How to form new habits

Forming a new, healthy habit takes a lot of work, but the following tips should help to keep you on track.

Many of us have a few habits we wish we could stick to, we may want to go running every morning before work for example, but forming a new habit is harder than it sounds. Experts say it takes 18 days to create a habit, but for some of us it takes longer and it is easy to give up halfway through.

The following tips should give you the best tools for creating a new habit and help you stick to them once and for all.

Define your new habit

Sounds obvious we know, but detail is important here. Rather than saying ‘I want to write every day’ think about what you want to write specifically and refine your habit, i.e. ‘I want to write a blog post every day’.

Figure out your personal ‘whys’

Now you know what you want to do, it’s time to ask yourself exactly why you want to do it. And again, this will require detail. Saying ‘I want to drink green tea because it’s healthy’ isn’t enough â€" what will you personally gain from drinking green tea? Having a solid reason will motivate you to stick to your new habit.

Understand the habit loop

The habit loop goes like this: cue, routine, reward. The cue is often the hardest part as you need to set yourself up with reminders to carry out your new habit. If your goal is to go to the gym three days a week for example, you’re cue might be a reminder on your phone or leaving your gym gear by the front door.

Get inspired

To keep your motivation up, look for inspiration outside of yourself. Social media sites such as Instagram and Pinterest can be great for this, especially if your goal is food/fitness related.

Push through

At first, you are likely to struggle and you may even have the odd day where you forget your new habit. Pushing through this initial hard stage will set you up for success and remember â€" we are all different, so don’t get disheartened if you are struggling three months into a new habit, just keep pushing!

Habits start and end in the mind, and often our mind can be our biggest enemy when it comes to forming habits. Some people find they benefit from hypnotherapy to help break bad habits and form more positive ones. To find out more, please see our FAQ page.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2013 at 8:00 am and is filed under Habits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Is alcohol the real enemy of weight loss?

An incredible 81% of dieters say it’s alcohol that ruins any health intentions causing them to fall off the wagon and put on weight.

A large glass of wine or post-meeting beer after work may seem like the perfect way to wind down after a long day, but it could be hindering your health goals. Recent research has revealed that slimmers consume a quarter of their weekly calorie allowance through alcohol alone.

On top of the calorie-laden tipple, alcohol typically destroys any willpower we once had, leading us down the garden path and head first into the kebab shop. According to recent statistics, four out of 10 of us drink heavily once a week, consuming up to 1,000 liquid calories â€" and that’s before we even order our usual double cheeseburger at the end of the night.

While this weekly binge is undoubtedly bad for our both our livers and our waistlines, what is even more concerning is our tendency to drink during the week. About 34% of us drink three times a week, usually after work to wind down. After-work tipples of choice include white wine (185 calories per 250ml glass) and lager (230 calories per pint).

Three quarters of us have a takeaway after a night out; this could include anything from a fatty cheeseburger and chips to fried chicken and pizza.

So why do we eat more after a few drinks? Apparently alcohol suppresses a hormone called leptin, and this is the hormone that normally tells your brain when to stop eating. This hormone suppression also affects other brain chemicals involved with appetite, making us think we’re hungrier than we really are.

So, not only is alcohol calorie laden itself, it encourages us to eat when we’re not hungry. Could there be any more bad news? Well, yes actually. It turns out that alcohol also slows down the body’s fat-burning process by 73%. This means we don’t burn what we’ve consumed as quickly and much of it will be stored as fat.

As the evidence mounts, it is becoming clear that alcohol really is the enemy of weight loss and must be addressed if you’re looking to lose weight and keep it off.

Tackling habitual drinking while adopting a healthier attitude towards food can be incredibly difficult â€" especially around Christmas. For some people, hypnotherapy can prove useful. To find out how this type of therapy can help, please see our alcohol and weight loss pages.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 20th, 2013 at 8:00 am and is filed under Alcohol Abuse, Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Should we pay people to be healthy?

Is it right to offer a financial incentive for adopting healthy behaviours, and will it work?

A controversial area of public policy has been highlighted recently with a new initiative offering £200 of shopping vouchers to mothers who breastfeed their children. The public has called this type of initiative into question, asking why some should be paid to breastfeed when many others are already doing it without being paid.

