Habits...

You know the saying about old habits being hard to break - well, when does a new habit become an old one? How often do you have to repeat something for it to become a habit? Well, certainly longer than I would like for a 'good habit' and shorter for a 'bad habit' has been my experience. You'll know what I mean when I give a couple of examples, if that last sentence is a bit ambiguous. The good habit could be the daily exercise one. So, I had built up to an hour a day, and had got to the stage when I said to myself that this was now a lifelong habit, and one that I couldnt do without - that was probably my first mistake, which was to get smug about it! So then, a few things happened together - I did a bit of overseas travel, there was snow on the ground at home, etc, etc, and lo and behold, my good habit is no longer. I'm now back to square one, and even more discipline is required to get back into it. Why, I dont know. I really enjoyed the walking, knew it was doing me good, and yet, as we say in Ireland, there she was - gone! However, when giving up (or cutting down) on a bad habit e.g. drinking coffee, the reverse happens. I had it down to one a day and even skipped that one a few times, and yet, as soon as I took my eye off the ball, I was back up to 4-5 a day! Could someone who is better at psychology than me explain this to me...please!!