Ever wondered why some habits are easier to master than others? There's a little science behind why some habits stick and others fall apart at the seems despite your best efforts. Today, I am opening up some of the secrets of my Healthy Habits Lab and sharing how to practice healthy to create a body and life you positively love. Get your coffee or water, and come learn how its done!
Lifestyle habits are like threads woven into the fabric of your daily routine, influencing the way you eat, move, and think. They are the silent architects of your life, and subconsciously influence your choices, actions and even your mood as a result. Before I share my insider secrets on strengthening positive habits and ditching the bad ones, it is important to understand what habits are and how they are formed in the first place.
Understanding The Roots Of Habits
Habits run like silent computer scripts influencing your daily choices and activities, often without much thought. Rooted in behavioral science, this automatic response to external and internal cues is often so repetitive, ingrained, and influential, that you may not even be conscious you are performing the activity any more. And when you consistently engage in the behaviour, your brain begins to form neural pathways that make it easier and easier for the negative behaviour to be both performed and become automatic. This is the core of how all habits are formed—repetition strengthening the neural grooves that shape your daily choices.
Now that you understand how lifestyle habits are formed, let's uncover the secret to breaking free from the shackles of those bad habits that are detrimental and holding you back in life. The key to this lies in a process known as habit replacement or, as I teach it in my Healthy Habits Lab, "habit stacking."
How To Ditch Bad Habits
The following sequence is a base guideline I teach inside Healthy Habits Lab and to clients in my nutrition clinic. We use it not just for eating habits and weight management, but it is so effective, it can be applied across all aspects of life to bring about positive transformations.
Identify The Bad Habit Triggers
Instead of trying to eradicate the bad habit, you want to focus instead on substituting the undesirable behaviour with a more positive one. To attempt this, you first need to identify the external or internal cue or "trigger" that is prompting the undesirable habit. Whether it's stress related, emotionally driven, boredom, or a specific time of day, recognising the trigger is a crucial. step in overcoming bad habits.
Replace Bad Habits With Positive
Once you have successfully identified the trigger point, you then select a healthier, more positive behaviour that can serve as a substitute. For instance, if stress triggers the habit of reaching for chocolate or unhealthy snacks to self medicate, you'd look to replace sugar or snacking with something else that is more positive. Going on a short mindfulness meditation or nasal breathing to unhook from the stress, or taking a brisk walk are healthy examples of habit stacking.
What you are aiming to do here is to retrain your brain to associate going a walk when you feel stressed, reaching for a glass of water when you feel like snacking or a sugar fix. Both of these healthy habits derail stress and food cravings and the more you do them the better you'll feel.
Be Consistent & Practice Positive Habits
Consistency is the linchpin of this process. Just as bad habits form through repetition, so do good ones, which you can use to your advantage. Gradually, with daily practice, a positive behaviour (i.e nasal breathing) becomes the default response to the initial trigger (i.e. stress). In a short period of time, the new positive habit can begin to crowd out the negative habit. Knowing this, you now have a very powerful strategy at your fingertips to help you master any new habit from weight loss, fitness to better eating habits, being more positive or practicing self care.
By understanding the dynamics of habit formation, and practicing habit stacking, you can take back control of your life on so many levels. This technique works on just about anything from regaining control of a runaway appetite and over snacking, to returning to fitness after a long time sedentary, to picking up a new hobby or life skill, or adding just about any new wellness habit to your life.
As you play around with habit stacking and working towards ditching old, unhealthy habits, remember that building a body and lifestyle you love is never about perfection but progress—a journey of self-discovery and continuous improvement.
Remember, forming new habits and behaviours is a gradual process, and success comes from commitment and persistence. Don't be deterred by any setbacks, juts get at it. Learn from them, own the slip up and make the lesson worth while. By following the above tips, you'll increase your chances of developing positive habits and nail new behaviours that can contribute to a body and life you love!
Want to learn how to permanently ditch those bad habits and master the art of habit stacking? Come join in the next intake of my 6 week lifestyle coaching program.
Join Healthy Habits Lab
There's a reason why habits are such a challenge to stick to long term, and I'd love to teach you how to overcome it. The next 40 days could completely transform how you make habits and achieve your goals! Come on, let's go!
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So, tell me in the comments what new habits you'd like to acheive this coming year. I'd love to cheer you on and provide you with many more success tips. Let me know what specifically you are working on, and I'll pop back with some helpful ideas to help ensure your success!
Emma Lisa, Nutritionist & Women's Practitioner
Emma Lisa is a Nutritionist & Women's Health Practitioner with over 12+ years experience in wholefood nutrition, meal planning and health coaching. She is a published cookbook author, passionate food recipe creator and lifestyle blogger, and an advocate for women's health and anti-diet culture. When she's not in clinic, Emma is mum to five kids, in her test kitchen and a wellness digital creator. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
Healthy + happiness,
Emma Lisa xx
HEALTH & NUTRITION PRACTITIONER
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