Ready to make some changes to your healthy eating habits?! This next portion of the series is all about how to begin to make changes. And it’s about how to make those changes in a way so that they have all the leverage they need in order to stick. Habits are much easier and more likely to be repeated when they start small, fit into the flow of your life and require less energy to execute. If you haven’t read the two previous parts to this series, I highly recommend that you go back and take a look. Writing your health vision and understanding how to make behaviors meaningful are two extremely helpful pieces to the healthy habit puzzle. And they can make a really big difference when making changes to habits that you want to last a life-time.
It’s important to embrace the concept of small changes vs. lifestyle overhauls. And here’s why:
Small Changes Have the Most Power and Make the Biggest Difference!
It’s so easy to underestimate the value and powerful impact of making small changes or actions. And it’s even easier to overestimate the importance of a monumental, pivotal and life-defining moment, especially when it comes to health and wellness. This is thanks to the massive world of health and fitness that likes to glorify big, life-altering and overnight changes. They tell you “if there is no challenge there is no change”. And when it starts to feel hard or you’re on the brink of giving up, you need to keep pushing through. But how long does pushing through last when you have a real life full of busy and exhaustive days, late work nights, social events, and times when you get sick or have other stressful events going on.
Big changes can be immobilizing and keep you stuck in a start stop cycle of beginning a new behavior and then going back to the old behavior.
We often have a linear expectation of what progress should look like. And at the very least we expect change to easily and quickly adapt into our lives if we have the right determination. But when there’s a picture perfect expectation of change, anything less than that expectation ends up feeling like a failure. And when we don’t get the transformative results or they don’t come quickly enough, we slide back into our previous routines.
We tend to dismiss small changes because they don’t seem to matter much in the moment. But when small changes compound on top of each other over time, that’s what makes the biggest and most effective difference in the long run. When you repeat a small action the effects are multiplied. So they might seem insignificant on any given day but the impact they deliver over months and years can be huge.
Making Changes That are More Likely to Be Repeated:
Step 1: Start with a small change.
If the desired behavior change is to start meal planning, a smaller step might be to plan for one or two meals a week. Or if you want to start eating more mindfully, start eating with the intention of paying attention one meal a day or even one meal a week. Remember the more grand the behavior change the more effort and energy required, which rarely ends in a continued change.
Feel confident in your ability to make long-term change last.
You can leverage the power of making small changes by engaging in small self-care behaviors you feel confident in being able to execute and confident in being able to maintain long-term. So, once you accomplish the behavior and are able to automatically repeat those small self-care behaviors, you’re left with feelings of satisfaction, accomplishment and confidence. And it’s that gratification from confidence that propels further positive self-care changes.
Step 2: Look for areas to plant the small change.
There are a few ways to implement a new behavior that will strengthen the intention to follow through with the action. This includes 1) creating clarity with a plan of action 2) habit stacking and 3) making it satisfying.
Plan of Action
Making an obvious concrete plan of action allows for clarity. The simple way to do this is to designate a particular time and location for the behavior. For example, “I will exercise for 30 minutes at my gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.” Or “I will mediate for 5 minutes at noon at my desk.” The idea is that when there is a specific plan, the likelihood of performing the new habit is much greater than if it’s left up to chance. It’s when we have a vague idea of the desired new habit, that the course of action is not obvious. If we simply tell ourselves we want to “eat healthier,” “exercise more,” or “mediate more,” there is less intention in the hope that we will just do it when we feel motivated to do so.
Habit Stacking
Another approach is to attach the new behavior to an already established behavior or insert it into a current routine. This acts like a prompt that guides the behavior. For example, if you want to start meditating, insert 60 seconds of meditation after you hit the start button on the coffee pot in the morning. Or if you wish to walk more, go for a lap or two around the block before getting the mail. Another example might be, changing into workout clothes right after changing out of work clothes if you want to exercise more.
