How to Build Better Habits

“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.” — Buddha

Last week, inside my private Facebook group The Women's Weight Loss Revolution I did a live training on the habit loop (you can check it out HERE).

The habit loop is a neurological loop that governs any habit and understanding it can help you change old habits or build better ones.

👉 Your brain loves habits because they allow for it to not work so hard.

In fact, a large portion of what you do each day (more than 45 percent) is a habit, which conserves brain energy for more complex tasks (like mastering the newest TikTok dance...).

But when we talk about building better habits, most people think about actions.

Things like:

✅ Exercising

✅ Meditating

✅ Drinking water

✅ Sleeping more

All of which are worthwhile endeavors.

However, our habits stem beyond our actions.

Our habits include not only our patterns of behavior, but also our patterns of thought and emotional reactions.

And if you really want to create change in your life,

You'll need to do more than build a habit of drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning. 🤷‍♀️

👉 You'll need to change your automatic behaviors AND your automatic thought patterns.

The majority of our thought patterns were established ages ago...and they've been running on autopilot ever since. These automatic thought patterns influence our emotional states and create our belief systems, Which dictate our choices and the actions we do or don't take, And ultimately determine our quality of life. But we have the power to create new thought patterns, just like we have the power to build an exercise habit. 👉 Via creating routines. A habit is repeated with little to no thought, while a routine involves intentional, mindful repetition. And a routine performed with enough frequency eventually becomes a habit.

So, how do you create a thought routine?

📚 The simplest way to implement a new thought routine is to "stack" it on top of an existing habit.

➡ Repeat an affirmation like "I am enough" before you brush your teeth every morning. ➡ Write down 3 things you are grateful for while you drink your morning coffee. ➡ Reflect on 1 great thing that happened in your day before settling into bed. When creating your thought routine, consider these key elements:

1. Be specific - Where, when and how often will you implement this routine? Make a plan.

2. Start small - Don't try to change multiple habits at once. Work incrementally.

3. Repeat - Remember, frequency is what turns a routine into a habit.

4. Be patient - There is no timetable for habit change. Your automatic habits are carved deeply into your brain, and it takes repetitive, consistent change to build new ones.

Now, listen, in order to reach your weight loss goals, you'll still need to build new automatic behaviors. Things like exercising instead of watching Netflix, or eating vegetables instead of Doritos. But, if you don't ALSO build new automatic thought patterns, your attempts at building those new automatic behaviors probably won't stick. So, be intentional, be consistent and be PATIENT. And remember, behavior change happens one of three ways: 👉 Rarely, slowly, or never. Which one are you opting for?