Creating healthy habits
In2health’s guide to laying the foundations for a healthier you.
‘Getting one percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run.’
James Clear
Habit creation 101
We hope that you're feeling pretty motivated to create some new habits, to take on some challenges to improve your scores, how you feel now and into the future.
If your motivation level is through the roof after finishing your Health Check, that's awesome but we recommend only taking on one or two challenges at a time.
Creating habits that become part of who you are and how you function, is not the easiest thing in the world, so staying focussed is important.
There is a huge amount of neuroscience research into habit formation. It is a fascinating area that delves into deep neuronal connections and neurochemistry.
There are a few key strategies that we know help to strengthen these connections, to turn a behaviour that you’d like to make part of your life into a true habit. Part of the key to success is to come from a space of purpose, to set short term, achievable goals that you gain rewards from, that you continue to practice and learn and most importantly that you are kind to yourself.
Read on to delve a bit deeper into some handy tips on creating healthy habits that will stick.
Step 1 Finding your ‘Why’
The most important first step to success in creating healthy habits is to be really clear on your ‘why’ or the key purpose of creating space in your life for this change.
We recommend spending a moment reflecting on your key reasons why you want to create a change, by taking an honest look at your values and the pros and cons of putting energy into a new way of doing things.
Focussing on one key tangible and meaningful reason personal to you to motivate behaviour change is a great place to start.
For example losing weight or cutting back on alcohol because you’ve been told that that’s what you need to do to be healthier makes sense, but this isn’t powerful, meaningful or personal enough. Some more inspiring alternatives may be:
“I want to have the energy to play footy with my son”
“I want to be able to wear that outfit that I bought for my birthday in 2 months and feel amazing”
“I want to be able to celebrate the start of 2024 on a beach in Fiji with my partner, a trip I funded by saving the money that I would have spent on cigarettes”
“I want to bounce out of bed in the morning to spend quality time walking with my partner and dog, before work”
Step 2 Creating your change environment
To sustain a change in new healthy habits, once you’ve found the reason why you want things to change, you now need to create a change environment to support you. In other words every new habit needs strong implementation strategies focussed on Who, When and Where.
It’s important to understand that creating habits involves changing your brain chemistry and for most people this takes at least 2-3 months of practice to make the new habit as automatic as brushing your teeth.
Being clear on the specifics, when and where these new habits will start and identifying who in your life will support you and be your cheer squad, are a really important part of this. For example setting a goal of ‘I will get up (when) at 6am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and go for a run (where) around the botanical gardens with (who) Ben’ is much more powerful than, ‘I will go for a run whenever I’ve got some free time’.
Once you identify the when, where and who and you’re clear on your goal, sharing it with your buddy (or group of buddies) and coming up with a plan as to how they can support you, is a great next step.
It’s also essential to recognise any barriers to you establishing the new habit AND triggers for any old habits that you may be trying to give up.
For example if you plan to spend less time sitting at your desk during the day what systems can you put in place to remind you to move (e.g. download a ‘stand up’ reminder app), if you have a really busy day will this still work or do you need to find an impossible to ignore system like setting up your meetings as walking meetings?
If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind establishing habits and want to read or listen to some good resources, here are two fantastic, scientifically strong reads:
James Clear ‘Atomic Habits’ and
Charles Duhigg ‘The power of habit’
Step 3 Goal setting : being ‘SMART’ about it
One of the challenges of changing not so great habits is that people often set unrealistic goals and then when they don’t reach them, they feel a sense of failure or overwhelm.
For example if you have never exercised, planning to run a marathon in a fortnight or if you’re 10 kilos overweight, losing that weight in a month is probably a bit over the top. Setting a long term goal is fantastic, but if this isn’t broken down into smaller goals so that you can experience that feeling of achievement and realisation that you are pretty awesome then habit creation will be a struggle.
Establishing ‘bite size’ goals really helps to sustain the behaviour change needed.
The team at In2health are busily building an app that you will be able to access in the not too distant future. We are designing this to support you to track your goals and to access your scores, action plan, referrals and to update your information easily. Before that comes along, we encourage you to spend a few minutes getting very clear about your priority behaviour change goal.
Tips on setting a SMART goal
We really like the SMART model as a framework to create a goal for the first 1-4 weeks of your new habit creation project.
Specific - be very specific an clear about what you are aiming to achieve (remember to include your who, when and where)
Measurable - to know whether you’ve achieved your goal you need to ensure that it can be measured in time by setting a date that you will achieve the goal by and in space.
Attainable (but challenging) - then you can bask in that wonderful feeling of success when you have reached it.
Relevant - your goal needs to be linked to your ‘Why’ and thus to your values and within your control.
Time bound (1-4 weeks is a good place to start)
We recommend writing down your ‘Why’ and your SMART goal down, stick it on the fridge or take a screenshot and save it as your phone wallpaper so that you have a regular visual ‘nudge’.
Share your goal with us
You will find a link to the In2health 'Pulse Check' in the email that your Action Plan was attached to. The Pulse Check is a quick 'touch base' that allows you to document the goal that you have decided to set for yourself and to commit to a date that you will achieve this goal by. You can also provide any health updates that you’d like to share so that we can recalculate your health scores.
Step 4 Creating habit patterns
Now you’re almost ready for launch, we recommend putting a microscope onto your goal and identifying what structures and supports you need to put in place to maximise your chances of achieving it. Like learning to play the piano or learning a new language, the more you practice and have a routine, the more amazing you will be.
Spending some time thinking about what has worked for you in the past and what has got in the way is important to minimise your chances of hitting road blocks in the first few weeks. Identifying triggers for not so healthy choices or identifying when you are making excuses for not keeping up with your commitment to yourself, and having a couple of strategies to manage these is always a good idea.
Get it in the diary
Some people find that diarising their new routine for example putting that gym session, run or meditation session in your diary to ensure that you have time blocked out is a good idea.
Having a healthy habit buddy
For others having a buddy who is committed to you achieving your goal, to help you to establish that new routine whether it’s having an alternative to heading out for a smoke at lunchtime and going for walk with your buddy instead or going to the gym or having a healthy lunch together.
Financial structures or a shiny reward on the horizon
Others find having an aligned financial commitment (like a yoga or gym membership) or goal (like that holiday in Fiji we mentioned earlier as something positive to focus on if you’re thinking about buying cigarettes) or buying something to support the new habit (like a flash pair of sneakers or new gym gear) helps them to get into the flow of the new routine.
Step 5 Achieve that goal. Be kind to yourself
We’re keeping our fingers crossed that you have hit the 3, 6 or 12 month mark and you are in the flow with your new healthy habit.
We hope that you’ve updated your Pulse Check, that you’re feeling pretty fab and you’ve seen your health scores improving.
Perhaps you’re setting your sights on the next thing you’d like to off the healthy you list? If so, that’s awesome news.
At In2health our ‘Why’ is to empower 1 million people to live amazing lives and so if you’re on this track our team are doing a happy dance with you.
If you didn’t quite get there, please be kind to yourself. Spend some time reflecting on the specifics particularly your ‘Why’, ‘When’, ‘Where’ and ‘Who’ and figure out what got in the way. We encourage you to use this to learn, to reset your goal and to establish a new, even more resilient plan.
Having a growth mindset is key. You might not be there just yet, but if you’re clear on your ‘Why’ then you will achieve that goal soon.
Please stay in touch and keep us posted on where you’re up to with your goals, as our favourite thing is to hear about people setting new goals and being inspired to be their happiest, healthiest selves. Go you!