Stopping {audience participation please}

Why is it so hard to stop doing things?  It's so easy to start.  Especially those bad habits, it's really easy to slip into those - eating sweets, spending too much time on your phone, sitting on the couch, gossipping.  To stop doing those things - that's a momumental effort!

Once upon a time, I wrote an edtech blog.  On that blog, I wrote about the idea of addition by subtraction. The basic idea that you have to take someting away so you can add something better.  I also subscribe to the idea of giving time to get time.  Spend some time upfront and it will save you time in the long run.

How can we apply those two concepts to stop doing things?

Addition by Subtraction 
The key to stopping something is really to replace it, I think.  Want to stop eating sweets?  Sub in a fruit for that cookie.  Replace one TV show with a short walk around the block.

Giving Time to Get Time
This one is easiest for me to apply to heathly eating.  I like to spend time on Sunday prepping meals for the week.  I make salads for our lunches on Sundays.  If I don't do it, Ryan and I  end up eating junk for lunch all week.

I also do this after our monthly trip to Sam's Club.  I brown all the ground turkey when we get home. Then I seperate it into freezer bags.  It makes meal prep so much quicker because I don't have to brown the meat.  I used to do freezer crock pot meals but I burned my family out on those.  But it was the same concept - prep a bunch of meals at one time and then freeze them.

Bribery
I'm pretty good a bribing myself to do things.  Right now, I'm doing a 31 day yoga challenge.  If I do al 31 days in a row (I did give myself grace for the week I had strep), I'm buying myself some cutesy stickers from StudioAdorkable on Etsy.  Maybe I should bribe myself to stop doing things.

What do you think?  What ideas do you have for stopping? What can we replace our bad activities with?  Let's hear from you in the comments!