HABITS ARE STUBBORN. It’s tough to make an old habit disappear. Once it’s wired into your brain, it’s stuck there for a long time. But you can override it. You can come up with new, healthier behaviors and weaken the power of old, counterproductive habits on your life.
One of the most effective behaviors for busting bad habits is exercise. People who make exercise a habit start eating better. They also stop using their credit cards quite so much. They stop procrastinating so much at work. There’s something life-changing about exercise that echoes throughout our minds and spirit.
In 2014, a group of Chinese researchers analyzed twenty-two studies to determine how effective long-term exercise could be as a treatment for substance abuse disorders, including pain pill addiction, alcohol abuse, smoking, and use of illicit hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The results of the analysis were incredibly hopeful and encouraging. Addicts who exercised regularly—either through aerobic activity or mind-body work like yoga, tai chi, or qigong—abstained from their addictions, were less depressed and anxious, and had fewer withdrawal symptoms.
Drug dependency is a habit that at its worst is superdifficult to kick. If exercise can help kick the most terrible habits of all, as this study shows, imagine what it can do to wipe out other less serious but frustrating habits that are holding you back?
You know how you feel after a really great workout—strong and renewed and bursting with energy? Well, in addition to keeping your body strong and flexible, exercise does wonders for your mind and spirit. It boosts self-esteem, gives you the satisfaction of striving for and attaining your goals, and helps keep the blues at bay. There are hundreds of studies that prove all of this.
Why is exercise so powerful for mental health? Exercise actually functions like a drug. It increases the release of mood-boosting endorphins in the brain and it boosts levels of other feel-good brain chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine. Both are involved in regulating moods, in enhancing brain skills like thinking and memory, and in producing sensations of pleasure.
Exercise is a natural stress reliever, too. If you’re angry, peeved, or frustrated, rather than fuming at someone or reaching for a few drinks, release that stress with a workout. A half hour on a bike or treadmill, circuit training on weight machines, pounding a punching bag, or working out to a fitness video or a YouTube channel will help you let off steam.
Exercise is great for the spirit, too. Sure, the changes in your physique are exciting, but you’ll begin to notice that not only do you feel better physically but you feel better spiritually as well. You’ll have more spiritual energy—the feeling that what you do in life matters. Practices like yoga can even leave you with a spiritual high.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
To harness the benefits of this natural habit breaker, antidepressant, stress buster, and spiritual booster, I support several types of exercise.
FOCUS ON AEROBIC FITNESS. It doesn’t matter how strong you are or how good your jump shot is if you can’t breathe. You’re working out aerobically when your breathing accelerates, your blood flows faster, and your heart pumps more of it, sending nutrients and oxygen to the rest of your body. Get in at least three aerobic workouts a week (stair climbing, walking, treadmill work, running, and so forth) and you’ll see your mood and anxiety levels improve. Try to increase your time, distance, and speed each week. Here are some of my favorite badass cardio suggestions:
HOOF IT UP A HILL. Find a hilly area in your community and do some walking or running up those hills. Push off your heels as you go. Enjoy the outdoors; it can be a spiritual encounter with nature.
DO SOME CYCLING. Increase the resistance to high on a stationary bike and sit toward the back of your seat to fully engage your hamstrings and glutes. Try a recumbent bike or regular cycling; both are great workouts.
CLIMB STAIRS. Find a local stadium where you can go up and down the bleachers, or try a stair climber at the gym. Climb at a challenging incline and try not to put too much of your weight on the handrails. Leaning too heavily on the rails deprives you of a good cardiovascular workout and risks injury to your hands and wrists.
GO CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING. It’s absolutely the best cardio and toning outdoor workout for your entire body. Outdoor workouts are among the most exhilarating ways to get a spiritual high because you’re in close contact with nature. Or work out on a cross-country ski machine for a mental and spiritual lift.
GET IN THE POOL. Use a kickboard and do as many laps as you can of flutter and butterfly kicks. There’s something soothing about being in the water.
