Why is it so hard to stick to a healthy habit?

Hello, it's Jennifer Dent here, health and success coach, and I'm coming to you today to talk about why is it so hard to stick to a healthy habit. One of the things that I constantly hear from women I do discovery calls with who are interested in coaching with me is that, yeah, they can start a diet, they can eat chicken breast and broccoli and, and work out for a good week or so, and then life happens. They get thrown off track, schedule gets messed up, um, they just fall off, and then they can't seem to get back on the horse. They can't seem to regain their motivation, and that is so common. I mean, I suffered with that for decades as I was trying, as I was going through my weight loss process or trying to lose the weight. And I would be gung-ho about something, gung-ho about a new diet, gung-ho about a new program. I'm super motivated, would get all my friends to like join in with me. And after like 3 weeks, I would just be burnt out. Like, I can't even think about what time I'm supposed to eat this protein bar. Like, it's ridiculous. So one of the things about building healthy habits is that you really need to be diligent about it. So trying something for a week, for 7 days, trying something for 3 days, trying something for 2 weeks doesn't necessarily equate to building a healthy habit and having that habit stick. Um, research now shows that it takes 66 days to create a new habit. 66 days. That's like 2.5 months, um, of being diligent and doing this thing, whatever that thing is for you, repeatedly for 66 days. Now, actually, I think this is great that psychologists and researchers, or some researchers, have discovered that it takes 66 days because it actually gives us a point. Um, if you've tried anything for 30 days, you realize like, all right, I can do anything for 30 days, but But maybe like on day 35, that habit has kind of fallen off. So it'd be interesting to do that, try that same habit for 66 days to see if that actually makes a difference. Well, guess what? I have created a group that I'm super excited about, an accountability group. It's called the Stop Dieting Forever accountability group, and I'll put the link below so you can go directly to the page and see what it's all about and see how you can join. But essentially, you would pick one habit every— well, every 30 days, but every 66 days if you want to change something about yourself. So for instance, just say real simple, if you actually— if you read my ebook Stop Dieting Forever, the first thing I talk about is drinking more water. Most of us do not drink enough water in a day. We get most of our liquids from coffee, from tea, from sugary beverages. Um, all these messages are coming in right now, good grief. Um, we get our water from, you know, other places other than actually drinking plain old H2O. So, um, I suggest drinking at least 3 water— 3 liters of water a day, um, for the average woman, which is about, oh good Lord, don't get me to lie, I think it's like 100 ounces, 100, yeah, about 100 ounces of water. So say that's your goal, you know, you wanna like, right now maybe you're at like 16 ounces, you can drink one of those 16-ounce bottles of water, but now your goal is like, all right, I really wanna improve my health, I wanna feel better, I wanna start flushing those toxins out, I wanna rehydrate myself, I want to help my digestive issues because drinking water does make you go. So I'm going to start drinking 100 ounces of water, which is awesome. So you're good for like 2 days, and then you kind of fall off. You get tired of drinking water. This is where the accountability group comes in, because you would have posted your goal in the group at the beginning of the month saying that, hey, please keep me accountable, I really want to drink 100 liters or 100 ounces of water a day, 3 liters of water a day. So whatever you need to do to make that happen is what you, what you can post in the group. If you don't know what to do, if you need some help, you need some tips, that's where I come in. That's where the community support comes in. So for someone like that, I might suggest like, hey, you need to buy yourself a really pretty, beautiful, gorgeous water bottle that you enjoy drinking out of and have it posted on your desk. Or maybe you need to use an app. Like, I, I use an app every day to make sure I get enough water in, um, an app called Waterlogged, where you just log in your water. You can see how much you've consumed and how much more you need to consume. Or maybe you need to come up with a schedule, like, so at 10 AM you're going to drink 16 ounces of water, and then maybe at 12 AM you're going to drink another 16 ounces of water, and you need to like put alarms on your phone or alerts on your phone so you get that in. I will help you come up with a plan so you can make your goal happen. In