How to Redesign Your Life to Easily Create Healthy Habits
Image: @nublson
How to build healthy habits: Simple tips for fitness, eating and reducing stress.
Let’s get right into it. The easier change is, the more likely it is that change will stick in the long-term.
Creating healthy habits doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With just a few small changes, you can set yourself up for success with exercise nutrition and stress management. Whether you’re trying to work out more or eat more healthily, these tips will help you to redesign your environment and make healthier choices almost automatic.
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests asking yourself the question, “How Can I Design My Life So The Important Steps Are the Easiest To Take?” Today, using some of Clear’s advice, I’m going to help you answer that question. I’ll share some simple tips to help you design your environment, so it supports instead of sabotages your health.
Anne Thorndike, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, carried out an interesting study that might help to bring it home. She believed she could improve the nutrition habits of hospital staff and visitors without changing their willpower or motivation.
The fridges in the Hospital cafeteria didn’t contain any water, just fizzy drinks. Thorndyke added water to each fridge and put baskets of bottled water around the cafeteria and next to the pay stations. Staff and guests could still buy fizzy drinks, it’s just that they now had the option to buy water as well. Just this one simple change increased the sale of bottled water by 25% and reduced the sale of fizzy drinks by over 11%. A powerful example of how our environment affects our decisions.
The Netflix Habit
When one episode of Netflix rolls into the next, it’s easy to spend whole evenings doing nothing but watching TV. It’s no coincidence that the next episode keeps playing without you having to move a muscle. It’s the easiest option.
This isn’t an accident. Netflix uses the science of behaviour change to affect your choices and drive-up your use of their product.
It’s not just large companies, it’s probably happening to you every day.
You open the fridge or kitchen cupboard. The first thing you see is biscuits or some chocolate so, that’s what you reach for. If your phone is sat beside you buzzing or pinging, the chance of you just leaving it there, with your messages unanswered? Probably slim to none.
When someone brings chocolates or cakes into the office for a birthday or other celebration, walking past them without picking one up can be almost impossible. I know how this feels. I’m not super proud of it, but it’s true; I once ate an entire box of chocolates during a night shift. It was a quiet night. The chocolates were right in front of me. It was too easy. The path of least resistance is, quite literally, always the easiest to take.
The great things is that we can use this knowledge to create positive changes in our own lives. The even better news? Small changes to our environment can make a huge difference.
How Can I Design My Life So The Important Steps Are the Easiest To Take?
People often choose products, not because of what they are, but because of where they are.
James Clear
Here are my simple steps to help make the healthier choice the easiest choice:
Exercise: Make working out easy
If you’re struggling to fit exercise into your busy life, do what you can to make it as convenient as possible.
If you want to work out more, leave some weights next to the kettle. That way you can do a few bicep curls or squats while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil.
Get your workout clothes ready the night before and put them in your car, so you have no reason to skip the gym on the way home from work.
Block out time in your diary for working out, pay for a class at the gym in advance and join a gym that’s on your way home from work. Make it inevitable that you’ll go.
Healthy Eating: Make the healthiest choice the easiest choice
Unhealthy snacks can be hard to resist when they’re just in reach. Here some great strategies to help you make healthier food choices:
If you want to drink more water, buy yourself an attractive, refillable bottle and keep it with you all the time. Fill it up before you start work and keep it on your desk to remind you to drink throughout the day. Take it with you when you go for a walk or to the shop.
When it comes to unhealthy or processed foods, they can often be difficult to resist when they’re right in front of us. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat these foods but most of us would benefit from eating them less often. Here are some options to make this happen more naturally:
o Buy fewer crisps, chocolates and biscuits when you go shopping. It really doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s far easier to remove than resist temptation.
o Buy healthy snacks and leave them in obvious places. Buy a fruit bowl and leave it on the table or kitchen worktop. Fill a glass jar, fill it with nuts and leave it near your kettle.
o Spend a little bit of time at the weekend chopping up veg and store it in see through containers. That way when you open the fridge, you’ll see a healthy snack that’s already prepared. Veg sticks with hummus or nut butters can be delicious, healthy snacks that help to keep our energy levels balanced and keep us feeling fuller for longer after eating.
o If you find yourself on autopilot in the supermarket, try shopping somewhere else. One where you don’t know the location of all your favourite unhealthy snacks. I think this is a genius idea. Most of the actions we do each day are done without even thinking. Doing this will make you think twice about the items you put in your trolley.
Limit Your Phone Use: Reduce stress and improve your sleep
·Spending too much time on your ‘phone can affect our stress levels and, if we use it late at night, our sleep. Turn off the notifications on your emails and apps like Facebook and Instagram. Do you really need to know every single time you get an email?
If you can’t resist checking your ‘phone during the night or first thing in the morning, don’t charge it in your bedroom, leave it in another room to help you avoid temptation.
Small Changes for Long-Term Success
Many of my clients are reluctant to start making changes because they are worried about how difficult it’s going to be. I understand this. The “all or nothing” or “go big or go home” mentality is still prevalent in the dieting world. For most of us, it doesn’t work. If it worked we wouldn’t have tried so many diets and still be trying to figure out how to lose weight in the long-term.
If this sounds familiar to you, spend some time looking around your house, car, garden, workplace. Ask yourself:
How is the design helping me to make unhealthy choices?
What small changes can you make so that healthy habits are not just easy, but almost inevitable? Reduce friction, make the healthiest option the easiest option and you will start to see a difference. Remember, small changes can make a big difference.
If you make healthier options as accessible as possible, healthier habits will come naturally.
Design your environment for healthier habits
Making small, simple changes to your home and daily routine can help you adopt healthier habits without adding extra stress and overwhelm to your already full plate. These small changes can really add up and set you up for long-term success.
Thanks for reading.
Catherine x