Having trouble sticking to a habit?
You’re not alone, most people have trouble sticking to a new habit no matter if it’s diet, exercise, education, or anything else you can think of. Habit’s take mental energy and they’re usually something you don’t really want to do.
So, let’s fix that problem and make habits easier to handle.
You’re going to follow the 100% rule. This means you’re going to do whatever you set as a goal 100% of the time. There are no exceptions.
Long day at work? You’re doing it
Weekend? You’re doing it
Vacation? Guess what, you’re doing it
The easiest example for this is nutrition. At GST, we often tell clients to follow a 80/20 rule or 90/10 rule. What that means is that you follow your diet 80-90% of the time, and then relax a little bit 10-20% of the time.
The problem for some people is that the 10% slowly turns into 12%, then 14%, and it just slowly increases until you are basically back to where you started, but you just have a salad at lunch.
Now, I kinda hate saying this because I’m a big proponent of saying “it depends,” but sometimes you need to make things black-and-white to keep you on the path moving forward.
The 100% rule doesn’t allow for deviations.
Now, some of you can make a big change and it does not really affect you, but most people should start with something small.
A good example would be to eat 100 grams of protein everyday. You 100% have to make that every single day. Another good example would be to eat vegetables at every meal (yes, that includes breakfast).
If you need to bump it up a notch, a great rule starting out would be “I don’t eat bread”
Can you make bread work in a diet? YES! But sometimes cutting out bread and bread products (pasta, cake, tortillas, sweets using flour, etc) helps cut out those foods that are easy to overeat.
Other examples of the 100% rule include: carnivore diet (no plants), veganism/vegetarian diet (no/ limited animal products), paleo (no grains). These diets work for some people because they make black-and-white rules.
Examples with exercise? Make it something so easy that even on your busiest day you can do it
– 10 minute walk everyday
– 5-10 minutes of yoga/ foam rolling everyday
– 10 push ups upon waking or before bed
– Wake up and run 1 mile everyday
– 10 minute workout
Now, before someone says that the 100% rule will create a bad mentality around food, this method should be temporary for someone who is struggling and/or new to diet and exercise (or whatever you’re trying to get better at).
It might take someone 3, 6, or 12 months using this method to get a handle on things, but after that, then the 80/20 or 90/10 rule can be used. So don’t feel like “I don’t eat bread” will last forever, that’s until you can get to a point of “I only eat a normal portion of bread as my starch of a meal”
So, pick something simple and do it seven days a week until it becomes a habit for 3, 6, or 12+ months.
Need help getting started? Come to our gym in West Chester, PA to figure out the right method for you to choose!
