Hello Everybody,

Making new habits

Many of you may have seen my blog post on Saturday 30 days without coffee challenge, where I declared that I’m giving up coffee for 30 days. I know I’m going to find this challenge incredibly hard – I love coffee and I also have no willpower or sticking power.

By setting myself this challenge though, I have used the rules of “S.M.A.R.T” goals. My goal is Specific – give up coffee, Measurable – assess whether or not drinking coffee improves my arthritis symptoms, Achievable – I’m just swapping coffee for cups of tea, Realistic – it’s not a really drastic change in my lifestyle/routine and it’s Time based – just 30 days.

I’ve also made myself accountable by declaring my intention to you, my lovely reader. Now, not only will I feel embarrassed if I give up, but I hope you can help keep me on track with advice and encouragement.

I’ve given myself this challenge for health reasons. I know many people are advised by their GP’s to make changes to their lifestyles for the good of their health. Changing habits is a really hard path to take, especially as most humans are naturally reluctant to embrace change.

I’m personally feeling a strong resistance to believing that coffee could be affecting my health, as I love coffee so much. But sometimes we just have to accept that maybe a change in our habits could have a far more beneficial affect on our overall happiness and health, than the odd few minutes of pleasure from our favourite drink or food. By accepting that change may be necessary and breaking a goal down into manageable steps, we are much more likely to succeed.

If you want to read more about changing habits, you might enjoy these articles:-

Why is it so hard to form good habits and 4 tips to make your healthy habits stick