How to Fix Your Bad Diet Habits

Today you’re going to hear a BIG secret. But I have to warn you, it’s a double edged sword. If you put this secret to work for you, it can make your life so much easier.

BUT…

If you aren’t careful, this secret can work against YOU, and cause you a LOT of misery. Use it wisely, and treat it with great respect.

The secret is all about habits.

“We are what we repeatedly do,” said the philosopher Aristotle, “Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

But so is failure…and so is frustration.

That’s why it was so important to send you this email. The winter blues, the cold, and the snowstorms have sucked the New Year’s motivation levels from many TT readers. You need a secret weapon for success…you can’t rely on motivation and willpower forever. You need iron-clad success habits to make your weight loss AUTOMATIC.

This email will reveal how you can quickly and easily put together the right habits, for every aspect of your life (from weight loss to improving your relationships and even to having more success at work).

You see, there’s a secret to developing good habits…and why we need a big WARNING sign to avoid letting bad habits suck you down the road to failure.

First, let’s cover the worst-case scenario…

Every time we plop down on the couch, turn on our favorite show, and munch on our favorite high-calorie snacks, our brain is tricking us into making these bad habits harder and harder to break by rewarding us with a substance called dopamine. Dopamine is what stimulates the pleasure center in our brain and locks us into bad habits.

First, you’re rewarded for being in your comfort zone. That’s fine, everyone from the President to the Queen and you and me in between deserves some downtime. But too much time spent hiding in your comfort zone isn’t good for us. We must step out of our comfort zone to make progress in life. As the Bible says, we were given “a spirit not of fear but of power”. We were meant to grow and improve outside of our comfort zone.

Second, we’re rewarded by the entertainment we watch. And again, everyone likes being entertained. You might read a book or watch the latest HBO drama, while my mom chooses to watch Judge Judy, and I prefer watching Miami Heat games with my friend Joel Marion…mostly because of the snacks…which brings me to our third, and most important point…

Third, we’re given the most dangerous reward to the food we eat. The more sugar and fat in our foods, the more dopamine is released…and the more we get addicted. This is where the trouble starts.

You’ve now associated all those rewards and good feels with being in your comfort zone, being entertained, and eating high-calorie treats, so that each time you sit down at night to watch your show – or read your book – your brain says, “Hey, I want my dopamine surge. Where’s my high-calorie snack?”

The association is strong, like the Force. Only in this instance, it’s the Dark Side of the Force that is prevailing. And that’s why we get addicted to eating too much when we are in our comfort zone (they are called Comfort Foods for a reason). This is how bad habits build up in our lives.

The good news is that you can shut down these bad habits and build good fat-burning habits just as easily. You just need to associate the right behaviors with rewards to get more results.

Scientific research out of Stanford University, from a really smart cookie named BJ Fogg, proves that this works. Professor Fogg teaches tells us to start by creating good mini-habits, and to build them up and to make them stronger every day.

For example, he teaches that people can become regular flossers if they simply start with one tooth a day, and to connect this to another activity that you do every day. In this case, you’d say to yourself, “Before I take my nice, warm morning shower I have to floss at least one tooth.”

Soon, one tooth becomes two, and the next thing you know you’re flossing your teeth every day before you shower, and you’re taking fewer and fewer trips to the dentist, and when you do go, the cute dental hygienist pats you on the head and says, “Nice work, Craig!” (Ha!)

That’s how mini-habits are built. Now let’s put this secret into play for weight loss, a better diet, and getting back in shape.

There are many easy ways to do this. If you need help sticking to your workout routine, you would just say to yourself, “As soon as I wake up in the morning, and before I go have my delicious cup of coffee (or Green Tea or Daily Energy shake), I put on my workout clothes and cue up my daily workout video to do with Craig.”

Putting on your workout clothes and cueing up the video is half the battle. Once you have those actions complete, you will be two giant steps closer to following through on your workout.

After you finish your morning cuppa, you’ll be ready to do your workout AUTOMATICALLY so that you never miss another session again. That will kick-start your metabolism into all-day automatic fat burning and it only takes a few minutes.

And what if nutrition is your trouble spot? Well, here’s the BEST news of the day. In just 30 seconds you can dramatically increase your chances of success. After you’ve done your exercise session, take 30 seconds and reward yourself with this protein shake. It cranks up your fat-burning metabolism even more, adding to the results you’ll get from exercise.

Start this daily 30-second habit for faster fat loss and to boost your metabolism

Then repeat this good habit at night. The next time you sit down in front of the TV, pick this protein shake instead of the bad snacks. It tastes just as delicious as a bowl of ice cream, but it helps you lose weight at the same time. In just 30 seconds you’ll be done, and you’ll have built a powerful new fat burning habit into your day.

This habit is so important that Woman’s World magazine says that people who don’t put more protein into their diet end up storing 95% of their extra calories as fat. But if you DO have more protein in your diet, then you’ll burn those calories or use them to keep your all-important lean muscle mass.

Add this one habit to your day today (takes just 30 seconds)

Keep on making those small steps in the right direction. Take my advice and add these good, easy habits to your day, and you’ll save time, lose inches, and dramatically boost your energy.

Stay Strong and Keep Pushing On,

Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer

PS – If you made a diet mistake this weekend because of a bad habit…

If you fell “off the wagon”, cut your losses, don’t worry about it, and get right back on track. Immediately. It’s minor damage that can be dealt with. Most people allow one treat to become a 50-shades-of-chocolate-3-month-binge-of-fast-food, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Fix your diet with this small good habit today

Sometimes the most important thing for fat loss is to simply stay out of harms way. Rather than focusing on being a perfect eater and trying to lower your calories, just make sure you don’t put yourself in any situations where you overdo it.

Let’s go! Be good and be good to yourself this week. Stay strong and let’s all keep pushing on