How to Make Your Habits Automatic
Coaching Corner
Each month this year I'll share a strategy (or two) for behavior change. These 12 strategies will help you move through the stages of change. Use them to initiate, maintain, or resume healthy behaviors.
First up, my favorite! Stimulus control, aka "how to manage your environment to make healthy habits AUTOMATIC" (Source: Prochaska and Prochaska, Changing to Thrive).
Stages of Change
Depending on where we are on our change journey, different strategies are more or less useful. The graphic below (Source: YourCoach) nicely depicts the TTM stages of change. You'll note it's a circle, not a line... our change efforts are not linear! Rather, change is a journey which sometimes takes us back through earlier stages when life throws us curve balls (e.g. a marathon runner moving from maintenance stage in their athletic training back to preparation with physical therapy after an injury).
Stimulus Control
You know what's pretty awesome? The Stimulus Control strategy can also save you a lot of time! Many of the examples above incorporate ways to make doing the healthy / goal behavior quicker, and the unhealthy / less desirable behavior more time consuming. It's pretty quick to blend a pre-made smoothie for lunch between meetings, whereas it will take you a lot of time and effort to satisfy the craving from that TV ad and drive to the grocery store for your favorite ice cream!
Give it a try
I hope you've enjoyed learning a little about the behavior change process and a strategy to move you through it to achieve your goals. Please let me know how these tips work and what other approaches you come up with. My contact info is below, reach out anytime!
Your partner in health,
Paula
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Calendly
Each month this year I'll share a strategy (or two) for behavior change. These 12 strategies will help you move through the stages of change. Use them to initiate, maintain, or resume healthy behaviors.
First up, my favorite! Stimulus control, aka "how to manage your environment to make healthy habits AUTOMATIC" (Source: Prochaska and Prochaska, Changing to Thrive).
Stages of Change
Depending on where we are on our change journey, different strategies are more or less useful. The graphic below (Source: YourCoach) nicely depicts the TTM stages of change. You'll note it's a circle, not a line... our change efforts are not linear! Rather, change is a journey which sometimes takes us back through earlier stages when life throws us curve balls (e.g. a marathon runner moving from maintenance stage in their athletic training back to preparation with physical therapy after an injury).
Stimulus Control
- Use it to move from action to maintenance. This behavior change strategy is particularly useful when you are in the "action" stage of change (engaging in a new healthy behavior or quitting unhealthy behavior for less than 6 months). This is the hardest stage of change! Once the shiny newness and motivation of a new habit wears off... it's hard to keep it up. Use stimulus control to help make your new behavior automatic and progress towards the maintenance stage .
- Manage your environment. A behavior requires a trigger to act. Triggers surround us, both for healthy behaviors (fresh fruit bowl out on the counter) and unhealthy behaviors (the sound of a familiar jingle encouraging you to drink soda when a TV ad comes on). But we can use triggers to our advantage by re-engineering our environment. How? Add in reminders and cues that support and encourage healthy behaviors. And remove (or alter) the reminders and cues that encourage unhealthy behavior. I've included some examples below to get you thinking... what triggers could you control to set you up for success?
- Example to support exercise - Gym bag. If you've recently started a new workout habit, pack your gym bag before. Have the gear you need in plain sight, for example water bottle filled, shoes out, etc. Go a step further and queue up your music playlist on your phone. For me, this example looks like the following: Every night I pick out my Pilates outfit (down to my sticky socks :D), fold, and lay on the corner of my bathroom counter. When that early alarm clock goes off, I don't need to waste mental energy - and time - thinking what to wear. I just follow my habit and get dressed for movement. Easy peasy!
- Example to support healthy eating - Meal prep breakfast or lunch. This example includes planning out your day by looking at your calendar, thinking about when you want to eat, and considering what you need to fuel for (e.g. food/drink before a Zoom meeting may look different than food/drink before a 5 mile run). Then prepare meals or aspects of meals (e.g. chop ingredients) for whenever your time will be limited and/or temptations will be high. For me, this example looks like the following: Late mornings/lunchtimes are very busy for me each day with Pilates and Health Coaching clients, and I don't have much time to prepare food. I prepare a smoothie the night before, set out the blender on the counter (visual cue), and set a 10 min block in my calendar (reminder cue) to tell me to eat! :D
- Example to decrease snacking on the couch - Volume control. Stimulus control is a super effective strategy for preventing unwanted behavior, not just for supporting the good! Say your TV streaming service interrupts your favorite show frequently with advertisements for sodas, desserts, and other tasty temptations that will derail your new "no snacking after dinner" habit. Consider how to change up your surroundings to prevent snacking. Mute the volume each time an ad pops up. Prepare a decaf tea and bring with you to the couch before you start your show. Remove the junk food from the house (hard to eat it when it's not there!). You get the idea... there are many ways to manage our environments to help make our good habits stick and our bad habits fade.
You know what's pretty awesome? The Stimulus Control strategy can also save you a lot of time! Many of the examples above incorporate ways to make doing the healthy / goal behavior quicker, and the unhealthy / less desirable behavior more time consuming. It's pretty quick to blend a pre-made smoothie for lunch between meetings, whereas it will take you a lot of time and effort to satisfy the craving from that TV ad and drive to the grocery store for your favorite ice cream!
Give it a try
I hope you've enjoyed learning a little about the behavior change process and a strategy to move you through it to achieve your goals. Please let me know how these tips work and what other approaches you come up with. My contact info is below, reach out anytime!
Your partner in health,
Paula
Website
Calendly
Having challenges with your health and wellness goals?
Need an accountability partner to kickstart or maintain your efforts? Grab a time on my calendar and share your story with me. We can discuss your goals and explore strategies to meet them! I offer complimentary 30min virtual coaching discovery sessions and would love to meet with you. Please set up a time here: Schedule Session
Need an accountability partner to kickstart or maintain your efforts? Grab a time on my calendar and share your story with me. We can discuss your goals and explore strategies to meet them! I offer complimentary 30min virtual coaching discovery sessions and would love to meet with you. Please set up a time here: Schedule Session
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