We are incredibly good at giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt. What does that mean? Talking with your coworkers and saying "we eat mostly healthy" when in reality you've had fried food at least 3 times this week, finished multiple servings of cookies in one sitting, and haven't had more than one serving of micronutrient dense food.
Psychology termed this phenomenon the 'Fundamental Attribution Error'. It is a self serving bias that allows one to preserve their self-image by blaming their actions on external factors. There are many unhealthy behaviors that we can blame on our situations, but for this article I will focus on the catalyst for improving eating habits and sitting less.
Even the best fall into the time-old trap, going on autopilot and letting bad habits slowly creep in. So how can we address this issue? The solution is as simple as they come. Pen & paper. Make a list and track what you eat for one week. No calories or macronutrient tracking, we just want to draw some attention to what we consumed and roughly the number of servings. The same solution applies for sitting, try to keep a simple log of all the times you sit for one week. This is just one week, it is not something that you will have to track forever, so try to be accurate. The more accurately you can journal, the more benefits you can reap.
The little extra bit of attention can be enough to push the needle in the other direction and start a positive cascade of changes. From there you will be inspired to make changes and they will likely be changes that are sustainable, not the massive New-Years-Eve-resolution-total-life-overhaul that everyone quickly forgets about two weeks into the new year.
Onwards and upwards friends
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