addition, the community support will keep you accountable because you're going to need to post in the group how you're doing with your goal. So the more that you post, of course, the more accountable we can keep— more accountable we and me can keep you to your goal. If you're just kind of like, "Oh, I'm just gonna come in in the beginning of the month," and then don't check in until the end of the month, chances are you're not gonna be successful. So, the big push is that you, whatever goal that you choose, you're going to do it for 66 days. Now, 66 days, perfect. So just imagine this one person who wants to drink 3 liters of water. She does it every day for 66 days. Her skin starts to glow. She has more energy. Her urine is clear. Her digestive system is working perfectly every morning. So she's like experiencing all these benefits from drinking 3 liters of water a day. She's posting it in the group. She's inspiring others to say like, hey, all of these great things can happen to you if you just start drinking more water. And so the other people in the group are like, hey, maybe that'll be my next goal for next month. I'm going to start drinking, um, 3 liters of water. And so once you've mastered that particular habit, one, not only have you inspired others to become healthy by maybe taking on the same healthy habit, but two, you've mastered it. So now you get to go on to your next one, and maybe your next one is something a little bit more challenging. Maybe it is getting to the gym 4 days a week and figuring out how you can do that. Maybe in the past you haven't been successful with getting out to the gym 4 days a week. And you need some help trying to come up with some, like, alternate plans or figuring out your schedule, I will help you with that within the group. Um, you will get the community support. And so you do that for 66 days and you master that habit. And so, wow, you look back and, like, by the end of the year, December, you're drinking 3 liters of water a day and you're hitting the gym 4 days a week, or working out 4 days a week. Doesn't necessarily mean you're going to a physical location. To work out. What could you look like in 3 months, by the end of the year, maybe by January, like 4 months in January? 4 months is January. You're walking into 2017, you've probably lost a little bit of weight, your skin is glowing, you're— maybe you have some muscle tone, you've lost some weight because you are building these healthy habits and you are incorporating them into your schedule and making them concrete. You're learning how to deal with obstacles that come up so you're not getting thrown off like you may have before. So that's like the beauty of this group, um, this accountability group. You can stay in it as long as you want. It's $5 a month. That's it, $5 a month. That's like cheaper than a Subway footlong hoagie. Um, cheaper than a Starbucks Frappuccino, $5 a month. You can cancel at any time, but the longer you stay in, the more you keep yourself accountable, the healthier you will become over time. So my philosophy has always been to focus on one thing at a time, and as you focus on one thing at a time, you start to build, build, build. I like to use the analogy of layering accessories. So you get dressed, so you have on this beautiful sheath dress, it looks gorgeous on you, but it looks just a little bit plain. So you're like, all right, I'm going to put on a bracelet. So you put on one bracelet and you're like, okay, that looks really nice. And I'm going to put on a necklace. I'm like, oh, that necklace looks okay. So you got a necklace, a bracelet, and okay, it's starting to come to life. Then you're like, you know what, I'm going to throw on my favorite dangly earrings. And then all of a sudden you start to pop a little bit and you start to like, ooh, shimmer a little bit because you're starting to look really good in this dress. Is coming together because you're layering your accessories. And then you decide, well, let me throw on this scarf, and that really just makes the dress come to life. So layering your accessories is a great analogy for layering healthy habits. One at a time, the more you do, the more beautiful you will become. So I do hope that you will check out the accountability group. It— I just launched it yesterday, so it is open for you to join. October 1st is Saturday, so that would be a great time for you to pick your one healthy goal that you're going to focus, focus, focus on for the next 66 days and let me support you in getting that healthy goal mastered. So that is it. You can go to JenniferDent.com, um, mmm, Stop Dieting Forever support group. You can see at the top where it says lose weight. Click down and it says Stop Dieting Forever Accountability Group. Click there and I'd love to have you in the group. So that's it, $5 a month. Hope you all have an awesome day. Bye!