MICRO-HABITS FOR LONG TERM HEALTH
A habit is a settled or regular practice that is especially hard to break. Habits can be big or small and control part of your life or the whole. A micro-habit is a small habit that when applied can have a big impact. It is a product of being functionally lazy. I have found that when developing micro-habits in your life, it is much more sustainable for long term success than trying to change your most dominant habits.
The most important part of starting a healthy lifestyle is to not overwhelm yourself. Such as with trying to incorporate new positive habits all the while attempting to break bad old habits. The best example is New Year’s Resolutions each year. Everyone tries to change all their habits in the first week. For example,
Eat NO bread
Eat NO sugar
Drink NO alcohol
Exercise 4x/week
Do cardio 3x/week
When you first embark on a healthy lifestyle journey, you have to focus on what you can add into your life to help improve your health. The problem here is the mindset is fixed on eliminating from your routine and that can have a detrimental effect on your stress levels. After a few weeks, you hit a plateau that you have not primed the body to handle properly. One day of cheating on your “diet” and you continue to say to yourself, “I will just start again next week!” Then you begin to binge on the weekends and you build bigger plateau for yourself come Monday.
According to a study in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Phillippa Lally and her research team concluded that it takes more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic – 66 days to be exact. Furthermore, the best way to break an old habit is to form a new one. With that being said, fixing the mindset to adding Micro-Habits into their day instead of trying to break old habits is the best way to go.
I have found that the best way to apply micro habits is to include 1-3 new micro-habits pertaining to Lifestyle and Nutrition into their training phases. For example:
Phase 1 - Accumulation 1
Training: German Body Composition
Micro-Habit #1: Lime and Salt Water upon rising
Micro-Habit #2: Eat a higher protein breakfast
Micro-Habit #3: Topical Magnesium 30 minutes before bed
As you can see, during Phase 1 we fixed the mindset to focus on adding a micro-habit that will have the biggest effect on the rest of the day:
We added Lime and Salt Water on an empty stomach to help with adrenal support and digestion
We added a higher protein breakfast. Studies have shown that the first 30g of protein for the day will aid in digestion and the next 30g of protein will aid in the immune system. I can also influence the food choices you make for the rest of the day.
We added topical magnesium to our bedtime routine to help calm the central nervous system down to help promote a higher quality sleep.
Focusing on adding Micro-Habits into your day will provide you with the foundation for a long and sustainable journey in improving your health and wellness.
Steven Nickel provides a Tailor-Made Fitness Experience for the individual who wants to acquire high quality results. Providing Exclusive Personal Training, Made to Measure Coaching and Ready to Train Collections. To learn more Inquire Here or write to steven@stevennickel.com
