How to change a habit
Last week I sat down with a someone (virtually) for an initial assessment that is getting ready for her wedding this upcoming December. She mentioned that she has never really exercised consistently since she has had a hard time finding something that she enjoys. When I asked her about her biggest struggle since COVID started she mentioned she picked up the habit of eating ice cream while watching Netflix after dinner. You know what I said to that? Me too.
When shelter in place first started I treated it as a staycation. Colin and I started having movie nights every night and to me movie nights is synonymous with ice cream since Coldstone is in the same complex as the theatre we go to and they let as bring it in. All of a sudden I realized that I had been eating a scoop of ice cream almost every day for like 2 months! I couldn’t sit down to watch Netflix without craving it!
The habit of dessert, research has shown, is really fast to take hold, and very slow to break. In Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit, he talks about the three stages of a habit—the cue, the routine, and the reward. In order to change a habit, you can change either the cue or the routine to lead to a different reward. In this case, after dinner time is the cue, the show/movie is the routine, and dessert is the reward.
You’re not going to change the cue—you’ll eat dinner every night. AAAND Colin and I love watching a show together so how could we change the reward? I changed what I was putting in my hands.
Now when Colin and I go to watch TV we either have water, herbal tea, or coffee… For him not me, can’t believe that guy can drink it so late! We maintain the feeling of having something in our hands but substituted it out with something we still enjoy. The behavior is enough to hold your attention and we get to give ourselves a pat on the back for maintaining our health commitment. Because we all like to feel successful right?
Maybe a simple substitution doesn’t do the trick. Go brush your teeth. Studies show that brushing your teeth during a craving can help you dispel the craving, because the signal you send is that mealtime is over now that your teeth are minty. It’s the same thing with our tea. Ending your meal with something light and fresh and repeating this behavior for a week or two consistently can create a NEW signal to your brain that meal time is over, replacing the previous signal (which was tasting something sweet). Habit hacked!
My favorite kind of habit changes are the ones that require virtually no effort to enact, but come with a huge payoff. The next time you sit down for a show or movie grab some tea and see the impact it has on your cravings.
Need help hacking a habit? Schedule an initial assessment with me, In it we review your current training and lifestyle approaches and discover what's holding you back from reaching your goals
