Vibrant You

6 Tips for Making Healthy Habits Stick: Unveiling the Power of Neuroplasticity

• Bindi Stables • Episode 34

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Text Bindi!

No matter what area of your life you're desiring to create change and improvement in, a central pillar to that change really lies in our habits. Whether that's with your physical health, your mental health, your work or relationships, forming healthy and helpful habits are key to creating lasting change.

In this episode, we’re talking about:

  • The science of habit formation
  • 6 Tips for making healthy habits stick
  • Where most people go wrong in starting healthier routines
  • Habits to step into your next level of health, energy and vibrant wellbeing
  • Why relying on motivation and willpower is limiting your success
  • The formula for healthier daily routines

Links:

  1. Research and benefits on Forest Bathing (study) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6589172/ 
  2. "Menstrual Cycle Syncing 101: Optimizing Nutrition, Exercise, Self-Care and Work to Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage" (podcast episode)
  3. Optimize and Rise: 1-1 Health Optimization Program with Bindi www.bindistables.com/optimize

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be SO grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

I’d love to connect with you on IG: www.instagram.com/bindistables

Visit my website for more resources and ways to work with me: www.bindistables.com

Bindi:

Welcome to the Vibrant you podcast. I'm your host, bindi Stables, and here we talk all things wellness and vibrant living. You'll learn about integrative health, functional medicine, holistic biohacking and enjoy raw and real conversations on personal growth, mindset and motivation. Optimize your body and mind and become the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant. You Enjoy the show. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Vibrant you.

Bindi:

No matter what area of your life you are desiring to create change and improvement in, a central pillar to that change really lies in your habits. So, whether that's with your physical health or your mental health, your work or your relationships, learning how to form healthy and helpful habits is really key to creating lasting and powerful positive change. So in this episode we are talking about just that. We are getting into how to make healthy habits stick so that you can step into your next level of health and energy and vibrant well-being on all levels. So let's get right into it. So first we have to understand what is the neuroscience of habit formation. So there's a word in the neuroscience world called neuroplasticity. This is really a word referring to how remarkable our brain is and how capable our brain is of constant adaptation and change. So this ability for our brain's plasticity or capacity to change and adapt to new ways of thinking and responding and behaviors is neuroplasticity, and that's really what habit formation and habit change is really all about. So whenever we engage in a behavior repeatedly, consistently, through practice, the neural pathways in our brain related to that behavior become stronger over time, which makes that habit more automatic and less effort required over time as we practice it. So I like to explain neuroplasticity in the context of habit formation, imagining for a sec that your brain is like this snowy landscape right after a fresh snowfall. So at the beginning after the snowfall, there's no real predefined paths of where you can go, there's just this vast landscape of untouched snow. So when you decide to learn how to do something new, start a new habit, establish a new way of behaving or a new way of thinking, it's really like taking that first step in the snow and you create a new pathway in the snow by trudging along through the snow. And as you continue to walk down that path really, which is just about practicing a habit or engaging in a new behavior, something really remarkable happens, and that is that the more you walk along that trail, the easier it becomes to navigate right. The snow gets more compact and it forms this more well defined track. It's like your brain is saying, hey, this path is important, we know how to do this. Let's make travel along this pathway more easy.

Bindi:

So, before the first step that you took, the first time you tried that new habit, it felt as if you were hanging around with it and, uh, return a life with that tumultuous, and it felt difficult and it required a lot of effort, a lot of thought to march through the snow. But the second time you walked the path, and the third, and the fourth and the fifth. Eventually you're walking along the path. You don't even think about it anymore. It doesn't take conscious effort. And then, the same way as we stop walking down certain paths right, which really represents the habits that we don't engage in any longer, which may be limiting our alcohol intake or limiting scroll time, you know, before bed, whatever that is the less that we do that, the more that pathway gets snowed over with fresh snow and our mind will automatically just not go down those paths anymore. That pathway gets weakened in our brain because we're simply not using that path anymore. So, just like these snowy paths, the more that we follow a specific habit, the more ingrained it becomes in our brain. It becomes our new default route that our brain will fire in and other paths or habits will slowly get snowed over and just fade into the background of those habits that aren't so helpful or moving you in the direction of health and vitality that you'd really like.

