One Month Down....a lifetime to go

I've been exercising regularly in the morning 2-3 days a week for 4 weeks. After a night of not being able to sleep-I think I fell asleep somewhere between 1:30 and 2 AM, the alarm went off at 5:45 and (with a little nudge from Christopher), I was off. Out for the run by 6:00. Is it now a habit? So many times I've started working out in the morning only to have a less-than-perfect night of sleep and turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. As recently as 2 weeks ago, I did that very thing, but now I feel like I might have formed a new habit. What do the experts say? Of course I did a little research (its in my bones...) I was familiar with the concept that a habit is formed in 21 days.

The 21 day idea was born from the time it took for an amputee to not 'feel' the missing limb, so its a neuro-muscular outcome, a sensory perception thing, perhaps.  A more systematic study was conducted in 2009 to suggest on average it takes 66 days to form a new habit, depending on the complexity of the habit. 

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A little bit from the PsyBlog-http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php

This graph shows that early practice was rewarded with greater increases in automaticity and gains tailed off as participants reached their maximum automaticity for that behaviour.
Although the average was 66 days, there was marked variation in how long habits took to form, anywhere from 18 days up to 254 days in the habits examined in this study. As you'd imagine, drinking a daily glass of water became automatic very quickly but doing 50 sit-ups before breakfast required more dedication (above, dotted lines). The researchers also noted that:

• Missing a single day did not reduce the chance of forming a habit.
• A sub-group took much longer than the others to form their habits, perhaps suggesting some people are 'habit-resistant'.
• Other types of habits may well take much longer.

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 66 days seems like a long time. But these healthy habits are meant to last a lifetime so in the big picture 66 days doesn't seem so bad...

A month later- The STATS

Tricep - 25 (-1)

Suprailium - 27 (0)

Patella - 10 (-2)

25% body fat.(-1%)

Change in Weight (-9.2)

HOORAY Progress!!!