Change Bad Habits and Start Feeling Better

Hello, my name is Diogo and today I would like to share with you my day.

Quick Note: Diogo is the founder of Days to Fitness and recently shared his story about how he quit smoking, and how that changed his life .

We all have days that are better than others, and today I had a rough one.

Due to work-related problems I’ve lost my motivation, lost focus, and felt confused. For a short while I couldn’t find the meaning to continue working and I felt that was falling like a rock in thin air.

My lack of motivation lead to an oblivious state where I tried not to think about what was happening. I opened Facebook, scrolled for an insane amount of time, watching nonsense videos while eating a whole bar of mostly-sugar (75% added sugar) chocolate.

After a couple of hours, I finally decided to stop, focus on what was happening, wake up, and change my direction. I started to write about it and, afterwards, I felt like sharing my thoughts with you in the hope that these words might be helpful to you.

Today I’m writing to share my story…

Compulsive Facebook scrolling, eating lots of high-sugar chocolate, watching one video after another; all these habits are examples of looking for an instant hit of pleasure that will make you feel worse once you have finished.

In the end, those few moments of pleasure will take up a lot of your time and energy and will leave you feeling tired, sleepy, empty, and impotent. You’ll  feel as empty as an empty house. Empty without a soul. I call this emptiness “the hangover of instant pleasures”. It may feel good at the beginning, but the hangover lasts longer than the pleasure.

This is nothing new; we have all experienced the same thing, but now it’s time to start doing something about it.

Avoid these kinds of habits

– Watching random TV

– Watching too many TV series episodes in a row

– Watching YouTube or Facebook nonsense videos

– Don’t eat chocolate, bread, or any type of high sugar foods or bad carbs (Refined carbs high in trans fats and sugar: all processed food and snacks affect your mood in a significant and bad way)

– No Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram compulsive scrolling; you will waste a lot of time doing nothing for a few moments of pleasure, and in the end, you’ll feel worse

– No drinking/smoking or eating will solve your problems. Instead will make it worse.

– Don’t make your problem worse. Instead of feeling guilty and indulging your bad habits, look for healthy solutions instead. Take action and change your attitude towards the problem.

Note: By bad habits I mean actions that give you a few moments of pleasure that you know are actually bad for you.

Instead, create habits that may not be easy to start but, right after, make you feel better, useful, motivated and change your mood. Once you start moving forwards, you’ll soon find your self-esteem, confidence, and happiness starts to improve.

Good Habits that will make you feel better

The next time you feel down and unmotivated, try one of these solutions:

– Write about it: Using a pen or a computer, write down your problems or whatever is bothering you

– If you feel like eating: Eat fruit

– Clean your house: Being tidy and organized can help make you feel happier and less stressed

– If you feel like eating: Prepare a healthy meal like a salad.

– Don´t eat Bad Carbs: High-sugar foods & high-trans-fat foods will make you feel bloated, sleepier, more tired, and your mood will get worse. Bad/Junk food produce bad feelings, it´s scientifically proven.

“Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain. Since about 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gastrointestinal tract, and your gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons, it makes sense that the inner workings of your digestive system don’t just help you digest food, but also guide your emotions.” by Harvard Medical School source here

– Remember and repeat to yourself all the beautiful things you have in your life

– Find a hobby you enjoy but you never get to do because of lack of time

– Read a book you like

– Do push-ups: The rush of adrenaline helps to wake you up and change your attitude

– Go running, jogging or walking: Exercise helps to relax your mind and give your head a break from stressful thoughts

– Feel all the hate you have inside you and let it go

– Remember life is not always fair, but only you can change it. Playing the victim has never helped.

– Drink water

– Breathe slowly and deeply

– Stop what you are doing for a moment and feel all the negative emotions you have inside. Now imagine all those bad thoughts and the bad energy going away

– Learn about meditation and start practicing

– If at home: Yoga postures can help ease your mind and relax your body

I can’t prove this scientifically but, in my experience, after 7 minutes of any of these things you will have moved on and broken away from whatever it was that was dragging you down instead of spending a ridiculous amount of time your problem.

Your mind plays tricks on you

The excuse of “you deserve that chocolate,” or “I can afford 30 minutes of TV.”

Of course you deserve it, but the question is, it will last more than 30 minutes or you will end up eating much more chocolate than is good for you? The most important questions to ask yourself is will it make you feel better in the long-term?

Of course, you know the answer – it’s NO!

Remember this lesson every time you feel down, have no energy, or you feel like the victim of something that is out of your control. Your quick pleasure fix will make things worse and not better.

You have what it takes to overcome your problems; you just need to take the first step and the next steps will happen naturally.

Like one cigarette or one can of coke drag you into another bad habit, one good habit leads to another. That’s how you achieve your goal – one step at a time.

The hardest part to avoiding bad habits is overcoming your first reaction to feeling down. There is a better solution to your problems than instant but unhealthy gratification.

Do something about it, and don’t travel down a road to a place you don’t want to go. Instead, choose the road that will make you happy in the long run. Chose the road you want to follow, and don’t be dragged down the road that goes nowhere.

I already feel much better, and I hope I’ve helped you too

I hope you’re having a good day today, and hopefully these words have helped you in some way.

Writing and sharing my story with you has already helped me. I feel better, more motivated, and focused to keep on doing my work and following what I see as my mission.

Helping others always has helped me to feel better

If you have a friend or know someone who might benefit from these words, please share this message with them – I have published this text on the blog here.

If you feel like commenting, sharing your thoughts, or talking about how you feel, you can always reply to this email. Alternatively, you can share it publicly as I’m sure will help others.

Thanks for giving me your time to share my story.