Bindi:

So let's get into some practical tips for making healthy habits stick. So I have six or seven, I have seven for you today. So the first one is know your why. So, in order to build and maintain healthy habits, of course we first have to understand why we're creating this habit to begin with. Why is your mind going through this process of change? Why do you want to make this? So?

Bindi:

For me personally, understanding my why behind, why I'm starting a new habit or this chore that you know takes effort and change and consistency and will power. It really helps me stay committed, especially when challenges come up right, when old patterns you know want to come through old habits. So, whether that's to improve your overall wellbeing or increase your energy, live a healthier life, always you know. Coming back to your why is going to be one of the most powerful motivators For me. Knowing my why is really about transforming, like discipline, into devotion, or transforming routines into really rituals that have a deeper meaning behind the habits, to begin with. So let me give you some examples of why and how you can start to create yours.

Bindi:

So let's say you have a wedding coming up, right, and maybe your goal is like I want to lose 10 pounds right. But if we really get connected to the why, it might sound something like this I want to tone up at the gym so that I can feel confident and radiant walking down the aisle at my wedding to my beloved in January. Right, there's a why, and the why is usually pointing to a feeling and an outcome Okay. Another example I want to eat clean and I want to be healthier and more energetic so that, as a parent, I can play with my kids, I can keep up with them and set a positive example for them. Right, it's going to be a lot easier to swap out. You know the ice cream, for you know a piece of fruit. When you're connected to that why of like. Okay. No, this, this isn't just about the ice cream. It's about being a healthy and present and energetic parent and setting a good example for my kids. That's a lot more motivating, right, okay?

Bindi:

Another one I want to, let's say the habit is I want to go to bed early, I want to get eight hours of sleep at night so that I can improve my mental clarity and focus and I can excel in my career, for example. So let's say one more I want to heal my gut, let's say, so I can improve my physical health and have more energy, I can pursue my hobbies, I can go hiking, I can go camping, you know, with greater enthusiasm, without stressing about how I'll feel in my gut during those experiences. So a little formula for you and creating your why, right? Whether you want to lose weight, you want to eat healthier, you want to drink more water, you want to start a meditation practice, whatever it is is use this little formula I want to blank insert your desired habit so that I can blank, right. I want to balance my hormones so that I can enhance my mood and my well-being and be a more patient and present partner and parent, whatever that might be for you. So that is knowing your why, okay.

Bindi:

Tip number two for healthy habits is to get specific, so vague goals like I wanna eat better or I wanna exercise more, I wanna start meditating, or drink more water, drink less alcohol, whatever it is. Those can actually be quite challenging to achieve, cause they're just so vague and so subjective. Depending on how we feel that day, our mind could easily change on what eating better means or exercising more. So we really wanna get specific about what you wanna accomplish. So, for example, I want to eat at least five servings of vegetables every day right. I wanna meditate for five minutes every morning. I wanna start my day with a tall glass of warm lemon water every day right. These are some good examples, and maybe they can just give you some inspiration as well, of what habits you might look into over these next months. I wanna have a blueberry protein smoothie every morning for breakfast. I wanna go to Pilates three times a week. I want to walk 10,000 steps a day. I wanna swap alcoholic beverages for healthier alternatives. I want to end my showers in the morning with cold water and get all the lymphatic benefits. I wanna drink two liters of water a day. I want to sleep eight hours a night by going to bed at 10, waking up at six okay. So get specific in what those habits are and weight them down. Even that makes a big difference when we can actually see and visualize what habits we wanna start forming and committing to.

Bindi:

Okay, habit tip number three is to let go of the all or nothing mindset that is so sticky. So when we're in this mindset of all or nothing, it can be really hard to form habits right, because we might have three days of drinking two liters of water a day and then one day we miss it and we think, oh, I've failed. You know, it's just easy to get caught in that. I know, I've so been there and just like black and white thinking, all or nothing mindset, and it's just not sustainable. So I personally follow something called the 80% rule and this is just my life philosophy. It has been so helpful as a recovering perfectionist in every arm of my life. When it comes to work, health, relationships, I have been such a chronic perfectionist and I've changed this mindset to. I have like an 80% good enough life policy. So when it comes to my health, when it comes to habits, when it comes to my work, how good I think a project is before I hit, launch or submit I really just like 80%, it's good enough.

