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Wonder why you are struggling with it already New Year’s resolution? A new research suggests that forming healthy New habits It takes more time than we think.
For years, the popular wisdom has said that it only takes 21 days to make a new habit in your daily routine. But according to recent Research From the University of South Australia (UNISA), new habits usually take about two months in painting, and can take about a year.
Researchers came to the conclusion that it analyzed 20 preliminary studies, published between 2008 and 2023, and added more than 2,600 participants. These studies measuring habitual behavior to find the overall trend in length of time to form healthy habits. Habits include exercise, drinking water, taking vitamins and flossing.
Researchers hope their results will force people to try to make healthy habits, even if it takes longer than expected.
“I think the most important thing is that it helps people set realistic expectations,” Ben Singh, a co -author of the UNISA Allied Health and Human Performance and the study, told CNN. “” “This is often not fixed immediately.”
In this study, the journal has been published in Healthcare, which states that median time was 59-66 days to create new, healthy habits, but it may take up to 335 days.
Singh emphasized that how long it takes to make healthy habits is different for everyone and depends on what is a habit.
Singh explained, “Sometimes we have come to know that if someone wants to start flossing every day, simple behaviors, (as) may take a week to get someone into their routine,” but someone Changing diet and physical activity can be more complicated than a more complex behavior. It took a long time. “
He explained that 21 days myths 1960’s book “Psycho Cyrintics” trunks Through the plastic surgeon Maxwell Malts, the author observed that his patients usually take about 21 days to make their new appearance after surgery.
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Singh said the idea of ​​a “immediate solution” was taken as a stimulus. So, is there any danger that new research will make them feel even more reluctant to try to establish new habits in the first place?
Singh said, “There is a possibility that it will prevent people and may be discouraged and distort them.” “(But) some people (who) may think that it will take 21 days, but after 21 days they are still struggling, then at least this research and this evidence to people some realistic standards Provide that they can follow. ”
Singh said the study also offers specific points to make healthy habits.
He said, “If (people) want to start eating healthy or want to do more exercise, then integrating these new habits in the morning is far more effective than trying to connect them after day , “Because people lose encouragement or get busy at the end of the days, they are less likely to follow this behavior.
For example, if you want to get into the habit of eating more fruits, Singh recommends having apples in the morning coffee.
Benjamin Gardner, director of The Hibet Application and Theory (Hebe Tate) Group at the University of England, suggested that the results of the study should be carefully interpreted.
“It is important to be careful about the idea that people are either ‘habit’ or ‘not a habit’, which lies in this study,” Gardner, who was not involved in this research, told CNN – “In fact, the habit varies on a continuity – in other words, the habit becomes stronger over time, rather than reaching a magical point, which is ‘fully formed.’
The best way to make a habit is that is known as “Repeat of Context,” said Gardner, identifying the situation that you have to face regularly, and then whenever you have this If you face the situation, treating you selected.
Singh noted that more research is needed for how many successful people are to maintain new habits in the study.
“Many research was quite short -term,” he said. “We really need a lot of long -term research. So (if) someone has successfully changed their habits and improved their behavior after 12 weeks, are they still following the behavior that is below track 12 months?
The overall message of research is clear, though: If you want to make 2025 a year of your healthy habits, be patient – the new you may also have months instead of months.
