Everyday Systems

How long to form a habit?

It depends, apparently. The research now indicates it can take between 2-9 months.

My guess is that if you are dealing with altering hardwired behavior, i.e. cues to eat, it can take even longer.

Take-aways:

1. Stick with it.
2. Don't beat yourself up.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2 ... t-66-days/

The link took me to an article about listening.

The National Weight Loss Registry reports that relapse doesn't really go down significantly until 2-5 years into implementing a diet plan.

The woman who wrote Brain Over Binge who stopped bingeing overnight said it actually took about 9 months before the urges subsided. Not many have the patience to keep ignoring them but it's likely because they keep thinking things should be changing faster.

Baumeister says never assume that having trouble with making eating changes means you don't have willpower. It's definitely possible, but has a history mostly of failure. Maybe as we understand more, people will hang in there longer and increase the odds for success.

How odd. I checked the link and it looked right. Oh well.

I relinked it. This time, I hope it works.

worked.

The author says the more complicated, the longer it takes. Since people are actually making adjustments along the way, it makes sense that most people say they are still tweaking content years in. Viva tweaking!