Bindi:

Done is better than perfect, right, and consistency is always gonna be better than intensity or perfection or trying to get it perfect and do it all the time. 100% is not possible. We can never do something 100% of the time. So perfectionism is, of course, such a major roadblock in habit formation and we will have occasional I don't even want to call it slip-ups, we will have off days right where we're not practicing that habit, and that's perfectly fine. So of course you've heard this before. It's cliche, but progress over perfection and maybe try that 80% rule. As long as you're sticking to this healthy habit 80% of the time, that's a significant success. If you're having, you know, five days of the week instead of seven you're having two liters of water a day, you know five days out of seven. You're eating organic five days out of seven, you're getting eight hours of sleep. That's pretty solid, massive improvement there.

Bindi:

Okay, healthy habit tip number four is stop relying on motivation and willpower to create change. So this has been my case my whole life. Is I always kind of like waited until I felt motivated to do something, or I would start a habit and I would just rely on willpower to maintain that habit, which always set me up for failure, because that's not how habits work. So we often think about building a healthier habit that it's all about willpower or motivation to change. But what happens on those days when you're feeling stressed or tired or busy, or you didn't sleep well the night before, whatever it is? Of course we're more likely to skip our workout or reach for something that's convenient or easy to eat over what is healthy, for example. Willpower and self-control of course they're important pieces of the puzzle, but they certainly aren't everything when it comes to building healthier habits. What's more important in creating healthy habits is about creating systems and rituals that we do almost automatically without even thinking about them, so we're using less minimal brain activity and don't have to waste mental energy trying to motivate ourselves to do something which is tiring and exhausting and simply not sustainable, not realistic.

Bindi:

So I'm a big fan of automating habits, just making them non-negotiable. Things that I don't even think about anymore, like I've done some. I know I've done some podcast episodes on here on like Biohacks or the morning routine. Yeah, there's a really good morning routine podcast episode which you should definitely listen to and I will link it up in the show notes below or you can scroll back and have a look for it. But I remember even thinking when I was creating that. I'm like what is my morning routine? Like, what are my healthy habits? I don't even and I was pleased to see that, because I don't even consider them habits anymore or practices or things to cross off a to-do list. It's just so ingrained into my lifestyle, these habits, that I genuinely don't even think of them anymore. They're just a part of how I live my life, not something I do, but how I live. So automating habits is really about having systems in your life in place where these habits just happen right, non-negotiably.

Bindi:

So I wake up in the morning, like my alarm clocks just like consistently set for 6am every single day. I just like never take it off, so that's just automatic. I don't even question. It's not. Like you know, in previous years I may have been like, oh, what time am I going to wake up tomorrow? And I'd have like a whole mental debate with myself the night before what time should I wake up? Okay, I have this at this time. I need this much time to prepare for it. Should I work out in the morning, should I not? And it's so exhausting and depleting we go into this state of just decision fatigue where our brain can truly only hold enough mental capacity to make so many decisions in a day that when we're wasting that mental energy on simple little habits, you know we're not really getting the results that we want and we're not getting the momentum that we want when we have to decide everything.

Bindi:

So I take out a lot of the decision in my habits. They're just pre-planned, non-negotiable a part of my lifestyle. I just wake up at six every single day. Now are there days that I wake up at 6.30? Yeah, I was just. We had a beautiful sleepover with a couple of girlfriends a few nights ago and we stayed up till one in the morning. You guys, I haven't stayed up till one in the morning in ages. I can't remember the last time and my body slept in till 6.30. Naturally, of course, it slept in a little bit, but that's the thing. I didn't even need an alarm, it's just my body just woke up. That's how ingrained waking up at 6am is into my system that my brain doesn't even need the alarm clock. My body just wakes up on its own.

Bindi:

So automate where you can. Right. Can you have your coffee set up the night before? Or maybe you're switching your coffee to a healthier alternative? Can you have that ready and waiting for you in the morning so you don't even have to think about it? Can you set up, you know, your clothes the night before to go to the gym in the morning? Maybe that's your new healthy habit. Is I'm going to wake up and I'm going to go work out? How can you automate that so that there's no decision fatigue? You're not humming and hawing should I work out, should I not? And depleting all your mental energy in the indecision, but you just automate it.

