I have never had any of the usual addictions as smoking, gambling, alcoholism, etc. For this I’m glad, but I have always been weak for unhealthy food as candy, sweets, soda, etc. During the last few years I have tried a numerous of things to stop this habit, but there have always been bad excuses for me or sometimes I couldn’t say no when I was on a dinner party.
Just before my operation last month I remembered an old comic where one of the characters marked an X in his calendar every day to count down for the weekend. I thought about it and decided to implement it for my life.
How the system works
I found the calendar you can see above online and printed it. Then I hung it on my bedroom door resulting in me staring at it every morning and evening.
Every evening just before I’m going to bed I think back on the day. If I managed a whole day without eating any unhealthy snacks, cookies, soda, etc. I mark the date with a red X.
During the day when I feel the urge to eat something unhealthy I simply think about my calendar and decide to not eat it because I want a clean sheet.
Use it to everything
People usually says it takes about 30 days to create a new habit and in this case I will go on using this for at least two months, then I will evaluate and see if the urge is still there. If not I can easily adapt my method to any new habit I would like to implement into my life. At the moment I’m thinking about taking a bracing walk every day.
Discussion: What are your good or bad habits and what do you do to keep them or try to break them?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Stefan, nice method, I’m also trying something similar myself.
Oscar
I’m glad to hear Oscar. Are you successful?
Stephan this is such a simple system in a complex food world and it’s probably one of the best out there, it requires a tremendous amount of self control though.
Congrats on cutting out the crap
Hey Stefan!
Awesome, I have the same habit, sometimes I pig out so bad on junk food, and I don’t like it because I know it’s bad for me.
Great idea with the calendar! I’m going to try it out!
Thanks man!
Diggy
Actually, it’s such a great idea to apply but the problem is I’m not a kind of person who feels convenient enough to show off what project/job I’m doing or goals I’m trying to achieve. Sticking the calendar on the wall just to invite other people’s eyes to scrutinize what that is for is troublesome sometimes. So I’d better keep the calendar only for myself and hopefully, in the end, can show off what I manage to achieve. Because I love giving people surprises!
I hope it’s working out for you so far?
I just want to share with you something that worked great for me. I haven’t had less than 1 liter of coke in entire 2009 so far and I went without most soda for the first 5 months, but during the summer I started to drink some Dr Pepper as it was new down here
Anyway – what I do when I’m out eating, either dinner or lunch, I just don’t allow myself to *think* about what I want to drink. “Water” is the standard response, it’s the default beverage for my food and I know that, so when I don’t start thinking about it and come up with excuses to take a coke, then it’s very easy to just stick with water.
By the way, coke is also great for cleaning toilets or the inside of a fuel tank – consider that next time you feel the urge for a pepsi
Great method Klaus. I’m using a similar tactic and even though I do not have the urge to drink water I know it will taste good as soon as I start drinking it.
About Cola and Pepsi then. I read a study last week where two people were putting real teeth’s in Cola and within one year there was nothing left of the tooth.
Great method! However it cannot undermine the importance & necessity of self control. You need it & can’t succeed without it. I am glad that you have found something that is giving you enthusiasm to use your self control. Congrats!