How long does it take to change your lifestyle?

I read that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. Here is a familiar example: When you walk into your bedroom you "automatically" reach for the light switch on the left side as you enter. Then you move to a new home where the light switch is located on the right side as you enter. You will find that it will take you about 21 days to stop reaching for that light switch on the left side.

I'm on day 6 of this lifestyle change...lets not call it diet because I so don't want this to be short term. I am always excited the first two weeks then I get bored or fall off the wagon. I know this hard...every day of the 6 has been tough. Tough from changing my eating habits from fried chicken to grilled chicken and instead of 2-3 servings to ONE! Of course I'm full but I'm used to that....I'm going to puke I'm so full feeling.

Does THIS change get any easier? Does it become second nature?

In my experience, on the one hand, yes, it does become more "habitual". But I've never felt that the kind of habits we're dealing with here ever become so automatic that we can take them for granted. I have a lot of preferences that war with the new habits I try to create. So after 5 1/2 years of regular exercise, I still have to MAKE myself exercise, and there are plenty of days I talk myself out of it. Some days I can breeze past my trigger foods, and other days are a real challenge.

What gets easier is the planning. I know what to buy at the grocery store and how to prep on the weekends to make the weeks easier.

So, second nature? Not all of it. Easier? Yes, much of it!

What Heather said! I never hit the obese category, but my downfall was portion size and the "want" to have the full sensation in my belly. Even though it's now been two years since I started weighing questionable foods, I still don't have a habit for stopping when satisfied, or for eyeing portions. I'd like to think it will become automatic eventually, but every test of not doing it has added weight. I think you could get into the habit of flossing every day, in 21 days, but not so sure it's viable for food issues. The biology is awfully strong.

I think each "healthy" habit you develop can be done in 21 days.

A complete lifestyle overhaul might take a little longer, but it DOES get easier!

I gave up soda and that seemed impossible to me at one point in my life. Now, I can't even imagine ordering a soda at dinner or lunch. Water or sparkling water is just an automatic response for me now.

It's the same thing with exercising....I exercise 7 hours a week and when I don't, my body actually misses it! I look forward to going to my classes.

I also used to do fast-food drive-bys to get a snack and now that's not an option.

I don't know if it took 21 days, but it all came in small steps. I don't think I could overhaul my whole life entirely, but doing small steps really helped.

I have kind of a unique advantage to the thought process behind your post.

I have had 2 brain surgeries, while awake. My neurosurgeon moved leads into my brain and while placing them, he was able to make me feel incredibly hungry, feel anger and sadness. I started crying, uncontrollably at one point, and within a moment, it stopped. It was the most incredible experience I have ever been through.

After both surgeries, while talking with my neuro, he suggested that it would be very difficult for me to lose weight because my leads were placed very near the appetite center. The constant stimulation would make me want to eat more. However, he also told me that he has been involved with studies showing that making little changes in our environment, for instance, moving the light switch, changing the arm where your watch is, changing the door handle on the frig to the other side, resets important brain patterns, including the need to overeat.

I thought it sounded odd, but figured I'd try it. I have been a watch-wearer all of my life. Always on the left arm. I moved it to the right arm. For over a month, I would always look at my left arm and then have that momentary "what the heck?" feeling and then look to the other arm. It sounds so simple and ridiculous, but guess what? It worked. I thought less about food, binging and overeating. As soon as I got used to it being on the left arm, I moved it back to the right.

It makes sense if you think about it. Many of our food issues are ingrained in familiarity and comfort. When you shake up your world, even in a small way, it can rewire the pleasure centers.

Just something to think about.

Yes it becomes easier, yes it becomes a habit, but no it will never not be a struggle for me. Some days I make all the right decisions without much thought, other days it take every ounce not to stuff my face and some days I do stuff my face. For me, I have a "condition", a "disorder", a screwed up relationship with food, whatever you want to call, I don't naturally do what I'm "supposed" to with food and it will be something that I struggle with all my life no matter what my weight. But I do know it's a heck of a lot easier to deal with it at my current weight. Good luck!