BUILD MUSCLE, BUILD SELF-ESTEEM. You gotta get strong, but it’s not just to build your body; it’s also to build your self-esteem and body image. In an experiment with female volunteers, a Brigham Young University study found that weight training significantly improved self-esteem and body image, compared to a non-weight-training control group. This was in part due to significant improvements in body composition and lean muscle. Women like how they looked, and they felt more self-confident and self-loving because their bodies had changed for the better. I see the same results at my gym all the time: When people get stronger through lifting weights, they experience a level of self-confidence greater than that of people who don’t lift.
A really great example of what I’m talking about is one of my gym members, Alicia. After hitting her early forties, she watched her body gradually change, with fat creeping on her booty and belly. Plus, she was experiencing a lot of fatigue. She no longer felt sexy and was desperate for a change.
Alicia had always done mostly cardio classes—so I immediately plunged her into weight training, and I mean with barbells, mostly, and multi-muscle moves such as squats and deadlifts (great for tightening the booty). She was a little hesitant at first, but admitted she wanted strong, sexy muscles. So I said, “Fine, if that’s what you want, you’ve got to train with heavy weights—and eat right to create that kind of muscle.”
Alicia turned out to be such a great student. She not only achieved the badass body she wanted but also developed a badass persona and an obvious mental toughness. She was more self-assured and thoroughly committed to the badass lifestyle. As she told me: “I am confident. I have the energy to power through my workouts and days, and I’ve never felt stronger and sexier in my life! I love my new badass self!!!”
So definitely include weights or strength-building exercises into your routine. To make progress, physically and mentally, you have to fight hard for every new ounce of muscle. This is what I had to do. Before becoming a badass in competitions, I focused on the fundamentals of lifting and setting up my life in a very organized fashion so that I could master them.
A lot of people skip this step; they want to fast-track through the “boring” fundamentals. Not me! I knew that pushing my body would require mastery of the simplest moves before moving on to more complicated ones. By becoming so good at the core foundation movements, I was able to learn and excel at the more advanced levels of lifting and competing.
I compare this process to building your dream home. There are many details that come with that: cabinet colors, tile styles, window frames, molding, and so forth. But none of that matters unless you first build the proper foundation, the proper reinforcements, and a strong frame. Then and only then can you add the bells and whistles of decor. Likewise, you simply can’t build a strong regimen by rushing through the basic foundations of training.
By the time I started to compete, my movements were stronger, my muscular endurance was faster, and I was surpassing women and men who were actually stronger and faster than I was. By sticking with and learning the fundamentals, I pushed my limits in speed and strength while maintaining good, safe form.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, continually challenge yourself to do more, but without substantially increasing the time you spend training. For a muscle to grow, the training stimulus must be progressively increased. That may mean more weight, reps, or sets. This is the other way I fight hard for muscles and strength.
And stay focused on the act of working out itself. No mind wandering! By simply thinking about your action as you do it, you increase its quality tenfold.
Constantly change up your workouts, too. If you’ve been doing the same old exercises, sets, and reps week in and week out, your muscles may stop responding. Try some new exercises, or new sequences of performing them, or any other method you can think of to mix it up. The more your body is forced to overcome a new stimulus, the more you create muscle tone, growth, strength—and greater self-confidence.
EASE ANXIETY WITH PLYOMETRICS. Plyometrics (jumping exercises) are helpful when you need a sudden burst of speed or in sports, like basketball, that require quick directional change. My favorite plyometrics exercise is jumping rope, the way you did as a kid. Remember all those crazy tricks—monkey in the middle, double Dutch, hopscotch? Why not try them again?
Some tips: Relax your shoulders as you jump. Keep your elbows pinned by your sides to ensure the rope remains the same length and same distance above your head and under your feet at all times. Stay light on your toes—gently bounce up and down. Don’t let your feet sink into the floor, and jump in one spot straight up and down. And don’t forget to breathe! Inhale and exhale at a steady rate throughout the movement.
I don’t know of any research that shows that plyometrics give you a mental boost, but I do know that it’s a playful activity that brings out the kid in me—and that relieves anxiety and worry immediately.
