Creating new wholesome habits can be a serious struggle. Good habits are difficult to form, particularly when it involves weight loss, however when you want one factor enough, motivation and consistency are certain to pay off. This is the place behavior stacking comes in. Habit stacking is essentially stacking new habits onto already formed habits. This creates a brand new wholesome behavior that may assist you obtain your lengthy run goals. Weight loss requires developing wholesome habits in most areas of your life, collectively with diet, sleep, and fitness. Here’s how to make use of behavior stacking for weight loss.
What is ‘Habit Stacking’?
Habit stacking is a technique the place you stack a brand new behavior onto an already formed, existing habit. Essentially you’re utilizing one factor you already remember to do to remind you to do one factor else. For example, flossing earlier than brushing your teeth or meditating whereas you wait for your morning espresso to brew. The key is to deal with a behavior stack like a single motion rather than particular person tasks. Be certain to chain small habits collectively that naturally fit. You don’t want them to really feel burdensome, they want to make sense together.
One of the methods behavior stacking works is by a phenomenon called “synaptic pruning”. Synapses are connections between neurons in your mind that support your present behaviours. The extra you do something, the stronger the connection becomes. When a connection goes unused, your mind eliminates it. This is why it’s so hard to form new habits, however behavior stacking is one of many best methods to beat this.
3 Benefits of Habit Stacking
1. Creates Healthier Habits
Everyone has habits of their daily life, from consuming breakfast to brushing your teeth to washing your face. Habit stacking helps you create extra wholesome habits by including wholesome actions onto your present habits. For example, drinking your morning espresso with a newspaper or book rather than scrolling social media, or taking your nutritional vitamins proper earlier than you eat breakfast.
2. Can Help You Lose Weight
If losing weight is a goal of yours, you can create wholesome behavior stacks that will assist you drop these undesirable pounds. Losing weight is hard to do, particularly if you’re caught in your old ways. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Use behavior stacking to include extra exercise and extra wholesome consuming into your days so that you can obtain your weight reduction goals faster and keep them up lengthy term.
3. Makes You More Productive
Once habits are formed they become a regular a half of your life. You don’t even have to consider doing them anymore, reducing wasted time and serving to you become extra productive. The much less decision making you have to do, the extra time you have to get the important issues in your life done.
Habit Stacking for Weight Loss: 7 Tips and Ideas
1. Yoga Before Bed
Yoga is a nice way to relax and unwind, so it’s ideal to do earlier than bed. Plus, it helps you keep wholesome and lose weight. Make it a half of your nighttime routine to do a yoga session earlier than bed. Even if it’s short, it nonetheless will get your physique moving and boosts your metabolism.
2. Go for a Walk After a Healthy Lunch
Walking is so important to remain match and healthy. If you don’t have time to do a full exercise and bathe in your lunch break, taking a stroll is an excellent alternative. Taking a 15 to twenty minute stroll after lunch is a nice way to suit bodily exercise into your day. If you spend most of your day sitting down and being sedentary, daily walks could make an enormous difference.
3. Use a Habit Tracking Calendar
Another nice way to remain on top of your new habits is to trace them. A behavior monitoring calendar is a nice way to plan out your goals and track your progress as you begin behavior stacking. The final goal is for your behavior stacking habits to become second nature, however till then, monitoring your habits will give you nice motivation to remain on top of your goals!
4. When Your Work Day is Done, Put On Your Gym Clothes
Changing into your gym garments proper when your work day is over makes it extra likely so that you can actually go to the gym then simply head home. Going home earlier than you go to the gym permits for distractions and laziness to take over. Heading to the gym instantly after work is a nice behavior to form that will assist you lose weight.
5. Plan Your Meals and Snacks Before Grocery Shopping
Going to the grocery retailer with out a plan is a recipe for unhealthy eating. Plan your meals and snacks earlier than going grocery shopping so that you know precisely what you want to pick up and what you’re going to make. Exercise and wholesome consuming go hand in hand when it involves weight loss. Planning out wholesome meals and snacks ensures you’re in your way to your well being and weight reduction goals.
6. Do Simple Meal Prep After Grocery Shopping
It’s one factor to have a plan for your wholesome meals and snacks, however it’s one other to make sure you actually undergo with the plan. Meal prep is a key way to do this. When you get home from the grocery store, instantly chop up and retailer produce for snacking and meal prep. It’s easy to place issues within the fridge and allow them to go unused, however doing meal prep proper when you get home will assist guarantee you’re making extra wholesome consuming choices.
7. Try a Habit Journal
The Reboot Journal is a behavior journal for constructing positive, life-changing habits. It turns confirmed theory and concepts from science and psychology into sensible daily habits. It will assist you reduce decision fatigue and reliance on will energy and reminiscence and assist you really feel extra in management of your life.
If you’re attempting to lose weight, behavior stacking could also be simply the factor that helps you attain your weight reduction goals. Try our tips and ideas to get started!
