POST-CLEANSE TRANSITION GUIDE

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Marjory Horton
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1 POST-CLEANSE TRANSITION GUIDE

2 disclaimer This ebook contains information that is intended to help the readers be better informed consumers of health care. It is presented as general advice on health care. This book is not intended to be a substitute for the medical advice of a licensed physician. This book is not intended to treat, cure, or diagnose. Always consult your physician prior to starting any diet, exercise, or lifestyle change. The information provided within this ebook is for general informational purposes only. While we try to keep the information up-to-date and correct, there are no representations or warranties, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ebook for any purpose. Any use of this information is at your own risk. Copyright 2017 by The Fresh Reset No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

3 welcome to the post-cleanse: building healthy habits for your future DON T LET YOUR HARD WORK GO TO WASTE Congratulations on completing the Fresh Reset! This was no small task, and you should feel extremely proud of yourself for getting through the past 14 days. We hope you can feel the difference between day one and day 14. A combination of eating natural and whole foods, low complex carbs and almost entirely eliminating artificial sweeteners and other ingredients has set you up to take full control of your health. Now, you don t want to let that hard work go to waste so we put together this post-cleanse guide to help you create the healthy habits that will allow you to stay healthy for life! To do that we ll use a habit-creating method that takes your long-term health outcome like losing weight, putting your type 2 diabetes into remission or lowering your blood pressure and reverse engineer it to create all the healthy habits that build up to that outcome. HOW TO FORM A HABIT MOTIVATION Why start? Benefits PREPARATION Set triggers Setup environment ROUTINE Daily action CONSISTENCY More often than not HABIT FORMED Many times, when we re looking to achieve a health goal, we focus intently on what we need to do to reach the long-term benefit. For example, I need to lose weight so I m going to eat better and exercise more. That sounds simple enough... So why do so many people have a hard time achieving their goals and maintaining that outcome forever? The reason is we tend to rely on motivation or willpower instead of habit-building. You need to use the motivation you have right now to create the triggers for each habit you want to develop. THE FRESH RESET POST-CLEANSE GUIDE 3

4 This isn t as complex as it looks and is not something you tackle all at once. The idea is you use the motivation you have right now to focus intently on creating the triggers that coincide with each habit. You can look at the Daily Triggers Checklist to match the triggers to each habit you want to create. By doing this the habit will happen naturally because it will become a part of your daily routine. 3 steps to creating healthy habits EVERY HABIT YOU HAVE, GOOD OR BAD, FOLLOWS THESE STEPS: 1. Trigger (Something that initiates the behavior) 2. Routine (The action you take following the trigger) 3. Reward (Benefits you gain from the action; generally must be positive) The goal of creating healthy habits is to no longer have to rely on willpower or motivation on a daily basis. You want to focus on simply creating triggers and letting those lead you to newly formed habits. STEP 1: CHOOSE A HABIT THAT S INCREDIBLY EASY TO START The focus needs to be solely on creating the triggers for your habit. However, the reason most people find creating habits so hard is that they re constantly concentrating on their long-term goals. By doing this they can find themselves feeling as if they re not getting anywhere or that the goal is out of reach. There s absolutely no goal out of reach and whether you want to lose weight, lower your blood sugars or blood pressure or cut your cravings, you re simply a few good habits away from making great progress. If you want to start a new habit and begin living healthier and happier, then you have to start small. Whether you want to drink more water, eat more vegetables, be a little more physically active or even meditate a little bit every day, start with an extremely achievable action. For instance, if you re not physically active, you can start by doing just 30 seconds of walking or jogging in place in your living room; 30 seconds is all you need to feel as if you accomplished something. You can snowball it into something more. Remember this as well; your performance at the beginning of any new habit doesn t matter. Taking part in the action consistently is more important than excelling at that action. So, if you feel as if you re too far behind the eight ball for it to count, you re wrong. Just do it and start stringing together as many days of the habit as possible. THE FRESH RESET POST-CLEANSE GUIDE 4