Other plyometric exercises include jumping squats, jumping lunges, explosive push-ups, clapping push-ups, and burpees. Instructions for performing these can be found in my book The Badass Body Diet.
MIND-BODY WORK. Yoga is my favorite; plus, it’s a proven habit breaker. It helps free patients from addictions because it stimulates relaxation, eases muscle tension, and fosters positive mental and spiritual health.
A Swedish study published in 2014 in Complementary Therapies in Medicine explored whether yoga could work as part of a treatment program for alcohol-dependent patients. For ten weeks, patients took part in weekly group yoga session and were encouraged to practice yoga at home once a day. The members of a control group did not do yoga. Both groups underwent traditional therapy. By the end of the study, the yoga group cut back their daily drinking from six to three drinks daily, while the control group continued to drink heavily. The researchers concluded that yoga was definitely effective in helping people ease off alcohol.
Similar evidence has been found in smokers. University of Cincinnati researchers analyzed a bunch of studies involving yoga and smoking cessation. Most of the studies showed that yoga helped smokers quit. Their analysis was published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine in 2014.
Yoga rocks! So grab a yoga mat and go. Who knows? After a few classes, you might even get addicted to yoga and rid yourself of nasty habits. If you’re new to yoga, most gyms and fitness centers offer beginner yoga, gentle yoga, or basic yoga classes. Another type of easy-to-learn yoga is yin yoga, which focuses on a lot of light stretching poses held for longer periods of time.
CROSS-TRAIN. This means incorporating all of the above—aerobics, strength training, plyometrics, and some mind-body exercise—into your workouts. CrossFit is designed around this principle, encouraging exercisers to bounce between lifting, hauling, sprinting, jumping, climbing, and practically anything else the human body can do—and that’s why I love it so much.
MAKE IT FUN. When I prepare for competition, I have the best excuse to be in the gym all day, every day. Still, it has to be fun for me. There’s a saying: “If the love of what you do exceeds the effort of doing it, success is inevitable.” Whatever the activity, make sure it’s fun.
For Today
TODAY’S QUOTE
I do have to take care of myself, not only because I’m in the movies, just for mental health reasons. I exercise for me. You know, maybe it would be nice to not have to do that in order to feel good, but I do. I feel like I have to, to feel good.
—ANNETTE BENING
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION
TODAY’S CHALLENGE
Sometimes you’ve just got to tune out the garbage and focus on you and your goals. A perfect way to do this is to take a “walking meditation” today. A walking meditation can be as effective as a sitting meditation, and helps bring strong awareness to your body and mind. Here’s how:
• Choose a path on which to walk, preferably a safe area that brings you in contact with nature—the beach, the woods, or a special outdoor walking path.
• As you walk, consciously bring your attention to your body. Notice the sensations of your feet on the ground, the sun and breeze on your skin, the color of the leaves and flowers around you.
• Focus on your goals—how important it is for you to become fit, healthy, and energized.
• Repeat to yourself a prayer, an affirmation, a chant, or a simple word or phrase that you find sacred, like peace, shalom, love, or om, or a poem you’ve memorized that has deep meaning for you.
• If you begin to think of something distracting, bring your focus back to your mind, body, and spirit.
Today’s Mental Goal:
Today’s Personal Goal:
Today’s Spiritual Goal:
MY BADASS REFLECTIONS FOR TODAY
What are you most grateful for today?
Mentally: ________________________________________________
Physically: ______________________________________________
Spiritually:______________________________________________
What was the biggest success for you today?
Mentally: ________________________________________________
Physically: ______________________________________________
Spiritually: _____________________________________________
What was the biggest challenge for you today? How did you overcome it?
Mentally: ________________________________________________
Physically: ______________________________________________
Spiritually: _____________________________________________
What can you do tomorrow to make it a better day?
Mentally: ________________________________________________
Physically: ______________________________________________
Spiritually: _____________________________________________
CHECKLIST
I completed my habit change challenges.
I made healthy choices today for my mind, body, and spirit.
I’ve expressed my gratitude for today and all it brings, good and bad.
I’ve prepared for tomorrow and all the unknowns it might bring.