Month: August 2020

I’ve recently read BJ Fogg’s seminal book Tiny Habits and completed his free 5 day habit change course and the groundbreaking book by James Clear Atomic Habits. Both are behavioural change experts covering how change can be made in small incremental steps. Small habits can lead to big changes.

Change isn’t all about motivation and willpower

These ideas offer alternative perspectives to habit change through motivation and willpower. The idea being that motivation only remains high when we want to do something and it appeals. Therefore motivation and willpower alone won’t be enough if you want to develop a new habit for the long term.

Fogg’s and Clear’s philosophies centre around the idea that in order for habit change to become second nature, and succeed in the long term, it needs to be easy and achievable. It may not seem like it at first but building in new small habits can make a big difference. 

“Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. Whether it’s losing weight, building a business, writing a book… we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about. Meanwhile, improving by 1 per cent isn’t particularly notable – sometimes it isn’t even noticeable – but it can be far more meaningful in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding”.  

James Clear, Atomic Habits

The philosophies are really interesting and I think we can all learn a lot from these ideas so I’m sharing some of the most interesting findings here as I think they can relate well to fitness, exercise, eating habits and weight loss.

Why is habit change so hard? 

This is a complex question and one which I am sure many of us wish we knew the answer to. Why is it so easy to eat a diet of junk food and why is it so hard to stick to an exercise regime? There are a multitude of reasons: 

• Our brains are programmed to follow the same processes and routines we’ve always followed. Our familiar routines and habits create well trodden neural pathways in the brain so it’s hard to develop new pathways. Change is perceived by the brain as a form of threat. 
• We are therefore inclined to err on the side of caution and follow the most familiar path as this is the safest option. 
• We need to be in the right place for change to be enacted. As Daniel Pink says, we need to be intrinsically motivated to change – i.e. to enact change for ourselves rather than anyone else or an external reason. 
• We might not be ready to enact change. For example, we might be thinking about change but not ready to actually make the step (see the Transtheoretical Model of Change model). 
• Change can feel overwhelming and we can easily get caught up in “all or nothing” type of thinking. For example, the overly ambitious January diet and exercise regime which just doesn’t last. 
• We often have conflicting priorities meaning enacting change is harder. For example, busy parents may struggle to stick to a diet when they are tired, run down and worn out and their child is demanding attention.
• We don’t always appreciate that change isn’t always linear. Often we see progress and then regress. This is especially true for weight loss. Failure and adapting to change is a big part of successful behaviour change. See Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail for more on this. 
• We might underestimate external factors or how our environment affects behaviour change
• We are convinced that behaviour change is all about willpower. It has to be more than this as willpower will not last. As behaviour change expert Michelle Segar says “using self-control or willpower in one situation can deplete it in another”. 

Clear’s explanation of how we approach behaviour change

Clear says that we are trying to change habits in the wrong way. He argues that rather than trying to achieve the “what” we should reframe our objectives to achieve “who” we want to become, so habit change becomes more about identity than achieving a specific goal. We want to deeply engrain a behaviour and idea as part of our identity so we become intrinsically motivated to enact that behaviour. A lot of this can be do with our internal dialogue. 

For example, instead of setting a goal to run a 5K your goal is to become a runner. Of course you can move towards running 5K as part of this but the more you repeat to yourself your assertion that you want to be a runner the more it will become ingrained in your identity. So “the process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself”.  Clear says “the ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity”. You will then be more motivated to continue the habits connected with it. So a key question to ask is “am i becoming the type of person i want to become?”                                                                                                                                                    

How do habits work?

Clear talks about Charles Duhigg’s four step model for habits: cue, craving, response and reward. In the simplest terms: 

• Cue: is a trigger which causes your brain to want to initiate a behaviour 
• Craving: is what motivates us to enact a habit – “every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state”
• Response: is the action performed to enact the habit which an individual must be able to perform
• Reward: the result from any habit

Clear says: 

“The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and ultimately, becomes associated with the cue”. 

James Clear, Atomic Habits

This creates a feedback loop which allows the creation of habits. For example, you see a chocolate bar on your coffee table (that’s the cue): you want to satisfy your urge to eat it and taste the chocolate (that’s the craving); you reach for the bar and eat it (that’s the response); you have then have satisfied the urge to eat the chocolate and this action then becomes connected to you seeing a chocolate bar on your coffee table (the reward). 