This is called habit stacking and was created by BJ Fogg. It creates an obvious cue as a set up for a new habit. The idea is to attach or stack a new behavior onto a behavior you’re already doing each day. This process can be repeated to link numerous habits on top of each other. Each one acting as a cue for the next. For example, “after I close my computer for the day, I will change out of my work clothes. After I change out of work clothes, I will put on workout clothes. Once I put on workout clothes, I will fill my water bottle. After I fill my water bottle, I will grab my yoga mat.” It’s a set of simple actions that guide a future behavior.
Make it Satisfying
Another way to increase the odds that a behavior will be repeated, especially when an action might be less than appealing to you, is to attach a behavior to something you enjoy or something you want to do. This allows the behavior to be more attractive, satisfying and rewarding. For example, you could meal plan as you watch a favorite television show. Or go for a walk while you listen to a favorite podcast. Or do some meal prep or cooking while you chat on the phone with a friend or family member. A change becomes much easier and more likely to be repeated when it’s something that’s pleasurable and satisfying. As opposed to punishing.
Step 3: Prep your environment.
What matters when it comes to making a habit stick is not how long it takes for the habit to stick but how many times for a habit to become automatic. So making a change that doesn’t require an extensive amount of energy is key to making a habit easily repetitive. When there’s a lot of energy required, habits become difficult because they require more action. But when you optimize your environment to make an action as easy as possible, you can streamline the habit so there’s less resistance getting the way.
For instance, let’s say the goal is to eat regular meals and snacks. But you don’t have a plan for meals and snacks and there’s no food in the house, so that action becomes difficult to execute. Or if you stop by your home to change into workout clothes before going to a gym that’s out of the way, there’s a lot more steps involved. Ask yourself, “what do I need or what would be helpful in creating a world where my new habit is easier and requires less steps or actions?”
Examples of streamlining and prepping your environment:
Movement: Lay out whatever you might need ahead of time. Workout clothes, shoes, water bottle, yoga mat, gym bag and/or towel.
Going to the gym: Find a gym or workout studio closer to home rather than further away. Or find a place that’s on your way home from work.
Fruits and veggies: Set out a bowl of visible fruit on the counter. Prep and chop some veggies on the weekend to have on hand for the week. Or buy pre-prepped fruits and veggies. Stock up on some frozen veggies and frozen fruit. Have a few recipes on hand that incorporate fruits and veggies.
Drinking water: Keep a glass or water bottle on your desk. Store drinking glasses next to your source of drinking water, whether it be from the faucet, fridge, or whatever.
Eat breakfast in the morning: Prep a dish beforehand that you can quickly reheat or grab and go. Or set out any utensils, plates, toaster or anything you might need the night before to make a quick breakfast.
Bring lunch to work: Pack a lunch bag the night before. Have some handy storage containers available. Have lunch food items already in the fridge, freezer and pantry.
Stay tuned for Part 4 of this How to Make Healthy Eating Habits That Last Series!
If you want more, I created a self-care guide on How To Create Healthy Eating Habits to Improve Health & Your Relationship with Food. And it’s FREE! Just click here and it’ll be delivered straight to your inbox!
If you enjoyed part 3 of this series: making changes that are more likely to be repeated, go back and check out parts one and two:
References: Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. Penguin Random House.
One habit I’ve incorporated that’s been helping a great deal is that I started a subscription of organic fruits and veggies shipped to my home. It’s inexpensive and It’s been fun discovering new recipes and ways to incorporate these unfamiliar vegetables that I may not have picked up otherwise. My new favorite salad is fennel, celery root, parsley, and green apple. And i actually like collards. Who knew? Stackable habits make perfect sense. Thank you fir your article and helpful insights!
Jennifer, I’m glad you found it helpful! Love the idea of a fruit and veggie subscription. I’m also a huge fan of collards. They’re a great way to mix up hearty greens! And your salad sounds like it’s right up my alley! Yum!