The Toothbrush List: A Way To Easily Change Fitness And Health Habits
Whether you are trying to improve sleep patterns, change your food choices, or increase your time spent in nature, consistency is critical for these changes to impact how you feel. While this is easy to see, in reality, being consistent with healthy habits can be challenging.
It so often starts with a lot of excellent intentions. This may look like making a goal and saying to yourself, “alright, it’s time to make sure I get outside in the morning and evening for at least five minutes”. You think about it, make a resolve, and tell yourself I’ll do it tomorrow. However, tomorrow comes and then the day after next. Without realizing it, a few weeks or months can go by without any change.
Enter, what I like to call…
The Tooth Brush List: A Place To Put New Habits
No matter how busy or stressed we get, most people still brush their teeth at least once a day. Three main components contribute to this.
- It is a habit we have done for the majority of our lives.
- We were reminded to do it for our whole childhood.
- It is non-negotiable.
Below we will break down each of these and how other healthy habits may differ.
Healthy Habits
Dental hygiene practices, for most, are taught to us when we are young. So, we have years and years under our belt of practicing it. Brushing our teeth is an automatic behavior triggered by a combination of factors, in other words, it is a habit. As you may know, the more we practice a habit, the easier it gets because we do not have to think about doing it. Due to many years of practice, it takes less energy to brush our teeth than other habits.
Depending on your history, upbringing, and recent history other healthy habits may be brand new or haven’t been a part of your recent daily life. Forming healthy habits is often a combination of the following.
- stopping behaviors
- replacing behaviors or choices
- building new behaviors or making different choices
Since these are often new or not current practices, they are harder than brushing our teeth. However, the good news is that with practice they can become closer to the ease of brushing your teeth.
Support For Health Habits
As a kid, parents or other adults are responsible for teaching us a variety of things. Before a child goes to bed they are often asked if they brushed their teeth, and maybe again in the morning before leaving for school. While we may have grumbled and groaned at the time, we can thank our parents or guardians for helping us build these habits. It is of course different in each home, for some they may have taught themselves these skills while others may have had more support.
In changing our current health habits, support can help make lasting changes. This can be different for each person but may include some of the following.
- figuring out what habits to work on in what order
- providing accountability
- problem-solving with particularly challenging habits
Whether you enlist family, and friends, or hire a professional, building and utilizing a support network improves the likelihood of sticking with new healthy habit goals.
Non-Negotiable Goals
We are all different in terms of temperament, skills, and challenges. For some, the structure of a non-negotiable goal may be helpful and for others, it may lead to compulsive and unhealthy behaviors. Finding a balance of structure and flexibility that helps you is important.
One main aspect of the toothbrush list is that is it non-negotiable or let’s say, mostly non-negotiable. For some of us, there is a mental discussion when forming new habits. For example, when the time comes to choose between going for a walk in the evening or watching TV, watching TV can become very alluring. When a new habit is on the Toothbrush List, we may sigh and grumble but it can help us to get off the couch or make a different choice.
Finding a way to build new healthy habits to very important if you are looking to make changes in how you feel. For some, making small, attainable, daily health goals and adding them to the toothbrush list can help. Support in discovering what changes to make and how to be consistent with them can aid you in your health journey as well. If you or someone you know is looking for individualized online health or fitness coaching, contact Integrative Strength & Movement here to learn more.