The four laws of behaviour change

The rest of Atomic Habits outlines Clear’s framework and four simple rules for creating and sustaining good habits: 

1. Make it obvious (cue)
2. Make it attractive (craving)
3. Make it easy (response)
4. Make it satisfying (reward) 

And for breaking bad habits: 

1. Make it invisible (cue)
2. Make it unattractive (craving)
3. Make it difficult (response)
4. Make it unsatisfying (reward) 

So for the example above, if you are trying to lose weight, you want to make the chocolate bar invisible by placing it away from your line of vision. Make it seem unattractive: buy an alternative such as a low fat cereal bar that you won’t find as appealing. Make it difficult: place it away from temptation – in a cupboard high up in your kitchen inside a biscuit tin which is difficult to open. If it’s difficult enough to eat it will remove the reward aspect and become unsatisfying.

Top 8 tips on how to enact behaviour change through small habits:  

So here are some key takeaways from these two books which resonated with me and which I think everyone can try to implement in their lives. I’ve related my examples to exercise and diet for the purposes of this blog post, but these habits can be related to anything: 

1. Start small. BJ Fogg talks about tiny habits being something you do at least once a day, taking less than 30 seconds and requiring little effort. He says the reason we want to start small is because difficult behaviours need a high level of motivation and this does not work. When a behavior is really small it doesn’t require huge amounts of motivation so is therefore easy to complete. He compares them to plants: 

• You start off with a tiny seed 
• Find a good spot to nourish and grow the seed 
• The seed becomes fully rooted, established and starts to grow 

Follow this recipe and your new habit will start to thrive.  

James Clear talks about the two minute rule. I.e. new habits should not take longer than 2 mins to complete. He calls this a “gateway habit” which can lead to longer more sustained behaviour change as you add to the habit as it becomes established. 

Say you want to start a yoga practice: starting with 2 minutes a day is going to be a lot more achievable, enjoyable and realistic than starting out with 30 minutes a day. If you did this persistently and it worked for you then there’s a good chance that in 6 months you would be doing 20 minutes a day.  

2. Focus on who you wish to become. Try to reframe goals into something which shapes your identity. I want to be a person who enjoys being active and thrives on fitness for example. Visualise this new identity so you can imagine yourself as you wish to be in the future. 

3. BJ Fogg talks specifically about associating new habits with existing habits – he calls this an “action prompt” and Clear calls this “habit stacking”.

For example, everyone brushes their teeth twice a day. If you can attach a new habit to an existing fixed habit you are well on your way to changing your behaviour. This should follow the formula of After I… I will…

So for example, after I brush my teeth, I will do 5 squats. 

BJ Fogg talks about how every time he went to the toilet (in his own home!) he would do 2 press ups. This was 10 years ago and he now does at least 50 press ups a day. I’ve taken on board this idea and I now do 2 tricep dips, on the side of the bath, after I’ve been to the toilet (again at home – doing exercises in public bathrooms especially in the Covid era is probably not recommended!). 

This is a brilliant way to easily fit exercise into your day without really even thinking about it. I must be easily doing, at least, 20 tricep dips a day now and I can feel the benefits in my arms. Some days I do 5 or even 10 in one go. What can you do to attach a new habit to an existing one? 

4. Make it easy and convenient: BJ Fogg and James Clear emphasise how important it is to ensure your new habits are easy to do. As part of the four laws of behaviour change ask yourself: 1. How can I make it obvious? 2. How can I make it attractive? 3. How can I make it easy? 4. How can I make it satisfying? 

For example, if you want to go running 3 mornings a week: leave your running kit out near your bed so you see it as soon as you wake up on those mornings and it’s easy to put it straight on. Decide on a route you enjoy in a place which makes you happy to make it attractive. You could make it easy by going somewhere really near your house. Make it satisfying by meeting a friend so you can run together or promise yourself your favourite coffee when you have finished.  

If you are going to anchor a new habit to an existing habit make sure it fits with what you are trying to do. I.e. if you are going to do press ups every time you boil your kettle make sure you have enough space in your kitchen and your kitchen floor space is suitable. 