Bindi:

Okay, healthy habit tip number five is, of course, start small and build up. So I have a rule for myself. I've done this with almost every habit that I have ingrained into my lifestyle, and habits that have stuck for many, many years, you know, is that I start small and build up, and I have something called the five minute rule that I like to practice. So whenever I'm starting a new habit, of course starting small and the five minute rule can be a great way, of course, to ease into that habit. So committing to doing the new habit for just five minutes a day, right, as simple, as small as five minutes, and then gradually, you know, as we get comfortable, as it becomes consistent as we build it into our routine, as it becomes, you know, just a part of our lifestyle, then we can increase it over time. Right? So this approach.

Bindi:

It might feel your mind might be going to a few places like, okay, well, five minutes of meditation, like what's that even going to do, you know? Is that even going to move the needle? Is it even worth it? Of course, five minutes is better than zero minutes, without a doubt. But it's enough to like break the ice. How many of you have had that experience? Right, we're like, oh man, should I go to the gym, should I not go to the gym? I don't know. And you're kind of just like, I don't, I feel tired, I don't really want to do it, but you end up just going and you end up being like, oh my God, I'm so glad I did it. You know, once I got here, it was easy. It was just it was getting myself there.

Bindi:

That was the hardest part, and that's so common when it comes to habits. It's always getting started. That is the hardest part. Once you're in a flow, you're in a routine, so much easier. We just have to trudge through the snow that first time and it does take effort, but once we're there, it gets easier and easier in time. So five minutes is always enough to make an impact, right? Whether that's five minutes of movement, five minutes of meditation, five minutes of journaling, five minutes of whatever it might be, it's enough to make an impact. But not enough that it's too intimidating and that your mind could say I don't have time for it. Right, it's a little mind trick where everyone has five minutes to do something, right? But if you tell yourself I'm going to work out for an hour every single day, of course your mind's going to be like I don't have an hour today, today's busy, or I don't have the energy for an hour today. So letting your baseline be five minutes and anything above that is a bonus.

Bindi:

That habit, right there, the five minute rule, is what got me into a six year daily meditation practice. Minimum one hour, one to three hours of meditation a day is what I was doing, and I built that up over six years where I was doing three hours of meditation and what I called spiritual practice, every single day and consistently. There wasn't, as I had my little insight timer app and I didn't miss a day in six years If I started with I'm going to meditate three hours a day. Do you think my mind would have allowed me to get started? There's no way. But I started with five minutes, got comfortable with that, grew into it, adapted over time and then it turned into more. Now I'm not saying that you need to meditate three hours a day, but, you know, start with five minutes and get that impact. If it wants to grow into a 10 minute or a 15 minute or 30 minute meditation, then great. But you checked it off the list by just committing to five minutes and that's doable, okay.

Bindi:

Habit tip number six is habit stacks and swaps. So habit stacks this is such a helpful technique to help us incorporate habits that feel kind of like hard to get started with, right? So when we start to integrate a new habit into an existing habit, it makes it a lot easier. When we stack them right, side by side, it makes it a lot easier. So let's say that you want to establish a daily movement practice, okay. And let's say that you are already making your coffee every single morning and you don't even think that that's a habit, because you've been making your coffee every single morning for the last 10 years, 20 years, however long and you don't even think about it anymore. Right, it's just a part of your lifestyle. But that habit is already pre-established. Let's say you want to bring in the habit of five minutes of movement every day, right? So if you stack or, you know, bump that new routine right up behind your making coffee, it's going to be a lot easier. It's going to cue your mind and trigger okay, we make coffee, we exercise, that's just how it goes. So a fun little one is while you turn your coffee on or you boil the water or whatever it is, you get your coffee started. It's going to take five minutes for it to be ready. Let's say, and use those five minutes while you're waiting for your coffee and you'd normally just be sitting scrolling or you'd be getting ready for the day, you'd be making your bed, you'd be doing whatever you're doing Use that as a cue to do your five minutes of movement.

Bindi:

It's a great way of habit stacking or tongue scraping right? Maybe that's another healthy habit. I talked about that in the last podcast episode on free and budget friendly biohacks. I'll link that episode up in the show notes as well. But tongue scraping is great for oral health, overall health detoxification. I mean you're already brushing your teeth every single morning, probably without fail. That habit is probably well established for you. That pathway in the snow is trudged down, it's effortless. You don't even question it anymore since you were a child, and simply stacking tongue scraping right up behind your teeth brushing is a great way to incorporate that. And then, of course, those two habits stack together, they get combined and it becomes a lot easier to maintain that new habit from that. And there's also habit swap. So that was our habit stacks. Habit swaps is where we simply replace an unhealthy or habit with a healthier one that also hits the spot.