It is not just breastfeeding that has been approached in this way either. A stop-smoking scheme in Dundee proved successful when quitters were offered £12.50 a week to quit smoking. By the end of the three-month scheme, almost a third of participants had kicked the habit â€" double the amount recorded in previous schemes.

Many people have asked why money is being used as an incentive when the potential health benefits of such schemes should be incentive enough. Advocates of the approach argue that in some cases health benefits are not enough. They point out that sometimes behaviour becomes so ingrained that people need something to help jolt them out of bad habits.

The question critics are asking is how can such initiatives be policed? The stop smoking scheme was a relatively easy one to monitor, with participants taking regular breadth tests to monitor CO2 levels. Would other initiatives, such as the latest breastfeeding scheme, be so easy to monitor?

Another worry is that people may abuse the scheme. The shopping vouchers offered to breastfeeding mothers can be used on anything, and therefore may be used on alcohol and cigarettes.

It appears that while the Government should be praised for their enthusiasm to help people break bad habits, perhaps these initiatives need further thought and consideration.

Breaking bad habits starts in the mind and for some people, hypnotherapy can offer help and support to break these habits and form new ones. To find out what issues hypnotherapy can help with, please browse our hypnotherapy areas.

View and comment on the original BBC News article.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 15th, 2013 at 8:00 am and is filed under Habits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Love your lungs – Lung Cancer Awareness Month raises awareness of the UK’s biggest cancer killer

Lung cancer claims 35,000 UK lives each year, making it the biggest cancer killer, but still many remain unaware of the common symptoms.

On Thursday 1^st November, Double Olympic gold medallist Pete Reed used his lung power to help inflate a 12ft pair of inflatable lungs, which are currently touring the UK as part of Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

Reed, who has a lung capacity of 11.68 litres (the largest ever recorded), is just one of many celebrities who are supporting the ‘I Love My Lungs’ campaign. Other famous supporters include Duncan Bannatyne, Jenny Frost and Lynda Bellingham.

Rower Reed, who is now a patron of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation who are responsible for running the campaign, has said he has pledged his support because he relies on his lungs to excel in his sport. Since becoming a patron, he has since witnessed the devastating effects of lung cancer and has stressed the importance of early diagnosis.

“So even though it’s winter and even if you’re a smoker, if you’ve had a bad cough for 2-3 weeks and you can’t get rid of it, make an appointment with your GP today.” He said.

While awareness of symptoms for other cancers is fairly high, for example a lump in your breast or testicles, too few individuals are aware that having a cough for three weeks plus can be an indicator of the early stages of lung cancer.

Symptoms to look out for include:

• a cough that continues for more than three weeks
• coughing up blood
• unexplained and persistent breathlessness
• unexplained persistent tiredness
• unexplained persistent weight loss
• repeated chest infections.

According to Cancer Research UK, in most individuals lung cancer is linked to cigarette smoking â€" with figures suggesting that smoking causes almost 9 out of 10 cases (86%). In addition, it is thought that around 3% of cases are caused by exposure to secondhand smoke in non-smokers.

If you are a smoker who would like to give up, please visit our quit smoking page to find out how hypnotherapy could help you.

View and comment on the original article from the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 at 8:00 am and is filed under Smoking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Sugar: are you addicted?

Recent news has revealed that sugar, not fat, is enemy number one for those trying to lose weight.

For many of us, reaching for a sugar fix in the afternoon is a habit that has been ingrained in our lives since childhood (remember those high-sugar snacks you ate after school?), but now it appears that it may be more than a bad habit â€" it could be an addiction.

The pattern of avoiding and bingeing can lead to addict-like effects and studies have shown that sugar affects the same ‘feel-good’ hormones as street drugs. So while a cheeky afternoon doughnut isn’t the same as a heroin addiction â€" it can still mess with your body and brain.

Are you addicted?

Anyone has the potential to use sugary foods in an unhealthy way, but how do you know if you have an addiction? You may find yourself losing control when you get the taste for something sweet, leading to a binge. You may feel agitated and down if you miss your after-dinner dessert, or you may even feel shaky and anxious when you try to cut out sugar.

What happens to your brain on sugar?

Overloading on sugary foods has been shown to alter the parts of the brain that control how much you eat â€" this could lead you to overeat. Studies have also shown that just looking at images of sugary food can trigger brain effects similar to drug addicts. Suffice to say our mind has a profound effect when it comes to diet.

How can you cut down?

