{"id":1834,"date":"2012-08-22T09:19:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T13:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2012-08-22T09:19:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T13:19:11","slug":"breaking-the-failure-cycle-1-finding-the-pattern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/08\/breaking-the-failure-cycle-1-finding-the-pattern.html","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Failure Cycle #1 — Finding the Pattern"},"content":{"rendered":"

You worked hard, lost the extra weight, and you never felt better.\u00a0 So why did you go back to snacking on brownies and packing the flab back on?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I read an interesting book recently that gave a possible answer — and a solution. It\u2019s called The Power of Habit<\/em> by Charles Duhigg (Random House, 2012).\u00a0 He uses laboratory experiments and examples of people outside the laboratory to show that habit, not conscious decisions, drives most of our choices.<\/p>\n

And habits aren\u2019t necessarily bad.\u00a0 Duhigg points out that we would be overwhelmed without them. Habits are the brain\u2019s way of streamlining our lives. Think about it. What do you do when you get up?\u00a0 Do you think, what shall I do first, get coffee or walk to the computer?\u00a0 Chances are you get up and start moving without thinking about it. You have a morning routine and you do it on cruise control while your brain is waking up and moving on to the day\u2019s schedule that is NOT part of the habit loop.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t believe this at first, but made note of what I did each morning.\u00a0 It\u2019s true. \u00a0I<\/p>\n