how do you radically change your lifestyle??? (esp. if you like your bad ways)

[monkey]

Any tips here especially from those who've succeeded?

My dh & I need to radically change our lifestyle. We both agree that we need to, but can't seem to make it happen. basically becasue we both enjoy our bad habits. But our family life, and no doubt health are suffering as a result. Which means our kids are getting a raw deal too. So we keep coming back to 'we really must...' but never manage it.

Problems-
we go to bed too late, so are constantly tired.
we both like to drink (too much)
we don't get enough exercise. (3 young children)
I eat too much crap & hate cooking, although don't buy convenience foods.(for dinner anyway, but loads of buiscuits etc, blaming the boys but they're really for me)

not wildly unusual bad habits, but how do you change, especially when monging in front of tv till 11 with a few beers is an appealing prospect?

I start each day with resolve, then get they boys into bed & head for the tv..................

sell the TV?

I find that if the thing that I have a habit about is no longer around, I either forget about it, or it becomes easier to say NO and make this as a general rule.

i find monging in front of the telly wuth a few beers the one thing that keeps me sane

not much help i'm afraid!

re exercise just run round with your kids at park etc. ds makes me play buses (anyone from a sheffield meet will vouch for that!) and we kick a ball round park etc. that and an odd bit of yoga is all the exercise i do!

The problem is that we all have to have some pleasures in life, and i find myself staying up late just to get some quiet time in front of the TV without the kids. Sorry, dont know the answer because i am where you are now - tried for a week and failed - look forward to my food and drink too much! The only thing i can say is if you make a concious effort to walk / cycle / go to the park and kick a ball around each day then at least you can reward your efforts with a treat later as you have burned off some calories exercising

Hi monkey, well I can tell you what I think might work but I'm not a paragon of virtue on many of the same fronts so please do realise that I'm coming from an ideal world position not a smug 'this is what we do' position!

• Going to bed late. I know, we do this too and then dd wakes at 6am and we're knackered. We do take it in turns to do the nights though so one person always knows they don't have to get up in the night at least. Also at weekends we take it in turns to have a lie in so it's ok to stay up a bit later if you know you've got til 10am the next morning to sleep. It's hard though isn't it? I know we both feel a lot better if we get to bed before 11pm so we do try to but don't always manage it.
• Drinking too much, hmm. Dp doesn't, he's Mr Moderate but I'm perfectly capable of suddenly realising I've been on the phone/mumsnet for 2 or 3 hours and I've drunk a whole bottle of wine. I will feel like crap the next day if I do this but drinking a lot of water the night before (when I realise and go OMG! How did that happen?) does help. As does not having any wine in the house. Or deciding a certain no of nights will be booze free. I can manage that usually. Could you do that to start with? And watering down white wine helps as does making sure you have big glasses of water to alternate with.
• I read somewhere that it's easier to get some exercise if you're busy if you build it into your normal routine. So last week I walked ds to school which = 1 hour walking a day. I do like walking though, dp and I walked every day last week. Could you persuade your older 2 to come if it was a collecting walk with a picnic in the middle? i.e. they have to collect leaves, pine cones and stuff like that to stick into a scrap book when they get home? My ds used to be a good walker and we did lots of it when we lived in Devon and although he's recently taken to moaning whenever I mention a walk he will agree to come if it's a collecting walk.
• Eating crap. I rarely do for the simple reason that I don't have it in the house. If it's not there you just can't eat it. I'm still too fat but that's booze, olive oil, bread and butter . If there are only sesame snaps and raisins in the house then if I get a sweet craving that's all I can eat.

Maybe there's something helpful in there. Hope so!

Cycle to work. Unless you live 2 hours drive away you could cycle at least some of the way some days per week. A new bike will pay for itself in a matter of months. Get the boys bikes and fit a baby carrier to the back of yours, they take up to 5 year olds. Go on expeditions to the swimming pool or park on the bikes.

Get into the habit of walking any journey of a mile or less. This INCLUDES the supermarket. Kit yourselves out with backpacks to carry it back, it will also mean that there's no space for unnecessary extras like biscuits.

Teach the boys to cook. There's no reason why a young child can't at least help assemble a salad. I used to make the porridge for the family when I was 7. My 2.5 year old can make eggy bread, only needing my help to turn the bread over and take it out of the pan.

Choose what you really enjoy and refuse to be ashamed by it. Beer is good! TV is good! Beer + TV is better!

couldn't agree with that last line more slug!!

Do your supermarket shopping online from a list you've written up beforehand. That way you don't get tempted by the biscuits, chocolates, cakes, etc you see when actually in the supermarket and only buy what you need. It's much easier to eat healthily if you only have healthy stuff in the house.
I buy one bar of very dark chocolate only and if I get a sweet craving I have two squares of that.
If I crave anything else then I'll actually have to go out and buy it so the walk will at least do me good.

Just choose one thing that you want to fix and go with that. Once that one becomes a good habit you can work on another.
If you found enough time to exercise it would equal out the food and drink issue.