst (which means I don’t drink much water) and my diet is rather unhealthy!
Added to that is the disheartening fact that I have failed at keeping my prayer schedule. 🙁
I realize the effects of all this when:
- I huff and puff over a short shopping spree,
- My skin looks dull
- I’m not able to physically keep up with my toddler’s hyper activity
- I feel elephant heavy after a long day,
- I have little aches and cramps in every other part of my body, almost every day,
- There is a lack of enthusiasm in activities that I used to enjoy once,
- I am irritable almost every time I am expected to deliver more.
I have also been feeling disappointed with myself, something that has never happened before!
Needless to mention, this unhealthy lifestyle has started affecting my efficiency in managing my home. I cannot play wholeheartedly with my toddler and am unable to give full attention to my husband.
I frown at the thought of spending a whole day out on weekends (much to my family’s disappointment) and I am too tired to even enjoy my me-time!
So what’s different today?
TODAY I am taking a pledge.
I am telling myself that I need to consciously change my lifestyle. I am taking a step towards creating a habit of living a healthy life where my routine, my fitness, my diet and my mental health can coexist.
With me, in this initiative, are my three friends, who have supported me in different phases of life. I am extremely excited for the four of us and I hope that in the course of this challenge we will support each other and together test the possibility of changing our unhealthy habits into healthy ones.
What is this initiative?
The Being Habitually Healthy challenge
In a study released in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it was found that an individual takes an average time of 66 days for a habit to be formed. The minimum time being 18 days.
The “Being Habitually Healthy” challenge is basically about creating a habit, of living a healthy lifestyle in the time period of 84 days (around 3 months).
Starting on Monday, September 9th, 2019, my friends and I will focus on 5 factors that contribute to a healthy life. They are:
- Schedule
- Diet
- Physical Activity
- Mental health
- Sleep
The idea is to inculcate each of these factors, one by one into our routines, slowly progressing towards being habitually healthy by December 1st.
Each of these factors will have a minimum time of 28 days, to have them converted into a habit.
About the five factors
Schedule
The challenge will start with the introduction of the intermittent fasting schedule into our routine.The focus during this period will be on maintaining this regimen, while ensuring we drink the recommended intake of water, on a daily basis. I will be posting more on this later.
Diet
The intermittent fasting schedule does not rely on a diet so there are no fixed plans here. We are just going to make sure that we eat healthy meals and avoid unhealthy food habits.
Physical Activity
There are no hard and fast rules on what exercise to follow. Each of us, is pledging to spend 30 minutes on some physical activity, every day, at our convenient time.
Mental health
We are committing to spend 15-30 mins on a mental health activity (like prayer, meditation, reading, journaling etc), at a convenient time every day.
Sleep
We are pledging to create a habit of healthy sleeping habits and schedules based on what works best for us.
How are we evaluating the Being Habitually Healthy challenge
Any task becomes a habit when you start doing it without thinking (or do it automatically).
James Clear- author of the book Atomic habits specifies that change of behaviour or habits happen at 3 levels namely: outcomes, processes and identity.
We will be measuring our efforts on all 3 levels by:
- noting down visible changes like weight loss, better energy, fitting back into old clothes, changes in body, sleep quality. (Outcomes)
- tracking our habits for each of these factors, on a daily basis, using the worksheet above. (Process)
- posting regular updates on our progress, on this blog and other social media channels. (Process)
- observing positive change in self belief (trust in ourselves), by accumulating evidence of automatic repetitive behaviour towards maintaining good health. (Identity)
- following up on each of these factors,one month post the challenge deadline.
Over the 12 week time period, my friends and I will be posting more on our daily plans, to keep up with this challenge and to motivate each other. These plans will include meal ideas, health tips, physical exercises, mental health activities etc
Why the focus on habits
The quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible, says James Clear in his book Atomic habits.
We are all products of the small habits we repeat in our lives, from years together. Good or bad, they turn out to be the underlying reasons for our situation today and our success or challenges tomorrow.
The question is whether we are WILLING to control our habits.
I am now, specially in relation to my health and so are my friends.
This challenge is therefore, one step towards creating a habit of a healthy lifestyle and we are doing this by making small little changes to our routine.
We are no experts in planning and carrying out this challenge. This is purely an experiment. Yes, it is tough and challenging to be able to abide by all the 5 components, but we are curious and determined.
Here’s to BHH (being habitually healthy) with my BFFs (best friends forever)!
Click here to meet the accountability group of the BHH Challenge
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Hi! My name is Rubitah. I’m a Content Writer certified Life Coach, Counselor, Social Work professional and the Founder of Being Rubitah. Over the years through my professional and personal life, I have realized that prayers and love can do wonders to family life once you come to terms with yourself and surrender to God. Do you relate to me? Then you may like what I post here! Read more about me
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