Developing Healthy Habits With Hepatitis C

Dealing with hepatitis C and its effects can be hard but developing healthy habits can put us on the right track toward better liver health.

Habits are made from routine

It has been said we are creatures of habit. Habits are what we do repetitively. Our days generally consist of cycles and repetition.

What we choose to repeat can be healthy or unhealthy. Based on our routine, our habits start to develop.

Breaking those bad habits

Do you feel stuck? How do you break unhealthy habits and replace them with healthy ones?

Evaluate your habits and what you need to change

• Have you been diagnosed with fatty liver as well as hepatitis C? Are you overweight and need to lose weight? What are your eating and drinking habits?
• Do you drink alcohol? If you have hepatitis C or another liver or associated condition, drinking alcohol is something you need to talk with your doctor about. Alcohol has damaging effects on the liver.
• Are you struggling with any type of addiction or habit that harms your health?
• Do you get enough sleep? Do you need to drink more water? Do you need to exercise?
• Evaluate your day and week and determine what changes you would like to make.

Tips to develop your healthy habits

One of the basic steps to changing habits is mindfulness and planning daily action steps toward developing your healthy habits.

• Make a plan of action. Write 1 to 5 healthy habits that you would like to achieve and what steps you are going to take daily to work toward your healthy habit goal.
• Make a habit tracker. This is like a food or fitness tracker. It serves to keep you focused and on track every day.
• Concentrate on something you can do each day that helps you work toward a healthy habit. For example, if you want to break the habit of eating unhealthy foods or beverages, concentrate on eating/drinking healthy choices and less on eliminating the unhealthy ones. You’ll find if you put in more good than bad, there is less room for unhealthy choices. Making healthy choices often encourages more continuous healthy choices. The same can be said for unhealthy choices, so start making the switch to healthy.
• Fill your environment with what is healthy and eliminate as much unhealthy around you as possible.
• The company you keep also has a great influence on your habits. If you are trying to work on changing unhealthy habits and the company you keep is indulging in the habits you want to break, find support and encouragement with those who practice healthy habits.

Developing healthy habits can help you in every area of your life, especially as you fight hepatitis C and liver disease. The choices that we make have an extremely profound impact on our health.

Developing healthy habits as soon as you can, will make a lasting impact on your health.

Starting now, start incorporating some changes to your lifestyle. Make this upcoming year your best year yet!