CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY | Performance Hypnotherapy
Spring
Is the Best Time to Prepare for a Healthy Summer
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Spring Is the Best Time to Prepare for a Healthy Summer
Melbourne summer arrives quickly. One week the evenings are cool, and the next the city is hot, long, social and full of reasons to abandon routine. Barbecues, cold drinks, late dinners, holidays and heat that makes a midday walk unappealing all pull habits off course. Many people decide in January to get healthy, then spend the month working against the weather and the calendar. For many, getting healthy means stopping something as well as starting something, and smoking sits near the top of that list. It is closely tied to the same summer settings: the terrace, the barbecue, the drink in hand.
Late October offers a better starting point. You have several weeks before summer properly begins, and that is about the time a new habit needs to settle.
How Habits FormResearchers at University College London followed volunteers who each chose a new daily behaviour, such as drinking a glass of water at breakfast or walking for ten minutes after lunch. The time it took for the behaviour to feel automatic ranged from 18 to 254 days, with a median of 66 days. Missing a single day made little difference to the outcome. What mattered was repetition in a consistent setting (Lally and colleagues, European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010).
That finding points to a practical method. Choose one or two behaviours, attach each to a cue that already exists in your day, and repeat. A habit is a response to a cue, and the cue does most of the work. A walk that follows your morning coffee needs far less decision making than a walk you have to find time for. The same principle explains why smoking is so difficult to drop. Each cigarette is attached to a cue, such as the morning coffee, the drive home or the first drink of the evening, and after years of repetition the response is automatic.
Planning for the Heat
Summer exercise works best when it suits the climate. Early morning is cooler and quieter, and the session is finished before the day has a chance to interfere. A swim at the bayside beaches, a walk along the Elwood foreshore or a class in an air-conditioned gym all keep you moving when the temperature climbs. An evening walk after the heat has eased suits people who are not morning people. The aim is to decide in advance which option applies on which kind of day, so the weather never becomes the reason to skip.
Eating and Drinking in Summer
Summer food can be excellent for your health. Salads, fruit, seafood and grilled meals suit the season. The difficulty lies in the settings: long afternoons with drinks, shared platters, ice cream after dinner. A simple if-then plan helps. If I am at a barbecue, then I start with salad and protein. If I have finished two drinks, then I switch to water. Psychologists call these implementation intentions, and research shows they help people follow through on what they intend, because the decision is made calmly in advance and not under pressure in the moment.
Stopping Smoking Before Summer
Summer rewards good lungs and good circulation. Swimming, walking, cycling and tennis all feel easier when breathing is easy, and circulation begins to improve within weeks of stopping smoking, with breathing continuing to improve over the following months. Quitting in spring means you meet the hot weather with that benefit already building.
Summer also puts smokers in their most demanding settings: the terrace, the beach car park, the barbecue and the late evening drink. Each of these is a cue, and the same if-then planning that works for food works here. If the urge arrives after a drink, then I drink a glass of water first and move to a different spot. If the group heads outside for a cigarette, then I stay with the food and the conversation. Deciding the response in advance takes the decision out of the moment.
Hypnotherapy suits this kind of change because it rehearses the response to the trigger directly. Our quit smoking program uses six personalised sessions of cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy, and many clients combine it with patches, gum or medication prescribed by their doctor.
Where Hypnotherapy Fits
Most people already know what they want to do. The difficulty is doing it consistently when tired, stressed or surrounded by people who are not following the same plan. Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy works at that point. In session, you rehearse the new response to a trigger in a focused, relaxed state, so the response feels familiar by the time the real situation arrives. Clients use this approach to change eating patterns, build an exercise routine, quit smoking, manage stress and sleep better. If healthy eating and weight are your focus this summer, our weight loss hypnotherapy program is built around exactly this kind of preparation.
Start This Week
Choose one behaviour. Choose the cue that will trigger it. Repeat it daily through to the end of November. By the time the first properly hot week arrives, it will be a normal part of your day, and you will be spending summer enjoying it. If your behaviour is stopping smoking, a start date within the next two weeks gives you the whole of November to settle it.
If you would like structured support with your plan, book a free 15-minute consultation at Melbourne Strategic Hypnotherapy in Caulfield North.
References
Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P. Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. 2006;38:69 to 119.
Jha P, Ramasundarahettige C, Landsman V, et al. 21st-century hazards of smoking and benefits of cessation in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine. 2013;368(4):341 to 350.
Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2010;40(6):998 to 1009.
NHS 111 Wales. Smoke free timeline: the health benefits of stopping smoking. 111.wales.nhs.uk/livewell/quitsmokingtimelin