While there are some diets out there that promote cutting out all forms of sugar, this is difficult to maintain and may lead to frustration and a sugar binge. Instead, trying to cut down slowly and retraining your taste buds can help. Try cutting out one sweet food a week, over time you will find you no longer crave the taste.

Opting for healthy sweet foods such as fruit and natural yoghurt is another great step to take, try replacing your usual sugar fix with fresh fruit and see how you get on. If you’re hungry, you are more likely to reach for high-sugar foods, so be sure to include high-protein meals in your diet to help you feel fuller for longer.

If it is the habit side of things you are finding hard to kick, it may be worth seeking the help of a professional. A hypnotherapist dealing with food addiction can help to break negative habits and re-programme the mind in a healthy way. To find out more, please see our food addiction page.

View and comment on the original WebMD article.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 8th, 2013 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Food Addiction, Habits, Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Stressful life events may increase dementia risk in women, says study

Common stressful life events such as a difficult divorce or loss of a spouse when middle-aged, could increase the risk of women developing dementia later on in life.

Research recently published in the online version of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) compiled data from a long-term study of 800 Swedish women to find that those who experienced a higher number of “stressful” events when middle-aged were more likely to be diagnosed with dementia in later life.

The life “stressors” included widowhood, divorce, job issues and an ill relative.

According to the results, one in four women had experienced a minimum of one stressful event, while 23% had suffered two, one in five had suffered three and 16% had suffered in excess of four.

Throughout the assessment period, almost 20% of women went on to develop dementia.

According to the collated data, the number of stressors reported in 1968 when the women were ‘middle-aged’ was associated with a 21% heightened risk of developing Alzheimer’s and a 15% heightened risk of developing any type of dementia.

While the authors have said that more research is required in order to cement the study findings, the results do suggest that stress may trigger a series of physiological reactions in the central nervous, endocrine and immune systems. The authors said:

“Our study shows that common psychosocial stressors may have severe and long-standing physiological and psychological consequences.”

Commenting on the study, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, Dr Simon Ridley, said that research such as this is key for identifying trends and highlighting areas that warrant further investigation.

We all experience stressful events during our lives and unfortunately during these times it is easy to forget the basics of looking after ourselves. If you are going through a stressful stage in your life and the effects are beginning to ripple into other areas (job and relationships etc.), a hypnotherapist could help you to take back control. Hypnotherapy has long since been used as a way to promote relaxation, tapping in to the unconscious mind to replace negative reactions and behaviour patterns with more positive ones. To find out more, visit our stress fact-sheet.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 6th, 2013 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Stress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Overcoming limiting beliefs

The biggest challenge most people face when it comes to creating prosperity is themselves.

Limiting beliefs are beliefs that hinder your potential by constricting the way you think, subconsciously sabotaging your efforts to succeed. These limiting beliefs come from years of mental programming; television, books and the media in general have all programmed us to think in a certain way â€" and sadly this is usually a negative experience.

These days we are far more likely to change and develop according to the influence of the media than we are from physical evolution â€" unsurprisingly it is the mind that drives the bus. The problem with this is that the mind is not thinking clearly â€" it is blinkered with a set of limiting beliefs. Typical beliefs include ‘you’re not worthy’ and ‘you must look and act a certain way to be successful’, messages that subconsciously hold us back.

As technology evolves, this issue spreads quicker and with more force as we get bombarded with subliminal messages every day. So how do you know if your mind is secretly sabotaging you? If you’re not living the life you want, one full of happiness and success, chances are you’re being sabotaged.

How can you stop these beliefs?

The most important part of the fight is recognising that you have limiting beliefs, and knowing you want to change. Once you are aware of them, you can change them. Here are four ways you can stop limiting beliefs:

1. Spend some time in the morning reading something positive.
2. Post a vision board somewhere you’ll see it every day and cover it in images and words that represent your desires.
3. Repeat positive affirmations in the present tense.
4. Make sure you are spending time with people who accept you for who you are, and spend less time with those who don’t.

By examining your core beliefs and looking back to where they came from, you may find there are thoughts there with no evidence supporting them. Change the way you think and adopt positive beliefs for a more positive life.

Hypnotherapy is a great tool to help break negative thought patterns and change the way you think. To see how it could help you, please browse our hypnotherapy areas.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 1st, 2013 at 7:00 am and is filed under Low Self Confidence, Low Self-Esteem. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.