Establishing healthy habits begins in the mind. If we understand what we have done to create an unhealthy mindset, we can rewire our brain with a positive attitude. This goes for thoughts about our self, food, and healthy habits.
The beliefs you store in your mind influence your decisions. What do you believe about yourself? Do you focus on the lies of the enemy, or does the Holy Spirit lead you to trust that you do not have a spirit of fear and timidity but a spirit of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7)? What you choose to put into your mind is key to creating a positive and healthy belief system.
We can change our beliefs about the unhealthy foods we eat. We experience the world through our five senses. And food can be a big part of that through taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch. Are we listening to fast-food commercials that tantalize our senses, or are we enjoying the taste of a delicious orange? Whatever thoughts you choose to focus on will be acted upon.
Beware of how food marketing elicits your senses and makes you crave whatever is being shown to you. Merely viewing the food causes dopamine to release in the brain, and an overwhelming desire to consume it ensues. Avoid food marketing.
The key to changing your habits is changing your belief system about healthy and unhealthy food. As you read and learn more about the benefits of eating whole foods that God created, the more you will consume them. It takes 63 days to form a habit, not 21. In 21 days, your short-term thoughts become long-term memory, but it takes another two cycles of 21 days to form these thoughts into a habit—63 days.
If you want to begin a positive habit, decide to do it over two months so that it can become a part of your routine. To change your beliefs about food, educate yourself about what processed and fast-foods do to your body versus God’s healthy foods. You want to consume a low-sugar diet. I recommend listening to the Audible book 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates. As you listen and learn, new eating habits will emerge as you realize how the food industry strips the God-given nutrients from processed food to extend the shelf-life. Junk food boosts the food manufacturers’ bottom line while harming the body of those who consume it. A client told me she was listening to this Audible book as she drove to ingrain the knowledge in her brain to change her mindset about food.
If you have an emotional connection with food, I recommend reading the Christian Study Guide for 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates, which is full of scripture and biblical examples to help you embrace a positive mindset. In this study, you will mobilize God’s power to evoke lifestyle changes you struggled to implement on your own. Just like you can change your choices through establishing a healthy habit, you can change your future by changing the foods you eat.
Whatever you pay attention to regularly will become part of your belief system. Turn off the food marketing commercials on the radio and television. Don’t read billboards about fast-food. Understand that whatever you put into your mind will influence your decisions. Therefore, you can promote whatever eating pattern you choose to focus on by learning about it and planting those positive seeds into your mind.
Healthy Habits Resources
Another helpful resource is the Healthy Living Journal: Track your Healthy Eating and Living Habits for Improved Health and Well-Being. This book includes 42 days of either educational snippets or devotions to focus on regarding embracing a positive lifestyle. This journal recommends evaluating everything you eat to determine if it is beneficial for you or not. After you eat something, pay attention to how you feel. Does it cause you to burp or become bloated? Many times we ignore what our body is trying to tell us. Therefore, a daily Well-Being Chart is included so you can associate a negative symptom with a specific food. What type of undesirable symptom do you experience that you would like to alleviate?
For fifty years my sister needed to be close to a bathroom, until she found out she was gluten sensitive. As long as she maintains a gluten-free diet, she does not struggle with that symptom anymore. Recently, I had a reader tell me she had the same issue that my sister had until she stopped eating wheat. Now that problem has been alleviated. She no longer has to live her life ensuring she is close to a bathroom. If you would like to learn more about gluten sensitivity, check out my blog, What’s Wrong With Today’s Modern Wheat.
Another tactic is to listen to podcasts about healthy eating and living. Anything positive that you can input into your mind during these 63 days would be beneficial. This repeated exposure causes learning to occur, which will eventually become part of your new belief system. Ultimately, it will form into a healthy living habit for your life. This is not a diet but a lifestyle change to a low-sugar diet. To successfully implement this new lifestyle, you need to cognitively change your belief system. Choose to take the time to learn about how you improve your diet. Your body will thank you.
To help guide you with this transition, grab a copy of my four eBook cookbooks for half-price at https://susanuneal.com/product/4-cookbooks. These books include Breakfast Cookbook, All About Salads, Soup & Bread Cookbook, and Main Dishes Cookbook.
Many people do not succeed in changing their eating habits. They don’t realize that the way they eat was ingrained in them for a long time. Your family of origin may have eaten in an unhealthy manner, and that habit has been passed down to you. Or through being so busy in college or work you embraced the fast-food way of eating, and now it has become a habit that is harming you. Whatever your situation may be, know that you can change your diet and your life. Monitor what passes through your five senses. Whatever you pay attention to and consistently think about becomes a part of your mindset, ultimately influencing your choices.
Another stumbling block for many is that once a person stumbles and eats something unhealthy, they believe they failed, so they binge eat. Every morning is new, so having an attitude to start fresh the next day is a winning attitude that will lead to success. Only Jesus was perfect. We will stumble and fall, but keep getting up and eat well the next day and the next.
Set aside the next 63 days to change your unhealthy eating habits into positive ones. Choose the resources you need to gain knowledge, and you will change your lifestyle for the better. May God bless your endeavor to improve your health and optimal weight.
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I believe that establishing healthy habits comes down to repetition, so the more that you include things like fruit and veggies in your day-to-day regimen, the easier it’ll be to do so moving forward. Thanks for sharing!
SUSAN!!! That blog was SO GOOD!!! Thank you! We are never too “successful” or too good about our good habits that we still do not need reminders about healthy choices and staying on tract as well as listening to others so be encouraged. Again, THANK YOU!!! I appreciate it.
Maureen Greer
So glad you enjoyed the blog. My next publication, 12 Ways to Age Gracefully, will have a whole chapter on establishing healthy habits. Blessings, Susan Neal