Let's Talk Habits

Down to our very core, we are wired to work as efficiently as possible.  Habits are the manifestation of that truth.  As Charles Duhigg writes in The Power of Habit, "When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making.  It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks,  So unless you deliberately fight a habit--unless you find new routines--the pattern will unfold automatically."
As Duhigg explains, habits are stored in the basal ganglia, a primitive part of our brain responsible for basic bodily functions.  Rather than having to think, remember, or decide, the basal ganglia enables us to save energy by simply doing tasks without thinking when they are a repeated activity.  For example, we don't really think when we reach to turn on the light switch, we just automatically know where it is in the room and how high up the wall it is located.  When we move, sometimes we reach for the wrong spot before we realize that we're not in the same house any more.  This is our basal ganglia at work.  But as Duhigg points out, "Habits aren't destiny... habits can be ignored, changed, or replaced."  Just as in the light switch example, we can train our basal ganglia to record a new pattern.

Why spend all this time talking about habits?  Because habits are the reason you turn into Starbucks in the morning.  They become automatic behaviors that we do just because we've trained ourselves to do them.  Sometimes we don't stop to think if we're tired and need coffee or if we're actually hungry, we just pour our cup of joe and reach for a croissant.  Think about it, how many times have you reached for a snack when you actually weren't hungry at all?  Christina, a friend of mine in college told me that every time she studied she craved M&Ms.  When she thought about it, she realized that she used to keep a jar of M&Ms on her desk in high school.  Every time she studied, she snacked on M&Ms.  Over time her basal ganglia created a habit.  M&Ms and studying were storied together as one activity.  So as a freshman living in the dorms, she found herself walking to the snack machine to buy a bag of M&Ms every time she sat down to study.  In truth she didn't REALLY want the M&Ms, she just thought she did.  When she realized what was happening she decided to replace M&Ms with baby carrots.  It took some time, but before she knew it, if she didn't have her baby carrots, she could barely focus on her studies.  The brain is strange sometimes, but it does what it does to save us the extra effort of having to think about things too much.  The problem is that it can be dangerous to stop thinking about what we're feeding our bodies.  So what's the best way to stop a habitual pattern?  Well rather than struggle with trying to stop it entirely, we should look to try to change it.  The same concept applies to training a dog.  If a dog barks when a stranger comes to the door, you will wear yourself out trying to STOP her from doing it (trust me, I know!)  However, if you introduce a new behavior such as to sit or shake and a reward, a new habit will form, and hopefully for your own sanity the old habit will cease.

So how do we form a new habit?  Habits are formed in what Duhigg calls "The Habit Loop".  The loop consists of a cue, a routine, and a reward.  Remember the famous Pavlov's Dog experiments?  Pavlov rang a bell and gave the dog food.  He repeated this routine several times, and over time, Pavlov could trigger conditioned response, salivation in the dog, without ever presenting the reward (food).  Essentially, Pavlov created a habit in the dog.
The consumer industry works to play off of our habit formation, using cues to trigger certain automatic routines without us ever even realizing it!  So the first thing to do, is to recognize what our habits are.  Then we can work to adjust those habits over time, but we'll actually need to train our brains to do so.  Each morning when you wake up, what do you do?  Push the snooze alarm?  Stumble out of bed to start a pot of coffee?  Brush your teeth?  All of these things are habits that we've trained ourselves to do.  They all start with a cue (the alarm clock), a routine (push snooze, brush teeth, make coffee), and a reward (extra sleep, clean teeth/feeling of confidence, cup of coffee/caffeine buzz).  To change some of these habits we need to make a mental commitment to a new activity.  And we need to be very careful about how we reward ourselves.  All too often we use food as a reward.  Find something that you like that can be an alternative reward to food.  For example, treat yourself to a nice hot foot soak, allow yourself a nap in the middle of the day, paint your nails, or go on a nice drive. Something. Anything that works in a healthy way for you, but remember, this will become a habit so be careful what you choose as your reward.  Eventually you can remove the reward, but if the reward is chocolate, I find that too often it gets stuck as part of the habit (at least it does for me!)  If you must use food as a reward, that is OKAY, but make sure you choose something healthy.  We will talk soon about what foods actually ARE healthy (they may not be what you had imagined), and which foods the industry tries to convince you are healthy (milk, for example).

So this week, try to focus on recognizing your habits.  Even if you don't work on changing them just yet, start thinking about possible new habits we can replace the old habits with and how we can train our brains to store the new activities as habits (remember the Habit Loop: cue, routine, reward).