5 STEP 2: SET THE TRIGGER FOR YOUR NEW HABIT The trigger is such a critical part of forming new habits. A good trigger does not rely on motivation or willpower, and it doesn t require you to remember to do your new habit. A good trigger makes it easy to start by encoding your new behavior in something you already do. A great example of this is at night when you set your alarm (prior habit), place a glass of water on your nightstand (trigger), this will remind you to drink water as the first thing you do when you wake up (action). Another example is getting dressed on a Sunday morning (prior habit). You may gather a few days worth of gym clothes and place them in a highly visible spot (trigger). This will remind you to exercise the following days because you ve already laid out your gym clothes. Setting up a visible trigger and linking a new habit with a current behavior makes it much easier to change. No need to feel motivated; no need to remember. It doesn t matter if it s working out or eating healthy or creating art; you can t expect yourself to magically stick to a new habit without setting up a system that makes it easier to start. Choosing a Trigger Picking the correct trigger for your new habit is the first step to making change easier. The best way I know to discover a good trigger for your new habit is to write down a list of the things you do each day without fail. For example: Get in the shower. Put your shoes on. Put the coffee on. Brush your teeth. Check Facebook or other social media Flush the toilet. Sit down for dinner. Turn the lights off. Get into bed. You ll often find that many of these items are daily health habits like washing your face, drinking morning tea, brushing your teeth, and so on. THE FRESH RESET POST-CLEANSE GUIDE 5

6 These actions that you already do can act as reminders for new health habits. Here are some examples on how to use your current good habits to create new tiny habits: After I (Trigger - Current Habit), I Will (Perform New Habit) After I wake up, I will drink 8 ounces of water After I brush my teeth, I will floss my teeth After I get dressed, I will meditate for five to 10 minutes After I eat breakfast, I will speak five motivational phrases out loud After I get home from work, I will do 20 pushups After I leave work, I will go straight to the gym After I shower at night, I will put on relaxing music/read After I eat dinner, I will prepare tomorrow s breakfast/lunch After I shower at night, I will drink some hot herbal tea There are many more great tiny habits like this you can create. The idea is that you take something you do every single day and commit to it being a trigger for the new habit you want to create. But you want to make sure it s easy to start and that you re creating the trigger at the peak of your motivation. In the graph to the right, it gives you a quick glance on how it works. Takeaways from this graph: High MOTIVATION Low Triggers Don t Work in This Area Difficult Task Best Chance for Triggers to Work and Lead to Habits ABILITY Easy Task You re more likely to create new habits when the trigger/task is easy, and you do it while you re highly motivated. You re least likely to create new habits when the trigger/task is difficult to perform when you re not at peak motivation. If you have low motivation but know you need to change, make sure the trigger/task is very simple and easy to perform. This will still give you a good chance of performing the task repeatedly. If you re very motivated, but the task is extremely difficult, there s less likelihood you ll continue with that trigger/task long enough to create a habit. THE FRESH RESET POST-CLEANSE GUIDE 6

7 STEP 3: TIME TO REWARD YOURSELF We want to continue doing things that make us feel good. And because an action needs to be repeated for it to become a habit, it s especially important that you reward yourself each time you practice your new habit. Reward can be as simple as giving ourselves positive feedback. For example, if I m working toward a new fitness goal, then I ll often tell myself at the end of a workout, That was good day, and I feel energized from exercise. Or, Good job. You made progress today. Practicing positive feedback is a great way to reward yourself. Sometimes we feel so down on ourselves for not being in a better position that all it takes is a little positivity to really give us the boost we need to keep going. Make sure to keep the Motivational Phrases that we provided you with in sight. Small Victory Examples Drink a full 16-ounce reusable bottle of water. Victory! Eat all your vegetables at dinner. Success! Do five pushups. Good work! Give yourself some credit and enjoy each success, no matter how small. how long will it take to create a new habit? New habits vary in the amount of time they take to become second nature. Sometimes they take hold really quickly, and sometimes they take a while. You can create a new habit in as little as 21 days, but it could take up to three months. Perfection isn t required so you don t have to perfectly execute every trigger to every habit every day. Making a mistake once or twice has no measurable impact on your long-term habits. This is why you should treat failure like a scientist; give yourself permission to make mistakes and develop strategies for getting back on track quickly. There s no need to judge yourself if you can t master a behavior in 21 short days. Embrace the journey towards your new habits, Habits are a process, not a single event. You have to commit to making small incremental improvements on a daily basis. To ensure you make those improvements, set up triggers to spring you into action every day. Focus on building more triggers on a daily basis instead of pressuring yourself to form the habit all at once. If you have any questions about continuing your progress and building habits, feel free to comment in the Fresh Reset group. We will continue to be available to assist in your journey! THE FRESH RESET POST-CLEANSE GUIDE 7

Session 20: Balance Your Thoughts

Session 20: Balance Your Thoughts Changing your old lifestyle habits is hard. However, you have already learned that it is possible. In addition, many of you comment on all the positive things that have