Ten Steps To Change a Habit
Improving your health and lifestyle requires replacing some of your daily habits and routines with healthier habits. It doesn’t have to be a daunting task if you break it down and start with 1 or 2 habits at a time.
What is a habit?
An act, behavioral response, practice, or custom established in one’s routine by frequent repetition of the same activity; it has become automatic. Often behavior is associated with a reward or reinforced event. – Medical Dictionary
How to start:
1. Determine long-term goal. This is what you are working towards. It will help determine next steps.
2. Brainstorm how to achieve long-term goal. What will it take to accomplish the goal? What changes or new behaviors will be necessary to succeed?
3. Identify habits you will change. Behaviors are habits. You likely repeat your behaviors so many times that they are automatic, require little to no effort to complete. You have developed habits. Start small when choosing your first habit, this helps increase your confidence.
4. Describe the habit: What is it? What triggers it? Where are you? How do you feel before? After?
5. How is the habit working against the long-term goal? List how the habit is slowing progress toward goal.
6. What reward do you get from the habit? Why do you like the habit? How is it helping you? This is important to determine a good replacement for the habit.
7. Reduce triggers. Sets you up for success! Reduce triggers or cues that prompt your habit.
8. Identify the new behavior to replace the old. Ideally, replace with a new behavior that will provide a similar reward.
9. Try the new behavior! Write down how you felt before and after with the new behavior.
10. Repeat the new behavior. Creating a new habit takes some time. When you first start a new behavior, it takes energy because you are doing something new. Be patient with yourself. When you slip (because we all do), learn from the slip. What caused the slip? How can you be more prepared for the slip in coming weeks? Over time, the new behavior will become a habit.
Sample
1. Long-term goal: I want to lose 30 pounds.
2. Brainstorm how to achieve long-term goal:
a. Cut down on fast food.
b. Better manage stress.
c. Reduce after dinner ice cream.
d. Be more active.
e. Make my portion sizes smaller.
3. Habit to change: Reduce after dinner ice cream
4. Describe the habit:
a. Favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked
b. Triggers: after dinner around 7pm, relaxing on couch with spouse, watching TV. Dinner has settled and want something sweet and I always have ice cream. I am starting to relax after a hard and stressful work day and always feel like the ice cream will do the trick to make me feel happy. After I eat the big bowl of ice cream, I often feel guilty and wish I hadn’t eaten it. My stress feels about the same as it did before I ate the ice cream.
5. How habit works against my goal: It is high calorie. I know it adds unnecessary calories to my day and does not help my stress.
6. Reward I get from the habit: I really like ice cream and it is very tasty! I crave the ice cream so having the ice cream gets rid of my craving.
7. Reduce triggers:
a. Try reading instead of watching TV
b. Do not buy my ice cream
8. New behavior to replace old: Have frozen mango for dessert
9. Try the behavior: I tried reading instead of watching TV and I did not have ice cream in the house. My craving was lower! But it was still there so I had the frozen mango which was really tasty. I felt really proud of myself for not having the ice cream and replacing it with frozen mango, which is healthier for me. Felt very encouraged.
10. Repeat. I will try and have my frozen fruit most nights.