5. Congratulate yourself for completing your habit. Part of BJ Fogg’s philosophy is to assign a positive emotion to a new habit. So that we become programmed to recognise that that action felt good and therefore want to do it again. This then helps the brain to rewire. He says that in order for the brain to rewire successfully we must acknowledge the feel good emotion whilst doing the behaviour or immediately after. 

In order to elicit a positive emotion associated with a new habit it’s important to celebrate the action so say to yourself “well done me” or “good for me” once you’ve completed your new habit. 

6. Focus on your overall system rather than a specific goal. Clear talks about how little habits are all part of an overall system and “atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results”.  He means looking at the overall process behind an overall goal. He emphasises the importance of implementing a system of “continuous improvements” to achieve a particular outcome. By continually tweaking and making small changes to the processes behind your habits you will be on your way to behaviour change for life. 

7. Make a concrete plan for your new habit. James Clear says “people who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through”. He advises you fill out this sentence: 

I will [BEHAVIOUR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]. So for example: I will go swimming, at 7pm at my local pool

8. Make your environment work for you. James Clear advises that we should start to think about the environments around us in a different way. If our environment is primed for use it will be easier to enact the habits we want to ingrain. For example, if you want to cook a healthy breakfast then leave out the ingredients and utensils needed the night before so you are primed to see them as soon as you enter the kitchen. If you don’t want to eat chocolate, biscuits or crisps then don’t buy them or if that’s not an option leave them in a place which is difficult to access. 

How can you implement small habits to change your life?

Think about all of the ingrained habits you have in the day: getting up, getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, having a shower, going to the loo, putting the kettle on etc. How many opportunities are there to attach new habits to these existing ones? 

How many times have you said to yourself you will start eating more healthy, exercising consistently, meditating, doing breathing exercises? Can you implement any of the techniques above to bring these new habits into your life?

There’s a lot of hype at the moment about intermittent fasting and time- restricted eating. There’s also a lot of conflicting information out there. In this post I have explored whether this way of eating offers a safe, effective and long term way to gain health and lose weight. 

Note, I am not a nutritional expert, or dietician, but there’s a lot of crossover in the work I do. Also, diet is, of course, such an important factor in wellbeing and fitness. Plus weight loss is a hot topic at the moment with the government’s push to tackle the obesity crisis. I therefore want to try to understand the topic from an evidence based perspective.   

What’s the difference between intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating? 

Intermittent fasting means not consuming food or drink, other than water, for longer than a normal overnight period of 8-12 hours. This could be fasting for entire days, which some programmes advocate, or extending the food-free window to 16 hours for example. Time-restricted eating is the term given to restricting food intake to certain times or hours during the day. 

I personally do not like the idea of whole days without food intake (although the body can survive for days without food and we are evolutionarily programmed to go without food for a certain amount of time). I know some weight loss programmes advocate 1 day on and 1 day off food entirely. I’m more of a supporter of intermittent fasting during the night whereby we give the body a nice long rest from food intake for at least 12 hours. I think this is sensible, good for us and most importantly completely achievable and sustainable for most people. 

It’s worth noting that if you have a history with an eating disorder then intermittent fasting for long periods of time may not be advisable. It’s always worth seeking medical advice if you are unsure.

Physiologically what happens when we give our bodies a break from food intake? 

Giving your body a break from food or drink (other than water) will do amazing things and will provide a whole host of health benefits. After 6 or 8 hours the body’s natural glycogen stores will have been used up and the body will start to utilise fat sources. Your body will then start to burn fat which has previously been inaccessible. Over twelve hours a process called autophagy kicks in.

I read about this in Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s book The 4 Pillar Plan. Dr Chatterjee refers to the work of biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi who focuses his research on autophagy or “oxidative damage”. It is basically the body’s internal way of sorting out and clearing up internal mess and clutter. The body starts to repair cell damage, the immune system and many other essential functions. As Dr Chatterjee says: 

Snacking, insulin levels and weight loss 

Dr Fung talks about the science of time restricted eating in his book The Obesity Code. Dr Fung attributes genetics, insulin and hormone imbalances to be the predominant causes of obesity. 