Day One

Day 1:

Health is a combination of several things, but we're going to work on two of the main aspects: Nutrition and Exercise (or physical fitness).


NUTRITION

Add a Green Smoothie to your daily routine IN PLACE OF your normal breakfast.

Whatever you eat for breakfast, whether it's a bagel, a fast food breakfast sandwich, or nothing at all, you're going to make a switch.  Once you taste the smoothie, this will be easy.  It's convincing yourself to give it that first try that will be hard.  So let's make a deal.  We'll start with a nice fruity flavorful green smoothie.  You will TRUST ME and TRY IT OUT!  It looks daunting but it's actually quite tasty.  Then over the next days and weeks you'll gradually start adding a higher ratio of greens to fruits.  So below is the recipe for a very fruity, sweet version of this green smoothie.  It's time to break out the blender!


Ingredients:

1 Apple
1 Banana
1 Handful of Green Grapes
1 Handful of Frozen Pineapple Chunks
1-2 Stalks of Kale (with stems removed)
1 Small Handful of Spinach
3-4 Ice Cubes

Blend all ingredients WELL.  This may take up to 2 full minutes at a high speed.  If the consistency it too think for your taste, add a small amount of water.  If it is not sweet enough for you, add one pitted date, but TRY it first because it is very sweet.  Over time gradually alter the ingredients until you're at half fruit and half greens.

As you can see, this is actually quite a bit of food, so DON'T drink this in addition to your normal breakfast, but rather REPLACE it!  That being said, if you don't normally eat breakfast, DO add this to your routine in the morning.  This way when it comes time for lunch, your body will not be starving and you will likely eat less.  Also, your body will not reserve as much fat to get through that fasting period of time during the mornings.


EXERCISE

Every healthy lifestyle includes some amount of exercise.  That have to mean hitting the treadmill or taking an aerobics class.  It simply means MOVING!  That could be gardening, going on a bike ride, building a dog house, whatever!  So it may help to motivate yourself by finding a new hobby that involves physical labor.  That means getting up off your duff and getting active.  One neat option is to volunteer!  You could start working with a soup kitchen or helping to clean an elderly persons home.  It could even be something you could do for someone you know.  Perhaps your mom, dad, aunt or uncle could use a little help around the house.  Or maybe you know someone who's recently had a baby.  Volunteering has the extra bonus that it makes you feel good!
If you simply can't think of anything, just start out with what we talked about in my last blog entry: ban the microwave and start cooking your meals from scratch!  If you already cook but opt for pre-cut fruits & veggies, start chopping!  You can also begin doing extra trips to the mailbox or increasing the amount or frequency of any other daily routine.  We will get into some more challenging exercises further down the road, but again, it's important that you start slowly and build up.

Also, try adding some stretches (see below) to your daily routine.
These would be best during the mornings but will work any time.  Just make sure you're consistent to do it the same time every day.  This will help to form a habit (more on habits coming soon).

Important Rules for Stretching:
1) Never bounce!  Slowly work to your limit and hold for 30 seconds and then release.
2) Never stretch to pain!  When you feel pain it means you are over stretching your muscles which can cause damage and a great deal of soreness.  If you're not sure how far to go to get an effective stretch you can go to the point where you start feeling the first inkling of pain, and then quickly back off until the pain is gone and hold there.  However, most people have a natural sense of what their limit is and can stretch to their level of comfort and achieve the perfect stretch, so do what works best for you as long as you never hold your stretch in a spot that causes pain.
3) Trust your instincts!  If something tells you that a certain stretch is not good for you, don't do it!  For example, if you feel off balance while bending to touch you toes alter the stretch by either doing it next to a chair you hold for support, or simply do it while sitting down.  If you have an old injury that gets aggravated by certain movements, alter the stretch to make it work for you.  Try not to compare to what anyone else can do. You know yourself.  Do what works for you!


Some stretching suggestions are:
Toe Touch.  While standing bend over to touch your toes (or knees if you can't make it that far)
The Sky Is the Limit.  Stretch your arms to the sky as high as they will go (you can even go to tip toe if you have the balance)
Side Bend.  With legs spread apart and toes facing forward, reach one hand down your thigh towards your calf or foot (depending on how far you can go) and reach the other hand up over your head.  If you have trouble balancing, hold onto the back of a chair placed in front of you with the hand that would go over the head.  Alternate sides.
Butterfly.  Sit with feet together and knees splayed to either side and practice a "butterfly" stretch.

We will add some yoga poses soon to incorporate breathing exercises while you stretch.