Smoking can kill you. So it’s no surprise that, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 70 percent of all smokers say they want to quit. Yet they keep lighting up. Why?

Walk into any drug rehabilitation center across the country, and you’ll likely hear abuser after abuser recount tales of how their additions have ruined their relationships, destroyed their families and wreaked havoc on their bodies. So why do they still have the urge to use?

And many of us have a few extra pounds that we could lose if we would choose to eat better and exercise more. So why don’t we just do it?

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health are searching for the answers to these questions and working to develop strategies to help us make the changes we want to make.

“Habits play an important role in our health,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Understanding the biology of how we develop routines that may be harmful to us, and how to break those routines and embrace new ones, could help us change our lifestyles and adopt healthier behaviors.”

He said habits are a normal part of life that can arise through repetition and can actually be helpful.

“We wake up every morning, shower, comb our hair or brush our teeth without being aware of it,” Volkow says. “When behaviors become automatic, it gives us an advantage, because the brain does not have to use conscious thought to perform the activity."

While this can free up our brains to focus on other things, the downside comes when we get into the habit of doing things that are not good for us without any thought.

The good news is that even though bad habits may be hard to change, they can be broken. It just takes some self-control and willpower.

“Self-control is like a muscle,” says Dr. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University. “Once you’ve exerted some self-control, like a muscle it gets tired.”

After successfully resisting a temptation, Baumeister’s research shows, willpower can be temporarily drained, which can make it harder to stand firm the next time around. In recent years, though, he’s found evidence that regularly practicing different types of self-control—such as sitting up straight or keeping a food diary—can strengthen your resolve.

“We’ve found that you can improve your self-control by doing exercises over time,” Baumeister says. “Any regular act of self-control will gradually exercise your ‘muscle’ and make you stronger.”

Have a bad habit you want to break? Follow these tips:

• Avoid tempting situations. If you always stop for a doughnut on your way to work, try a different route. Keep fatty foods, cigarettes, alcohol and other tempting items out of your home.
• Replace unhealthy behaviors with healthy ones. Try exercise, favorite hobby or spending time with family.
• Prepare mentally. If you can’t avoid a tempting situation, prepare yourself in advance. Think about how you want to handle it and mentally practice what you plan.
• Enlist support. Ask friends, family and co-workers to support your efforts to change.
• Reward yourself for small steps. Give yourself a healthy treat when you’ve achieved a small goal or milestone.

Click here to read more about the science behind bad habits at NIH News in Health.

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