I love Disney movies. There are heroes and bad guys, and
there is always a defining moment where the hero makes a difficult decision
that changes everything. In Disney movies, defining moments determine the outcome
of the story.
Life is not a Disney movie. There is no defining moment.
The decisions you do make at crucial crossroads were really made slowly over
many years by little things you chose to do or not to do every day.
Your health, fitness, and your success (or failure) in
every part of your life is defined by the little things you do consistently
every day for months and years – your habits.
Stop looking for “defining moments.” The bad news is
there is no magic pill, secret exercise, ab machine, or miracle diet that is
going to change everything overnight or even in a week.
The good news is getting the body you always wanted (or
achieving any other goal you want in life) actually is not difficult, and
anyone can do it.
The $1,000,000 “Secret”: Changing your habits changes
yourself. We are our habits. Your body is a reflection of your habits.
What is a Habit?
Habits are routines we follow automatically without
conscious decision making.
Habit formation occurs in three stages:
Stage 1: The cue – an association that
triggers the behavior
Stage 2: The actual behavior
Stage 3: The reward – a positive feeling that
reinforces the behavior
In nutshell, a cue reminds us to perform an action. We do
the action, and we get a reward.
Example of an unhealthy habit: Eating potato chips while
watching television. Whenever you sit down to watch television, you will
automatically start craving the potato chips. Potato chips were engineered to
be addictive. Lays openly brags “bet you can’t eat just one.” The salt, fat,
and carbs trigger pleasure in your brain. Let's break it down:
Stage 1: The Cue - Watching Television triggers a craving
for potato chips
Stage 2: The behavior - Eating potato chips
Stage 3: The reward - The fat, salt, and carbs triggers
pleasure in your brain
Every time you perform the habit loop, it gets
strengthened. After a while, you will be miserable if a TV is on, and you
don't have potato chips to munch on. Needless to say, this habit is very
unhealthy and will make you unhappy with the way your body looks.
How to Break Bad Habits
Now we know how habits work and how they are formed. How do we break them?
First, it's important to understand your bad habits. Identify your cue, your behavior, and the
reward that reinforces the habit. Luckily,
habits are pretty fragile and easily to break once we understand they need the
cue, behavior, and reward loop to survive.
If we break any point in this loop, we break the habit.
3 Ways to Break a Habit
1. Eliminate the Cue
2. Block the behavior
3. Eliminate the reward
In the example of eating potato chips while watching
television, you could:
Eliminate the cue - You could stop watching television.
For many people this would be difficult, but luckily there's plenty of other
ways to break the habit.
Block the action - Make a point to never eat while
watching television. Watching TV will stop triggering food cravings after
several weeks.
Block the action - Make sure unhealthy snack food is
never handy near the television. One of my rules that I never break: I do not
buy or bring unhealthy food home.
Remove the reward - Potato chips (and most processed
snack foods) were designed to be addictive; if you eat them your brain will
register a reward. Here’s some ideas:
If you don't like spicy foods, sprinkle cayenne pepper
or dice up habanero peppers and mix them in the potato chip bag. Your brain will quickly connect the painful
spiciness with the chips, and the craving will disappear instantly.
There are countless ways to break habits. Anything that disrupts the habit loop will
work. Be creative, but do not attempt to
break a habit with will power alone.
It's a losing battle.
Don't Rely on Will
Power!
Do not fight habits with shear will power. This is a losing battle. Will power is like a muscle. It fatigues and weakens. If you attempt to break your habits with
shear will power, you will most certainly lose.
You may succeed for a while, but as soon as your will power weakens, the
habit will win. Everyone has moments of
weak will power.
How I Avoid
Unhealthy Foods
Rule 1: I never bring unhealthy food that I will crave
home. If you don't bring it home, eating
it will not become a habit.
Rule 2: When I'm tempted by something unhealthy, I focus
on how miserably I will feel 15 minutes after eating it. I think about how it harms my body (and will
make me fat). When I focus on the
"pain" of eating the unhealthy food, I will make the right decision. If I focus on how good it will taste, I will
cave in.
How to Build
Healthy Habits
We know how habits work, and we know how to break bad
habits. How do we build good habits that
we want to have? We set up a habit loop
of course! We need a cue, behavior, and
a reward.
Example: You want to start exercising on a daily
basis. You want to make this a
habit. Remember, you need all three
parts (cue, behavior, and reward) of the habit loop, or the habit will not be
formed. You must have habits working for
you. Will power alone is not enough.
Step 1: The cue.
You need a cue that occurs every day, and when it occurs, you do your
exercise routine. I exercise right after
I get up in the morning. This is very
important! You must set a specific time
(cue) for exercising each day, or you will not develop the habit. You will fail if you don't have good habits
working for you!
Step 2: The behavior.
Make sure nothing will impede or disrupt your workout. Have your workout plan, clothes, equipment,
and anything else you will need ready.
Step 3: The reward.
It's very important to reward yourself when building new habits. Luckily, exercise produces endorphins which
make us feel great, but for the best results, set additional rewards for
yourself.
Be creative, but remember you must have a cue and a
reward to build a new habit. You must
make exercise and healthy eating a habit or you will fail in your fitness
goals.
When I Don't Feel
Like Exercising
Some days I wake up, and I really don't feel like
exercising. I always think better after
my workout, so I go ahead and workout and then decide whether or not I should
have done that.
My Workout Reward
I drink a chocolate protein shake and eat some dates
after working out (carbohydrates and protein ingested immediately after a
workout are scientifically proven to improve muscle recovery and growth). I
LOVE chocolate and dates are delicious. Honestly, sitting down, high on
post-workout endorphins and enjoying the dates and chocolate shake after a good
workout is one of the best parts of my day. It's the little things in life :)
How to Change Your
Life
Pick one good habit you want to start or one bad habit
you want to break and change it this week.
Start today. Depending on the
habit and the person, it takes anywhere between 3-9 weeks to form a new habit
or break an old one.
Success in anything is accomplished by small but
consistent improvements. Can you be 1%
better today than you were yesterday? 1%
doesn't seem like a lot, but a consistent 1% improvement makes a dramatic
difference over time:
One Week: Nobody will notice the difference
1 Month: There will be a noticeable difference
6 Months: There is a dramatic difference that everyone
will notice
1 Year: You are a completely different person
One year from now you will find yourself where your
habits have taken you. Is that where you
want to be?
This article was written by Kurt Boyd, fitness
fanatic, and director of Strength Stack 52. Strength
Stack 52 makes exercising a fun game that can be done anywhere with no
equipment. We have also recently developed Weight Loss Stack 52, a game that
helps you break bad eating habits and replace them with healthy ones.
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