Changing our habits

We first make our habits and then our habits make us!

Or to put it another way there is a lot we can do to build new habits that help us become healthier, more resilient and more able to embrace what life has to offer. Making some small changes, that become part of who you are, really can make a big difference.

I find the Chinese proverb about tree planting a good way to think about habit change and this article shares some of my top tips for behaviour change to help you think about how you could get started today on building some healthier habits…

The benefits of habits

It is estimated the average adult makes more than 35,000 decisions a day including what to wear, what to eat and what to watch. Habits are the mental shortcuts our brain uses to save energy as without them we would be completely overwhelmed by all the minute decisions we need to make each day and lack mental capacity for anything else.

The brain uses an awful lot of energy - around 20% of our resting metabolism despite being only 2% of our body weight. Our biology has evolved to try and conserve energy, just in case we can’t find enough to eat, so our habits are fundamentally an energy saving mechanism for the brain! And some of the habits we have may not be serving us that well in our modern, always on, food environment.

How can we change our habits?

Habits are repeated behaviours that have become automatic, driven by reward seeking and problem solving, so to change them we need to consider what replacement behaviours we could put in place that are easy to do and make us feel good. Spending a little time intentionally thinking through what are you actually going to change, including specifics such as when and where, are important if you want to put new healthy habits in place. And it will take time for new habits to become automatic, rather like learning to drive when it all felt overwhelming at the beginning and required a lot of conscious thought.

When thinking about these behaviour change strategies there are four key elements to consider:

Motivation – think about what type of person you want to become and how this will make you feel. So for example losing weight is a common New Year resolution, but doesn’t actually capture benefits that will help keep you on track. For example, feeling more confident and happy in yourself or being able to play with the grandchildren are much more motivating reasons than simply wanting to be thinner.

Reward – willpower is generally overrated when it comes to habit change with emotions and pleasure more likely to help us create lasting habits. We change best by feeling good and even little rewards such as my habit tracking tick chart for every exercise routine I do, can create a dopamine boost helping build craving for activity in the future.

Starting small – making small improvements on a daily basis leads to big changes over time that can have a big impact on our health. If we get 1% better at something each day this will add up to be 37 times better by the end of the year! So think about all that 2023 potential and consider what small step you could take tomorrow, that you can do regularly, to help you achieve tangible change by the end of the year?

Make it easy – whatever you decide to do it needs to be easy. Think about how you can reduce friction and design your environment to trigger your new habit. Consider place, time, emotional state, other people or a previous action. For dietary change your food environment is really important so do some spring cleaning of your desk, cupboards, work surfaces and fridge to help you make better choices, more often, as a start point.

Top tips to keep going

This photo is from my birthday meal out when friends asked the restaurant to put a birthday candle in my cheese, knowing I have become a person who doesn’t eat desserts! A great support crew helping me feel good about my food choices…

These are the key questions to work through if you are looking to make a change to your diet or lifestyle this year:

·???????What are you aiming to achieve?

·???????Why is this important to you? How will it make you feel?

·???????What small step will you take tomorrow?

·???????What is your prompt or cue to trigger the action?

·???????How can you reduce friction and make it easy to do?

·???????How will you acknowledge or celebrate success?

Good luck!

I am a part time Nutrition and Health Coach, working with clients to help them lose weight and improve their health through real food, low carbohydrate eating and lifestyle change.

Join me for my next Eat Well Group online meeting on Wednesday 15th February at 7.30pm which will focus on eating well when eating out or on holiday. Topics I get asked about a lot by my clients!

I am running these free every month and all are welcome but you will need to register in advance to join the group by following this link: watch-your-waist/monthly-eat-well-group

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Contact me to arrange a chat if you struggle to sustain weight loss or are worried about diabetes or prediabetes to discuss how I could help you make sustainable changes to your diet that fit with your lifestyle, helping you improve your long term health. I can help you find your waist again.