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It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t have a bad habit they want to stop. But kicking negative habits can be very hard. Especially if you have done it for a long time. These can range from mild issues, such as eating the wrong foods, to severe problems, like addictive behaviours.

Rewire Your Mind

It is all but proven that the way you think has a huge impact on how you live your life. This means that while you are thinking of your bad habits, you will ultimately keep doing them. Holistic therapies such as meditation, yoga, and even online hypnotherapy from experts like Fix My Mind are great places to start.With these, you can rewire your brain to ensure you minimise how much you think about inappropriate or even criminal acts that form your habits.

Kicking Negative Habits Means Knowing Yourself

Many studies have been done and are indeed ongoing. And they all conclude that a huge 95% of human behaviour is habitual. That means only 5% of our decisions on a daily basis we make with our own knowledge. Carl Jung once said, “until you make the unconscious mind conscious, it will guide your life, and you will call it fate”. Hypnotherapy can be a great way to begin understanding yourself. But you need to understand your goals, personality and strengths.

Swap a Bad Habit for a New One

Many researchers in the field of human behaviour will tell you that you don’t really break a bad habit. You replace it with a healthier one. Whether good or bad, your habits are with you for a reason. And some are actually beneficial. But a bad habit can have a huge negative impact on your life. For example, taking drugs to cope. Or staying in a toxic relationship to stop feeling lonely. But you can maybe meditate or go for a run instead of reaching for those things.

Seek Support from Friends and Family

Bad habits can have a severe impact on your physical, emotional and mental health. And it can be hard to get rid of them. Many ex-smokers or addicts will tell you that a support system is vital. Surround yourself with family and friends. Not people who also take have those habits. That can be one of the hardest things to do. But in almost all cases, you will be in contact with people who are bad for you.

Remind, Routine and Reward

It can be a long and winding road to break the bad habit of constantly checking emails when you need to work to overcome substance abuse. But none of them is impossible to stop. To help you get started, you need to understand the “three Rs” that make something a habit:

• Reminder: a reminder is generally a trigger that causes you to reach for your bad habit. For example, a doing you always play when you are drinking. Or even a specific feeling you get, such as nervousness. Once identified, you can begin working on these.
• Routine: similar to reminders, routines are things that you usually do when performing your bad habit. This is the actual behaviour associated with the trigger symptoms. Generally, this is something you do, such as shaking your hands when scared.
• Reward: this refers to what you get out of making your habit that makes you feel better. For example, eating chocolate to overcome PTSD releases dopamine and serotonin. This essentially makes you feel like you are rewarded for engaging in the bad habit.

Knowing where your bad habits start, how they carry out and what you get out of them is a good first step to stopping them. You can actively work to prevent them because you can learn to recognise them before, during and after your habitual behaviour. Then you can replace them.

Know Your Triggers

As mentioned above, the “three Rs” are a great way to begin your journey to stop your bad habits. But further to the “reminder” phase, you really need to understand your triggers. This is vital because it’s where the habit begins. It can help to take note of where you are, the time and the feelings associated with your bad habit. Also, think about other people. Certain people such as toxic partners, can be triggers whose habits influence yours.

Buddy Up with Someone Else

Like anything that is hard to do, support is vital. You may have friends that are triggers, and their behaviour can influence yours. So it helps to work with friends or family with the same goals. Perhaps your best friend also wants to lose weight and kick unhealthy eating. This is great because you are both aligned, and you can work on a plan together. And the same system can work for almost anything. This is why the AA sponsor system works. You both know your goals.

Expect Relapses when Kicking Negative Habits

Addiction can be thought of as a habit. And it can be a very long road. It’s not easy to kick something you have done for a long time. Because of this, between 40% and 60% of people trying to stop something, like drugs, alcohol, or smoking, will relapse. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is considered a natural part of recovery. So don’t feel too bad if this happens. In most cases, a relapse only serves to remind you just how bad your habit is in the first place. 

Practise the Law of Attraction

You may have heard of “the law of attraction”. No, not magnets! Basically, this is the belief that good things happen when you think only of good things. That is, the way you think affects the outcome of your life. Whether you believe this or not, there is some evidence that a positive mental attitude is a great way to enhance your life. Begin by thinking about the positive changes kicking your habit will help, how you will feel and how you can help others do the same.

Summary

Kicking negative habits can be easy or extremely hard, depending on certain things. These can affect your personal circumstances, your will to do it and your attitude. However, thinking differently about it, knowing the “three Rs”, and even practising the law of attraction can help.

Today marks 11 years since I first wrote a post on Munchies and Munchkins. 11 years. When I first wrote a post I imagined I’d write for maybe 6 months then get bored and that would be that. My blog started following a period of time in my maternity leave with Izzy when I would share food photos and recipes on Twitter, this was before I had Instagram and well I guess you could say I was ahead of my time ( for possibly the first time in my life). I built up a small but engaged audience on Twitter, most of whom still follow and engage with the blog. I’d often get people asking why I didn’t write a food blog so I decided to give it a whirl, one of my followers even helped come up with the blog name – thanks Sian.