Bindi:

So let's say it like for me for the longest time, such a sugar addict, you guys, actually, dark chocolate, that is like my weakness, that is, yeah, my obsession, and so there would be this like for a long period of time. It was like this afternoon, like little slump in my energy levels from like I just need sugar, and what I started doing I became aware that, okay, like a little bit of dark chocolate's great, but you guys, it became a problem. It was too much chocolate, and so what I would do is I would know, okay, well, I'm already in this habit of afternoon chocolate. How can I swap that for something that maybe makes more sense, right? So I've done a few different varieties of that I would actually like.

Bindi:

Instead of the dark decadent chocolate bar from the store, I started making my own hormone balancing chocolates, which I have a recipe for you guys, ladies that you want. This amazing vegan super food hormone balancing chocolate recipe is so good and this is why I created it, because I wanted a chocolate that was not disrupting my hormones as much. So send me a DM on Instagram, just message me the word chocolate, and I will send over the recipe to you, because it is so, so, freaking good. So I started off with making my own chocolates and just having like one little piece instead of eating an entire chocolate bar, and then I or I would switch it for fruit, or I would switch it even for just like a glass of coconut water, or switch it for a warm tea, or even just like a glass of water. Sometimes I was like I don't actually want chocolate, I'm just thirsty, right? Or I just need minerals, or my body just needs something because I'm feeling tired. So that's a great habit swap.

Bindi:

Or another example is if you're used to, you know, having a drink on Friday night. You know you go with the girls or something and you're used to having a glass or two of wine. How can you just swap that and have a healthier alternative? Right, have a mocktail, or have like a sparkling water with lime or, you know, make something beautiful or a cozy tea If you're having the girls over, whatever it is. But those habits, what's our super effective?

Bindi:

Okay, and then final habit tip for you is to track your habits. So dopamine is the neurotransmitter in our brain that really drives habit formation and this like reward trigger cycle inside of our brain. So habit tracking is so powerful in habit formation. Really, this is just a way of like recording our progress and by doing that we get this little dopamine hit. Like small ways is like if you have a checklist of the habits that you do every day and you literally click the button with a check mark and it like crosses it off, that will give you a little dopamine hit. It's your mind's reward system giving yourself this pleasurable sensation of accomplishment and reward.

Bindi:

So of course, there's lots of apps out there for like habit tracking. I also just like love use the aura ring for like tracking sleep habits and things like that. Yeah, it's really rewarding the next day to be like woo, I got you know 92, 92 sleep score. That's amazing. It can just be as simple as your notes app on your phone, just having a daily list of habit and then checking them off each day and then unchecking them, you know, for the next day. So it can be through a journal, through your notes on your phone, through an app, whatever it is. But that habit tracking really gives us that dopamine, hit that inner reward system and can really help us stay on course.

Bindi:

So that's what I wanted to share with you today my loves all about healthy habits, how to stick with them. Again, a little summary as we went over knowing your why, getting specific, letting go of the all or nothing mindset and embracing that 80% rule. Stop relying on motivation and willpower to create change. Start small and build up. With that five minute rule you can use habits stacks and habits swaps and track your habits for greater results.

Bindi:

So I would love to hear, just for accountability sake, I'd love to hear over on Instagram. Send me a DM. My handle is at bindi stables. That's B, I, n, d, I, two eyes stables with a, b, and I want to hear what is the healthy habit that you are going to adopt and what do you want to stay accountable to. I would love to hear over on Instagram and I'd love to celebrate with you and hear how the journey goes.

Bindi:

So I'm sending you so much love, my dear. I'm wishing you a beautiful rest of your day and I'll see you back for another episode real soon. Take care of my love. Thanks so much for listening. If you loved today's episode, please spread the love by subscribing and leaving a review. Or if there's someone in your life that you think could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. I would love to hear from you over on Instagram at bindi stables, or visit my website, bindi stablescom, to connect and work with me. Thank you so much again for being here, and I'm celebrating you in this journey of becoming the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant you.