WOW! Thank you for all of our responses! I keep telling myself....BABY STEPS...some seconds/hours/days/weeks will be bad and some will be good. I almost feel like a addict. Which I guess I am...I had posted eariler how I love cake more than my husband at times...lol...sounds silly...but there WERE times were I would trade him for a piece of carrot cake if I could. I'm on day six and trying not to look ahead just yet...taking the hour in front of me to get through to the next.

I totally feel addicted to food. Just hope the habits I'm creating stick!!!

Wow, that is a really interesting post! I'm going to have to try an equivalent to the watch thing. What an experience that must have been...

I sometimes drive different ways to places to re-train my brain. It really works. I can feel my brain working so much harder when I'm going a strange route.

I also found that mountain biking - where you brain has to make a ton of decisions every second so you don't flip over a rock or fly off the trail is a real "brain work out."

Eurydice-yes it was!

Seagirl-It really does work to retrain your brain in little ways when attempting to make big changes. I would have thought my post sounded nutty until I tried what the doc said and gave it an honest chance. It's amazing.

I don't know if any of this will ever become so much of a habit that I can take it for granted; that it can be thoughtless. I have to think and plan everything having to do with my food and exercise and fitness, and may well for the rest of my life.

Does the thinking and planning get easier? Well, for me, the planning has. The thinking goes in shifts from less to more, occasionally bordering on obsessive, but then I can go on automatic for a while (for example rotating meals that I know work in my calorie range).

It's still SOOOOO much better than being 200 pounds.

Milmin's post really is food for thought!

I tried very hard to change habits over winter break. I'm a teacher and we have 3 weeks at Christmas. I'd read about the 21-day rule, and ate very carefully, cooked healthy meals, walked 20 minutes a day. It was so easy. The first day back at school, it was all gone, and I was back to grab and go eating and no time for exercise. The next 3 weeks are nonstop stress, and then, in theory, it will be calmer and I'll try, try again.

Although I was never a binger and I rarely - even at my highest weight - ate between meals, I ate huge portion sizes at my meals and ate very unhealthy things. So while I think a lot of my habits have changed, I don't believe that I'll ever be completely cured.

Just today, I spent a couple of hours painting our new workout room that we built. Then I used the treadmill for 45 minutes and felt pretty darn good. I took the dogs outside so they could run and play for a while and I said to myself in my head "Oh - a Mountain Dew would taste great - I'm getting one when I go in." I have not had a drop of soda since May of last year. So why this would pop in my head? It shows me that the addiction will always be there.

The difference now, is that I didn't have to have a big mental battle in my head, or debate myself, or pout about it. I just laughed at myself and moved on with my life. That's my new habit.

Dunno if I can speak to the 21 days... but it's possible to break some very ingrained habits. A few years ago my right wrist would be sore, from grasping the mouse all day at my desk job.

So... I started using my left hand. (With the same right handed mouse.) It felt really weird. And awkward. I couldn't control the pointer. I kept clicking the wrong buttons.

So I'd switch it back to the right hand. Ow! Ow! OK, I give up... back to the left it goes, until my wrist heals...

Where this story ends: I eventually got used to it. Now I use the mouse with my left hand at home all the time, and with my right hand at work! I can flip it from one hand to the other at any time and forget which one I selected, and keep browsing/working.

I can't say anything about food, but I quit smoking in September (my husband still smokes). It was very difficult for the first while, and even now, it's been 4 months, and occasionally the thought will pop into my head "I could really go for a smoke", but I just push it aside, and continue on with whatever I was doing. Sometimes I even go outside and talk to my husband while he smokes. It's become, for the most part, just something other people do.

Now that I am changing my diet, it's not been so bad for the last 5 days, but I did stumble and have nachos and a butter tart last night. I made up for it with walking an extra mile on the Wii today. I know it's not enough to walk off the calories I ate, but it's better than eating them and then doing nothing (like I have done for years, which is why I now weigh this much).