Healthy Habits

It’s so important to resist blaming yourself if you get cancer: Our message is always, “Begin now. Don’t look back. We have no idea what caused your cancer . . . But we do know that there are things you can do differently that will make a radical difference in how you feel.”

Meg Cadoux Hirshberg, CancerChoices advisor and founder of Anticancer Lifestyle Program

Habits to promote wellness and limit cancer

Along with the 7 Healing Practices, these healthy habits are recommended by the medical community, as their links to lower cancer risk are backed by substantial research. They may change your body’s environment so cancer is less able to grow and spread. They may lead to better outcomes after a cancer diagnosis.

Known links between healthy habits and cancer:

What do experts recommend?

Among the recommendations to prevent cancer:

• Be a healthy weight
• Limit alcohol consumption
• Stop smoking and avoid other exposure to tobacco

Many of these actions are specifically included in current recommendations from medical societies and other experts. We’ll include specific recommendations in the handbooks for each of the four healthy habits.

Creating healthy habits that stick

Making changes that last can be a challenge but is not beyond reach.

Guidance from an expert

Dr. Mark Alloia, a behavioral psychologist who guides people in lifestyle changes offers the following advice for creating healthy habits that stick:²I-Thrive Radio interview with Dr. Mark Alloia. Creating Health Habits That Stick. February 5, 2018. Accessed November 10, 2022.

Commit first to your health, rather than committing to one behavior or habit. This opens the door to practicing a variety of health-promoting behaviors that add up and lessens the risk of feeling that you’ve failed at one habit. The process is not about succeeding or failing, but of committing to your health.

Hold up your change commitment with the 5 pillars of change.

1. Personalize the change 

It has to be personal and meaningful to you.

2. Create a sense of urgency

This establishes the importance factor. Fear may be a part of the motivation, but shouldn’t be your only motivator.

3. Build confidence (self-efficacy)

This is the belief that you can persist in the face of difficulties. For example, “I will be able to keep from smoking when out with friends who are smoking.” Build confidence that you can make goals and likely be able to achieve them.

• Broaden your definition of success.
• Set up goals that you can likely achieve. Determine what you’re most confident you can achieve and start there.
• Envision your target and when you hit it, celebrate that somehow: pat yourself on the back or treat yourself to a healthy pleasure.
• Remind yourself of goals you have achieved in the past.

4. Social support

This is critical in helping you sustain changes. Social support bolsters us. For instance, tell a friend you’re working on making this change and ask for their help. Or simply verbalize your commitment out loud to a person who will be supportive of you. The altruism of giving support to others helps us sustain changes in ourselves. Keep in mind that people we hang out with tend to have similar values and it may be easier for people we know to support us. Be mindful, though, that some people you know may not be supportive and may be critical or may feel threatened by your making changes that will upset the status quo. It’s likely not a good idea for them to be the first string on your change-support team.

5. Maintain your autonomy

If you’re going to work with a coach, counselor or therapist, find someone who respects your autonomy. This person should know when to take their foot off the gas and not get down on you if you need to slow down or if you backslide. They should encourage you to have self-compassion through this change process.

 Additional Tips

1. Eliminating barriers is not always effective because we tend to come up with more barriers!  Focusing on defining and understanding your values is more important.
2. Find the pattern that works for you.
3. Find little tricks that move you forward.
4. If you don’t have self-compassion and instead beat yourself up, you’ll likely give up.

Summary

1. Understand yourself
2. Take it easy but don’t give up
3. Persist
4. Celebrate your successes

Pick it and stick with it: tips for making change

Some practical change tips from the Smith Center’s Cancer Help Program retreats and their Healthy U workshop series:³Information sourced from Laura Pole and Swami Vidyananda.

• Ask: “Am I ready to make change?” If yes, continue.
• Start by paying attention. See what speaks to you or appeals to you, and use that as a starting place to choose a practice or change you’d like to make.
• Set your daily minimum of a new practice: “I will chew my food slowly two meals a day.” then cut it in half and stick to it. Choose something you know you can accomplish. Don’t underestimate the power of a short practice.
• Expect backsliding so that when you experience it you won’t give up—you’ll know to just start again.
• Change your environment to make it easy to do your practice.
• Tell someone: have a “purpose partner”, someone sympathetic to your desire for change but to whom you’ll feel some level of accountability. If someone knows you’re making a change and might ask you about it, you have extra motivation to stick with it.
• Track your changes with a checklist, a spreadsheet or some other record-keeping method.
• Create ongoing support from your coach, counselor, therapist, teacher or supportive friend and follow up with him or her regularly for several months. Creating a new habit takes two to eight months, much longer than the 21 days believed for a long time. Anticipate your need for ongoing support.⁴Clear J. How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science). James Clear. Viewed November 10, 2022.

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