You are in a race for time to complete an important project in only two hours. You are headed to the vending machine for your favorite treat. You're stuck in traffic and your performance evaluation is scheduled in 10 minutes. You start biting your nails. You are exhausted and need to get some sleep. You can't seem to turn off the television and go to bed. Can you relate to any of these? If so, you have adopted bad habits to provide stress relief. Stress relief can be obtained through healthy, positive habits too.

Habits are reoccurring, probably unconscious patterns of behavior. Everyone has habits. Positive habits provide structure, stability, and security. Good habits include healthy eating, exercising, journaling, or talking with a friend can relieve stress. Negative habits can be self-destructive, and have a negative pull on our self-esteem and self-worth. Bad habits often include stress eating to calm or alleviate stress.

Unfortunately bad habits serve a purpose in our lives. They are unhealthy coping strategies that have an immediate payoff. The short-term payoff includes alleviation of stress, calm our nerves, and provide a distraction or escape from a bothersome situation or feelings. The long-term impacts are weight gain, unattractive nails, and fatigue. When the long-term impacts interfere with your life, you need to change your habit. You need to find healthy coping strategies that provide the short-term payoff you need.

Your awareness and desire to change a life interrupting habit can be immediate. You make the decision that you are tired of a certain habit or behavior and you are committed to its replacement. Alternatively, you may have the desire to change a bad habit and need a step-by-step plan. If either of these happen to you, it's time to move forward with your habit replacement.

Step 1: Name it! Define the habit. Before you can make any change, you must identify for yourself the reason for the habit. What is the payoff to you with the habit? Bad habits usually serve a hidden purpose we don't recognize. They can serve as a buffer for uncomfortable emotions or even calm anxiety.

Step 2: Commit! Make a full commitment to changing this habit. Arm yourself with inspiration to sustain motivation. Motivation has levels. Prepare for those days when motivation is low and you're tempted to resort back to the bad habit. Whatever motivates and inspires you, make a fall-back plan to use those tools when you need a jolt of extra motivation in breaking the bad habit.

Step 3: Set short-term and long-term goals. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to lose 50 pounds? Break your goal of losing 50 pounds into small increments that are reasonable to accomplish. You don't want to become overwhelmed. You aren't going to lose 50 pounds in two months.

Step 4: Identify and eliminate your triggers. Does a particular food post a problem for you? When you get home from work, do you want to go into the kitchen and reach for that comfort, calming-from-your-day food? If so, don't have that trigger food in your house. Have healthy snack alternatives readily available for you. Alternatively, grab the family and take a walk to connect after you come home. When quitting a bad habit, set up your surroundings to support you.

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