My first posts were random and well blurry but I can’t delete them as it’s all part of the journey. I didn’t imagine when I started that it would become such a big part of my life or that it would lead me onto collaborations and press trips and create friendships that I still have to this day. In times of sadness and darkness my blog has been my respite and therapy, there have also been times I haven’t looked at it for months at a time apart from when I want to make one of my own recipes..yes I use my own blog as a recipe folder for myself.

I remember so clearly the first fun opportunity I had from blogging. I had replied to a tweet from Camp Bestival on Twitter saying wow this looks amazing ( because it did) and that I may try to attend the following year when I was back in work because maternity pay doesn’t really allow for luxuries. They replied saying yes you should blah blah blah. Later that night I had a direct message from a man called Bruce saying how would you and your family like to attend and you can write about it on your blog in exchange for tickets. I didn’t want to give any false expectations, I had been blogging only about 6 weeks and I had less than 500 views so I told him this and he was like it’s okay let’s do this. That was the start of 4 years of being a Camp Bestival ambassador. In the following 12 months of that first opportunity it seemed I was getting contacted every other day offering me free food or toys for Izzy, I excitedly would say yes and write a long thorough article for maybe £5 worth of free food…I wasn’t stupid by the way I just didn’t realise that my site was of value to these businesses and really I should have been charging or building a relationship with them not just saying yay free pasta. We live, we learn.

I don’t accept 90% of what I get offered these days, sometimes because there is no fit for it on my site, sometimes because there is no value to me doing it and more and more these last three years I’ve realised my time and energy are valuable. But I do actually do more in terms of sharing things I’ve not been asked to share, promoting businesses I love while still occasionally doing reviews and product round ups. Don’t get me wrong if I get offered a product I love or normally the girls even if it’s a few pounds worth of value sometimes it’s worth it because it’s natural to promote. My blog doesn’t fit in any particular category, I may post a recipe today, a rant about the news tomorrow and a long ramble about life the next day. I write about food, family, travel, lifestyle, physical health, mental health and the world we live in. This doesn’t always fit with the PR scope for a brand and it has probably hindered my blog from being more successful- I mean I know that if I’d focused solely on food and recipes my blog would be a lot busier and I’d get more paid work. But you know what, it’s just not me. This is who I am, I’m not a neat tidy thing you can pigeon hole, my life is messy and I ramble in real life not just on here. I can’t pretend to be something I’m not and yet I am proud of this blog, this thing I’ve created that supported me and others like me. I mean how many bloggers write about air fryer recipes but also tackle birth trauma, depression, strep B, long covid with a chocolate salted caramel cake to finish it off?

The last 2.5 years I’ve struggled with writing, I still do. This post would have taken me 15 minutes to breezily write before I got ill. Now I will write it over the space of weeks with many re reads and edits and still it may not make perfect sense. My brain is not what it was but the only way to get it back to that is by exercising it so these posts are the equivalent of me doing yoga for my brain.

I want to thank each and every one of you that has read the blog and even more so those that have reached out and interacted with me on social media as a result of my blog, I’ve made some incredible friendships and you really have supported me through some of the roughest periods of my life.

I asked a few of the bloggers and PRs that I’ve worked with to say a few words about the blog and ah they made me shed a few tears I tell you. Take a look:

Jonathan from The Plate Licked Clean, Ask Barney and Find My Dine:

“ I have always enjoyed Becky’s writing : hers was one of the blogs I’d always read before starting mine, soaking up reviews, recipes and more for years. Lately though, I’ve admired the way her focus has shifted onto sharing her struggles with her changing health. Never in a self- pitying way, but in a way I know others wrestling in similar conditions will find useful and relatable. Practical and engaging, and even managing to find humour in her situation, she writes with empathy and clarity. Here’s to the next 11 years.”

Kacie from The Rare Welshbit:

“Back in 2018, Becky and I were paired up and sent to Belfast together on a press trip, as complete strangers. Luckily, we really hit it off and spent several memorable days exploring Belfast’s food and drink scene together. “We’ve been lucky to enjoy lots of exciting experiences together since, from wining and dining across south-west Wales with Food and Drink Wales; to drinking in Becky’s local pub until the early hours, and waking up to one of her banging bacon butties in the morning. “Thank you for all the happy memories together, Becky! I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 11 years holds for you and your blog.”

Sophie from SophieLeBrozec.com:

“I first ‘met’ Becky of Munchies and Munchkins on Twitter back in the early days of our blogs, and I instantly felt a connection. I loved the love and passion that oozed out of every beautiful word she wrote – whether in a tweet or a blog post – and she quickly became an online friend.

We got to meet in person for the first time at Britmums Live in June 2013 and it was as if we’d known each other forever. Becky was as incredible and amazing in real life as she was online, and it was fab to hang out together at this wonderful blogging event.

The blogging world is no longer what it was in 2012 when we first dipped our toes in the water, but Munchies and Munchkins is one of the only blogs that still holds my interest.

Lucie Herring from Gilded Herring PR:

Have worked with Bec on numerous campaigns for our clients and she is always an absolute pleasure. Her posts are as fun and engaging as she is, and ruthlessly honest. Look forward to watching the blog continue in all its glory!