9 Ways to Nail New Food and Lifestyle Habits
1. Assess how ready and motivated you are to change and get clear on your goals or aspirations
For any changes to be successful, we need to be ready and motivated to change. We sometimes know what changes we need to make but actually putting them in place can be challenging. Having the information about what to do, like a diet or workout plan is helpful, however its not enough to change our behaviour – we need to be ready to take action.
Changing our behaviours is a process and there are 3 main stages which lead up to being ready, which one do you think you fall into?
Precontemplation stage – in this stage we aren’t ready to make change in the foreseeable future - we’re sometimes not aware a problem exists and we are not sure if change is even necessary.
Contemplation stage – in this stage we are aware a problem exists and are thinking about doing something about it, but we aren’t quite ready to take action.
Preparation stage – in this stage we are ready to take action.
Understanding what stage we are in is really helpful and has an impact on the approach we take.
Its important that we have our own motivation – if its coming from someone else it our efforts won’t work – how often have you succeeded at something just because someone, say a friend of family member, has said you need to do it?
Probably rarely. That’s because we often resist being changed by another person - we need to feel motivated to change for our own reasons to stick at something.
Its important we understand WHY we want to change not just telling ourselves we need to. For example, ‘I need to change because my friend has told me to’ versus ‘I need to change because I want to reduce my symptoms and have a better quality of life’ or it might be something more specific like wanting to start a sport again or be well enough to go on holiday.
2. Explore the options of how you can achieve your goal, break it down then choose the right habits for YOU.
Write down a list of all the things you can do to achieve your goal then choose the ones you want to do AND the ones you can most easily do.
Its really important that the habits we choose fulfil both of these criteria then we are much more likely to be able to stick to them.
For example, a client of mine called Sarah was struggling with her IBD – she was tired from lack of sleep as work and home life was busy – this meant she had less energy and enthusiasm to cook nutritious meals so her diet had slipped and she knew this made her symptoms worse.
We decided that if we could help to improve her sleep it would mean she’d have more energy to cook and the two together would help improve her symptoms.
We brainstormed a list of ideas of how we could get her to sleep better: from putting her phone away 1 hour before bed, charging it in another room, taking a bath, going to bed an hour earlier, buying new bedding, buying new PJ’s, installing black out blinds, journaling before bed, eating supper earlier etc.
We looked at which would make the biggest impact and which she thought would be easiest to achieve and put them in a list (most impactful and easiest to achieve at the top).
She knew putting her phone on charge in another room would mean she couldn’t sit in bed and scroll through it – it would be easy to do and she knew it would have an impact, so it went at the top of the list. She knew putting her phone away for at least an hour before bed would be hard, but she knew it would help so that went a little further down. She knew having dinner an hour earlier would help her go to bed earlier, but she wasn’t sure she would be able to do this easily as she had lots going on at home with her children, so it went a little further down. Buying new bedding was expensive and would mean going to the shops which she didn’t have time to do, so we put that at the bottom.
After putting her phone in another room to charge overnight, putting her phone away an hour before bed and taking a bath to help her unwind and switch off in the evening, within 2 weeks Sarah was already sleeping better and had got back some energy. This meant she had more energy to cook nutritious meals and her symptoms started to improve.
3. Make the change small initially
We often have this idea that we need made a big change or its not worth it – go big or go home - and that’s particularly prevalent around this time of year with extreme diets and exercise routines being promoted everywhere we look – this sometimes works for some people but often leads to failure, self-criticism and disappointment, particularly when changing our dietary habits. Our instinct as humans stops us from doing anything too painful for too long so if we push ourselves beyond our mental, emotional and physical capabilities we are unlikely to be able to sustain that for long, so this is not the best way to successfully build long term habits.
If we break down a larger goals like “eating healthier” or “managing stress” into more specific, small, and achievable steps that we can do every day, we are much more likely to stay on track.
We can then build on these little steps when we are ready and when the change has become habit, like “eat one more portion of vegetables a day with dinner” or “meditate for one minute after getting dressed in the morning.”
4. Take advantage of existing habits to cue our new behaviour
Attaching a new behaviour we are trying to make a habit to something we already do can act as a helpful prompt to remind us. Also adding visual prompts can be really helpful too.
For example, “after I brush my teeth I will take my vitamin D supplement” (store the bottle by your toothbrush to help remind you).
“After I have eaten my lunch I will eat a piece of fruit” (have a fruit bowl on the table, side or desk).
“When I put the kettle on I will drink a glass of water whilst I wait for it to boil” (put a water glass by the kettle to help you remember)
5. Schedule habits like meetings
Giving our new habit as much priority in our days as our other commitments can be really helpful. For example, if I want to batch make a soup on Monday so I can have it for the rest of the week I will block out some time just before lunch in my diary so I have a little extra time to cook. I schedule this in my diary the day before so I don’t need the mental energy or motivation to decide on the day. It can be helpful to do this either the day before or the week before depending on your schedule.
6. Celebrate the wins each day however small
Every time we complete our new habit we need to celebrate in some way – whether its something we enjoy or a simple smile or virtual high five, rewarding ourselves—even with small celebrations—can offer a sense of pride and internal validation to help to positively reinforce the habit. This will help it continue and stick. For example, consider how children love to put stickers on charts when they do a task—it’s the same rewarding feeling!
7. Failure is inevitable - what matters is how you deal with it
Accept that you will slip up – no one is perfect and perfection is not what we are aiming for – consistency is! So don’t let know slip-up completely derail you. Tomorrow is always a new day just start afresh then and pick up where you left off and DO NOT beat yourself up about it.
If you fail consistently at trying to implement a new habit, its not you that’s the problem its that the habit isn’t the right one for you – there is never just one correct way of achieving your goals so go back to point 2, re-evaluate and choose a different habit instead.
Re-evaluating can be really helpful. Our life is a journey and things are constantly changing and evolving - what will work now might not be possible in 2 years time, so its really important we keep re-evaluating and if something isn’t working don’t throw in the towel, we just need to reassess and explore other options.
8. Make it easy for yourself – be organised
Change can be hard but we can make it easier for ourselves by being organised and having the right things in the right place.
For example, if you want to snack more healthily but you have biscuits in a jar on the table and you have to walk past them to get to the fruit that’s in the fridge - you’re making it hard for yourself! Put the biscuits away in the cupboard and have a fruit bowl on the table instead, or don’t buy biscuits next time you go shopping just buy the fruit so that’s the only option.
Another example - if you want to move in the morning before work then get your gym clothes out the night before, plan what workout you are going to do or what route you are going to walk or run so when you get up in the morning you can just get dressed and go without thinking.
9. Get Help
If you are not sure where to begin then get help – if its nutrition – see a nutritionist, if its exercise see a PT – get help from a professional in this process and navigating what the best options are for you.
If you need help book a (free) 20 minute no obligation phone call with me to find out how I can help you. I’d love to hear about you; your journey, your struggles, your life, and we can chat about the best route forward for you. If that sounds interesting click here so you can find a time that works for you for us to chat.
PS: I see all clients via video call so it doesn’t matter where you live - I work with clients in the UK and internationally.