In the simplest terms: 

• Insulin’s role in the body is to transport sugar, obtained from food, from the blood stream to the body’s cells
• In a fasting state, when insulin levels are low, the body burns stored glycogen and then moves on to burning fat 
• When you eat too many sugar or carbohydrate rich foods too often, the body receives a signal to stop any fat burning and burn glucose received from your last meal instead. This keeps insulin levels high 
• This means the cells in the body do not respond to insulin receptors and can cease working properly
• The cells become reliant on glucose and over time this can result in insulin resistance, weight gain and obesity

Dr Fung’s research has found that snacking in between meals is a high predictor of insulin resistance. The body ideally needs 4-5 hours rest between meals in order to have regular low levels of insulin. Snacking between meals interrupts this and keeps levels of insulin higher than they need to be. 

The hormone leptin serves to make us feel full and the hormone ghrelin makes us feel hungry. Too much insulin also disrupts and confuses the body’s natural hormones so these messages become unclear. This can lead to overeating, weight gain, obesity and other diseases. I.e. the brain fails to recognise when the body is full and the hungry signal may continue when the body is not actually hungry because of the hormonal imbalance.  How many times have you heard people who struggle with their weight say they don’t feel full? A hormone imbalance could be the cause.

What is circadian rhythm? 

Professor Satchin Panda is an expert in circadian rhythm. His book The Circadian Code, explores how the daily cycles and rhythms we experience impact a huge number of areas in our lives from obesity, weight gain, inflammation, depression, anxiety and even some forms of cancer. 

He discusses how there is a  circadian clock present in every part of our bodies. Studies have shown that even if a human being is locked away without access to natural light the body will still wake and sleep at similar times. This is because every cell and hormone in the body is programmed with daily cycles of waking up, sleeping and eating. The different areas of the body are primed for these functions at appropriate times of the day. For example, in the middle of the day the digestive system is optimised and during the evening the body is set to become tired and fall asleep. 

How does circadian rhythm affect weight loss and diet? 

Time-restricted eating and intermittent fasting may encourage eating less food and therefore a reduction in calories consumed. Studies have shown this is the case simply because people are naturally eating for fewer hours in the day. 

In a recent Feel Better Live Move podcast with Professor Panda, he talks about experiments with mice which have shown promising results for health and weight control. 

In one experiment mice were given a high fat and fructose diet. The mice became obese and suffered cardiovascular disease within 9-10 weeks. They also began to eat when they were not hungry particularly in the middle of the night when the gut and liver are not primed for digestion. 

The mice were then divided into two groups. Both were given the same diet and all other conditions were the same. The only difference was that one group were allowed to eat whenever they wanted and the second group were restricted to eating within an 8 hours window. At the end of the experiment the mice eating within the restricted window were protected against diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular disease and mental health conditions. 

Professor Panda also discusses a second set of experiments whereby already obese and diabetic mice were placed on a 10 hour restricted eating window. These mice lost 40% of their body weight within a few weeks. They could also outrun mice who were eating a healthy diet on a treadmill. 

These findings have been replicated time and time again and clearly show that aligning eating time with circadian rhythm can have huge health benefits. Whilst it’s not completely clear how these experiments would translate into humans, this offers promising research in support of time-restricted eating. Human trials are underway and it’s very exciting to hear what the results may be! 

Professor Satchin is conducting a huge worldwide study to examine the role of circadian rhythm in health. To sign up and download the App visit his website here. 

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?  

This is a controversial area as most of us have all grown up believing that we need a hearty breakfast. This is not actually the case, according to experts, and the body can go for hours without needing sustenance in the morning. Indeed, having a later breakfast may be a really good and easy way to extend the fasting period and encourage fat burning. Some experts are even advocating skipping breakfast all together. 

However, if you exercise in the morning I’d always make sure you are eating within an hour of finishing.  As your body needs nutrients and fuel to repair muscles and recover from your workout.  

Top tips for embracing your body’s natural rhythms for optimal weight and health: 

1. Don’t eat at night – try to eat before 9pm and definitely avoid any late night munchies.
2. Try to eat within an 8-12 hour window pushing back breakfast if possible 
3. Stop snacking between meals to allow insulin levels to drop 
4. Avoid processed white carbs such as white bread, rice and pasta and swap for wholegrains – brown rice, wholegrain rice. 
5. Eat a largely plant based diet full of fresh vegetables and fruit 
6. Exercise for at least 30 mins a day. Exercise can help to deplete glycogen stores even more so combined with time-restricted eating can be a great way to shed the pounds and get into shape.