Get in the Healthy Habit

In order to get and maintain healthy six pack abs, it is important to change habits that have had a lifetime to develop. Whether it's an addiction to sugar, cigarettes, or simply a case of massive laziness, you can change your less desirable habits to good ones if you follow some simple steps. It is possible to change-just ask anyone who has lost a lot of weight and managed to maintain it long-term. You can ask someone who went from being a couch potato to running marathons, "What is the one thing you had to do to change?"

Most of them will answer that they had to develop a new set of habits surrounding their beliefs and actions regarding food, exercise, and themselves.

These can be some of the hardest habits to change. Most of us grew up with positive role models, but just the simple act of living can allow us to slip into bad habits. Making a commitment to change your appearance, sometimes radically, can provoke many of the fears we all felt as children and teens.

"Will I still be me?" The question of who we are and how we fit into the world is one that requires life long change and adjustment-many of us reach a point where we think we are 'finished', and there we stay, whether it's good for us or not.

Getting into the healthy habit of six pack abs is a mindset that can bring us great reward by improving our health, giving us improved strength and energy for daily tasks, and giving us an entirely new and positive mind set.

However, getting into the healthy habit of six pack abs can also reopen old fears and insecurities about our looks, our friends, and our families. When you change something as radical as your appearance, you can open yourself up to much more attention from people-and not all of it is necessarily appreciated or wanted. You will have jealous friends or family members who will try to cut you down every step of the way because of their own insecurities. The people closest to you can be your worst critics because they know the buttons to push to make you miserable. That being said, when they honestly support you, you have excellent allies in your struggle to change.

It is important, before even deciding to change a habit, to set up a game-plan and write down everything that could hold you back, as well as all of the resources you have, in helping you to achieve your goal.

There are three basic steps that will assist you in getting into the healthy habit of six pack abs.

1. Decide one thing you want to change, and write a plan to change it.

This is where you need to keep it simple and specific. Instead off writing 'I want to lose weight', write down 'I want to lose 'X' pounds by 'X' date, and I will do it by eliminating 'X' from my diet'.

2. Identify those things that trigger bad behavior and come up with replacement behaviors to do instead of that bad thing. For example, if you want to eliminate eating at fast food restaurants from your diet, you need to identify what causes you to eat there (usually hunger) and you need to identify a replacement behavior (make sure you have good food with you). This one simple step, if eating fast food is a daily thing, can eliminate a lot of bad stuff from your diet right there. And if you replace eating fast food with eating healthy options, you will be a step closer to your goal of losing weight.

3. Every time your trigger event occurs, do your replacement! Do this straight for at least 25-30 days and you will find yourself with a new healthy habit for your six pack abs training.

When we first take a look at ourselves in order to change things, most of us can come up with an extremely long list of things that make us unhappy. The old saying is true-we really can be our own worst enemy sometimes. When picking out your goals, chose the one item that you want to change the most right now. Set the rest of the list aside for a later time. It is important to concentrate on this one thing only for this time. If you try to do too much at once, it will turn into almost every New Year's resolution any of us have ever made-you will make a mighty attempt to do it all and you will burn out in a couple weeks as you realise how incredibly hard changing only one habit can be. Focus is key, small steps are essential, and repetition is paramount. The new behavior is one you need to do every time a trigger occurs or it will not become a habit.

Remember too that the new habit can suddenly be challenged and sabotaged by our own brains months and sometimes years away from the change. This change can be triggered by huge life events that drive us to seek comfort in the familiar and old routines of our past behaviors. Anyone who has ever quit smoking or drinking will related immediately to this. Sometimes all it takes is a smell and the cravings come back stronger than ever. Once you change your bad habits you need to stay aware that it can all come back in a moment if the conditions are right. Keep on your game and remember why you changed in the first place-it can give you the strength to keep moving forward.