7 Hacks to Build Healthy Habits

At different points in our lives, we decide to start living healthily. Be it a new year resolution, after reading about your favorite celebrity’s health routine in a magazine or a situation in your personal life. Maybe you want to exercise regularly, maybe you want to eat healthily or maybe you want to stop procrastinating developing healthy habits requires discipline and consistency.

Some studies suggest that approximately 80% of people give up within the first month of setting new resolutions. Hence, in this blog we will learn 7 hacks to develop healthy habits so you can achieve your health goals.

Why We Suck at Building Healthy Habits?

We all know what we want to do. We all know how to do it and yet we can’t get it done. The main reason is building any habit is tough. We don’t understand that building any habit requires going out of our comfort zone which is a default setting of our body. Why push yourself to go to the gym when there is a new series on Netflix, why make efforts to cook a healthy meal when there is a big discount on your favorite burger and fries. It's this attitude that ultimately leads to failure in our quest to develop healthy habits.

We rely on willpower and motivation to do the heavy lifting rather than taking practical steps to develop our habits. Here are some of the important reasons why we suck at building healthy habits

• We set an unrealistic target
• We expect overnight success
• We lose interest and find something new

Hack to Build Healthy Habits

1. Set a Specific Goal

The first step to start your journey to develop healthy habits is to set a specific goal. Not a random goal but a very specific one. It's not OK to say I will go for a walk everyday. List out the specifics such as when you will walk? How long will you walk? Where will you walk? An ideal goal setting would be, I will walk one mile everyday after office from 6pm to 7pm in the park.

Setting such tangible goals makes them easy to follow and track. You can start with just one habit instead of going all out to change your life. Many life coaches advice you to start with small habits and then move on to the bigger problems.

2. Identify the Triggers

There are multiple triggers in our day-to-day lives that can distract us from staying on track. Identify these triggers and find a way to avoid them. Our smartphone is the biggest distraction we have that keeps us from developing any healthy habits. You can say that smartphones can also help to build healthy habits with various apps that can help you track your success. But we are more likely to use smartphones for other things like looking at videos, social media posts and tweets of our favorite than to keep track of our progress. Identify all the triggers in your life to avoid them all together.

3. Develop a System with Accountability

Design a system that can track your progress with some accountability. Here is one example

• Every time I skip my workout I will give £10 to my wife, friend or co-worker
• Every time I decide not to wake up early and go for a run, I will run an extra mile
• Every time I do eat something unhealthy when I shouldn't, I will skip the meal that day
The more painful it is to skip something, the more likely you’ll be to actually suck it up and do it.

4. Take Support from Others

Find your friends and allies who are on a similar mission as you. You can also seek support groups who can help you motivate and keep you on track. When your friends call you to go to the gym, you must go. When your friends order healthy food, you must too. This is the benefit of developing healthy habits with a group.

There is nothing wrong with getting help from external forces. In fact, a study shows that in weight loss patients, only 24% of people who tried weight loss alone could achieve their target while people who tried weight loss in a group 66% of them achieved their target (1)

5. You can Miss one Day but Not Two

The journey to develop healthy habits is long and you will falter on the way. But it is important to get back on track immediately. It’s OK to take a break one day but don’t make it two. One research found that the process of forming a habit was not significantly hampered in the participants by missing a single day, they automatically resumed following one lost opportunity (2).

6. Reward Yourself

Don’t forget to reward yourself from time to time for achieving your goals. Treating yourself can improve your motivation to continue your journey. It's called positive reinforcement, a well-known technique to reward people for their achievements. But don’t reward yourself in such a way that will create problems for you. So, if you are trying to develop a habit of eating healthily don’t reward yourself with donuts and shakes. This will defeat the whole purpose. Instead, if you achieve your weight goal for the week or month then maybe go on a small weekend getaway that will help you relax and rejuvenate.

7. Give Yourself Time and Be Consistent

“Do something for 21 days to form a habit” you must have heard this several times right? Well, it's not that every habit can be developed in just 21 days. In fact, a study conducted by the University College London showed that it can actually take two months or more to create a solid habit. So be consistent, don’t set unrealistic timelines to develop healthy habits.

How to Build a Healthy Habit?

You can follow a simple structure to develop any healthy habit you want.

• Identify the Cue – It can be a feeling like tired, hungry or bored. E.g. I am hungry I need a snack
• Routine – It can be a negative action such as eating a cake or a donut.
• Reward – I got a sugar rush, and I am not hungry

Using this similar structure, you can build a healthy habit

• Identify the Cue – It can be a feeling like tired, hungry or bored. E.g. I am hungry I need a snack
• Routine – It can be a positive action such as eating a yogurt or a salad
• Reward – I ate something healthy, and I am not hungry

Conclusion

People are creatures of habit. Breaking bad habits, or forming good ones, can be a difficult and challenging process. It is important to understand the base desire behind a habit formation to build a better lifestyle.
If you find yourself trapped in harmful habits, do not shy away from asking for help. Acknowledging and accepting the problem is the first step to the solution.

FAQs

1. What are the 5 healthy habits?

Here are 5 healthy habits
• Eat healthy
• Stay active
• Sleep well
• Hydrate
• Avoid bad habits

2. How to build good and healthy habits?

To build good and healthy habits
• Set a goal
• Start small
• Be consistent
• Track Progress
• Reward success

3. How to hack brain to make healthy habits stick?

To hack your brain to make healthy habits you must visualize the success, simplify in your head and identify the cues.