It's not even the New Year and I am already thinking of the many New Year's resolutions that will begin and end during January. If there is anything I have learned over my years as an educator, dietitian, athlete, and just as a human... it's that healthy habits are so much easier said than done. Most people will tell you they know what they SHOULD eat, or that they SHOULD exercise, or sleep more. So why don't we do it, what gets in the way?
Behavior and habits have always been a fascination for me, even as a teenager I remember thinking about why people make certain choices. At the age of 14, I began to look at my own habits and experiment. I would go to bed earlier, experiment with eating different ways, change up exercise styles, studied for school using a variety of methods (shout out to my chemistry tutor!) all to see how it would impact or improve my playing, grades, or overall life. Then, at 16 years old and the two years following, a shift in focus happened. Friends (and boys) took over as my main priority and partying, going out, eating out, and staying up late had my habits do a 180-degree turn. It wasn't until my sophomore year in college that I realized how much my habits DID NOT align with the goals I had or the person I wanted to be and how much it was affecting my performance, my mood, and my grades.
At this point one thing came into focus for me, having a goal is easy and but building the lifestyle to obtain that goal and MAKE IT A HABIT was the challenge.
Ever since I have been even more fascinated with studying behavior and lifestyle change. One resource, in particular, the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, provided a clear understanding and roadmap into what drives habits and how to create the ones that align with who you want to be. There are so many important and profound points in the book but one in particular really stuck out and I believe, clearly aligned with healthy eating goals.
It's safe to say our brain likes the easy road. We use the automatic part of our brain so often (think about when you drive to work and then don't even remember driving there, scary right!). Our brain is very good at performing these automatic habits because it's easy and requires little work or thinking or action. But by pulling our habits and actions into our conscious brain we can take control to create new habits that better align with our goals.
When we take a look at habits that drive behaviors there are three components that occur, a cue (this is the signal), then a behavior, followed by a reward. Both the cue and the reward drive behavior, because without the cue, the behavior likely wouldn't occur and without the reward, you wouldn't do it again.
Just look at raising rates of obesity in our nation. We are constantly surrounded by foods, highly palatable foods that hit all the reward systems in our brain (salty, YES! sweet, YUM!, crunchy, YUP!). Link that with high stress levels, busy lives, less movement and the automatic brain and BINGO you have an epidemic!
Once we clearly define our goal, we must take control of the design of our environment to align with that goal. James Clear states, "Most people live in a world that other people created for them". So in order to become the person we aim to be, we must set up our environment to make healthy habits easy and automatic, and unhealthy habits hard and difficult, only then will we have an active role in our success.
So how do we do this?
For humans, vision is our most powerful sense so a great first step in creating a habit would be to look at your home environment and what visual cues exist there. What food is on your counters? When you open your fridge, what is the first thing you see? What about your pantry? Where is the Halloween candy? Or how about work, are there sweets in plain sight? On your desk? In the staff lounge?
If your goal is eating healthy, make it easy. Have healthy foods in plain sight and ready to eat. Making it easy makes it WAY more likely you will eat them. Hiding those carrots in the crisper pretty much guarantees they will go bad before you get to them. But don't stop there, make unhealthy habits hard, so in simple terms, if you struggle with sweets or ice cream- don't keep them in your house or on your desk at work or at least put them in a less visible place (Halloween candy in the cabinet no one goes in!). Research has shown, just putting candy in an opaque jar instead of a clear one reduces candy consumption.
So let's take this concept and get started on planning your next habit!
1. Clearly define what your goal is and WHY it is your goal. Being clear and aligning your goal with who you want to be is a powerful first step. Try to pick one goal and focus on it, this will allow you to truly make it a habit and not just another New Year's resolution that comes and goes.
2. Making healthy habits easy and unhealthy ones hard. Here are a couple of ideas:
Easy - Set out your workout clothes as a visual reminder to get out and move or put a bag of workout clothes and sneakers in your car so you can always go straight to the gym or for a walk outside.
Easy- Replace sweet treats and bread set out on your counter with fruit and veggies or clear them off completely.
Easy- Buy already chopped or ready to eat vegetables and have them be the first thing you see when you open your fridge
Hard- Put foods that are not in line with your goals out of sight or out of your house
Hard- Leave cash/debit card in your car so you don't visit the vending machine or order out at work Hard- Put alarm across the room so you have to get out of bed to workout
Taking these first few steps to set up your environment will get you on your way to setting new, healthier habits and have your new habit in automatic mode before Christmas!
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