3 Habit Building Hacks
To build a habit, you usually have to start with changing an existing habit. Let’s start with an example. You exit a meeting room, you go to the vending machine, and you get chips to eat at your desk to relieve your stress. The chips are your stress relief, and this has become a habit that takes place after most meetings.
A habit is defined as a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. It is hard to give up because is it currently providing you with a reward. For each habit, I like to think there is a cue, the routine and a reward. In the example above, the meeting is the cue, the chips are the routine, and the stress relief is the reward.
If there is any habit that doesn’t serve your weight loss goals right now and you are trying to break it but can’t seem to manage to, have a think about it in relation to the cue, routine and the reward. Nine times out of ten, the routine is the thing that needs to be reexamined, and a change needs to take place.
So, what can you do to change your existing habits? When speaking with my clients, there are a few habit hacks that we talk about. The following three hacks are essential to developing healthy habits to achieve your weight loss goals.
3 Habit Building Hacks
Give It Time
Some people say habits form in 21 days. That is three weeks, and I am calling bullshit. Three weeks to make a life-changing habit stick is preposterous (said in a wicked accent!).
Habits form from consistency and mindfulness of making sure put into place what it is you want to accomplish. We cannot think we can honestly change our life for the better for three weeks and then boom it's changed and everything is perfect.
Habits will form over time. Give yourself a month to four months to form healthy, lasting habits. If you take the example from above and change the routine to bringing your own healthy snacks from home such as hummus and vegetable sticks, homemade trail mix or fruit and yogurt. The New routine would be to replace the chips and a healthier option. Alternatively, you could replace the routine with something different all together such as a quick walk around the block, a drink of choice or a timeout with YouTube videos – something else that will still give you the same reward.
Give your habits time. Try something, see if it works. Trying is more than half the battle because when you try, if you don’t succeed, then you learned from it and you are one step closer to figuring out what will work.
Keep It Simple
Keeping things simple is the key to life, at least that is my opinion, and I believe it is true for habits as well. Keeping things simple takes away any fluff and helps you keep focused on your goal, especially your weight loss goal.
In the example above, if you change the chips (same routine) to a different snack, keep it at one you will like but is still healthy like hummus and vegetables (same different routine), it is said that you will be more likely to achieve a new healthier habit. Taking something away that used to be constant, like chips and trying to mix it up too much with a variety of snacks can confuse a new routine. Keeping things simple for building habits is the key to change.
Do Not Give Up
Building habits is serious, especially to help you reach your weight loss goals. If it could happen in three weeks, don’t you think more people would be implementing habits that would help them achieve their goals? I do.
In my experience, when the habits don’t actually become habits, that’s when you will not achieve your goals. It takes time, it takes patience, and it takes not giving up. Figure out your cue, routine and reward for what you need to put into place to achieve your goals and do not give up. If you miss a day, start over and make sure you put the habit into effect the next day. This is the BIGGEST part of habit-forming – consistency.
If you have a bad day, which happens, and all of a sudden, your new habit suffered because of the bad day, don’t let that one day turn into two or three. Don’t get down on yourself, understand nothing is perfect and nothing will ever be perfect. Just do your best.
If you fall off your habit, take a breathe, reflect, grow from it and get back on track as soon as you can. This is how habits are formed. Nothing easy was ever worth it, and nothing worth it is ever easy so take your time and give yourself the 21 days or four months if necessary. Do what it is that you have to do to create a cue for a routine to be rewarded. You can do this.
If you are currently on your weight loss journey and you are trying to build habits, but you can’t seem to stay on track, click the button below to schedule your free weight loss breakthrough session.
