Registered Dietitians (RDs) aka Registered Dietitians Nutritionists (RDNs) are health care professionals who are fond of saying that good food habits beat out fad diets any day.
Habits have been a prime time topic in the media for decades.
Research is now showing that indeed some habits may be keystone ones that dramatically influence one’s chances of success in achieving what one really desires.
Wikipedia mentions that “habits (or wonts) are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously.” It then goes on to note that “The process by which new behaviours become automatic is habit formation.”
Image courtesy of lusi at rgbstock.com
Probably the most well known promoter of good habits, while appreciating the contrast of lack of those habits, was Steven Covey. He received enormous coverage of his perspective of how habits influence perceived success in the business world and in one’s private life.
Covey’s book titled “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is considered a classic. The publishing efforts surrounding his series of informational releases has continued on after his death.
Steven Covey was not a psychologist, but rather an entrepreneur in business. He appreciated that what people did repeatedly influenced their perceived success and he conveyed that way of thinking in a manner that resounded with a wide audience of business professionals.
In this decade, a New York Times (NYT) reporter, Charles Duhigg, saw an opportunity to take up the banner of focusing on habits and released a book he titled “The Power of Habit” and it immediately became a NYT best seller. Although not a psychologist, he used his reporting skills to glean some key information from psychology & neurology experts and put his jottings down in a way that appealed to a wide audience of everyday readers.
The simple formula for the 3 key components of neural habit pathway formation as presented by Charles Duhigg include: “cue” (also called a trigger by others); “routine” (also called actions by others); and then “reward” that the person finds pleasurable.
Behavior specialists have referred to terms such as “triggers” and “cues” for decades, as well as “routines” or “actions”, as well as “rewards” per se. Most of the focus in the past, however, has been on trying to extinguish some aspect of negative behaviors and start from scratch in promoting positive behaviors.
What Charles Duhigg noted was that according to his research as a reporter, neuroscientists have found that mental pathways for habits are there and the brain isn’t prone to eradicating them per se, but the pathways could be “rewritten over” in a manner of speaking. His discussions with experts seemed to point to a simple approach: take the same triggers and cues and acknowledge them, but then change the “action” aka “routine” while still having some sort of acceptable “reward” that the brain is satisfied with. One has to be clear about what really is any cue, and then also has to be clear about what acceptable reward one really seeks, and then one can explore new options for engaging in a more positive routine so that one winds up practicing a NEW habit that is more positive overall.
Charles Duhigg spoke about changing a habit by identifying what reward really matters and then what cue tends to be associated with the “urge” to do something (the routine or action) that results in the habit being repeated over and over and over again. Although others have talked about removing triggers or cues, the reality of life is that often that just might not be so feasible. The older someone is, the more often certain cues have been associated with some sort of perceived positive reward over and over and over again, so trying to ignore or eradicate or remove a cue or trigger just might not work.
A key concept is that habits become automatic.
The armed services have utilized repetitive training of individuals to try to keep them safe by ingraining habits of what to do when certain situations arise so that one doesn’t have to think about how to survive a situation, but will react automatically in a way that will keep a soldier alive. Other types of “drill” training in schools for dealing with potential fire situations are based around the same general type of principle–make any behavior automatic.
Covey noted that executives could use habits in order to create patterns that would lead to life success.
Duhigg mentions the idea that if people form a number of automatic behaviors that move their life forward, then that means their brain is not so stressed out every waking hour of every day. The brain can then apply the concept of willpower or thinking about a complex situation by breaking it down into smaller scenarios since the other behaviors the person engages in are already automatic, thus freeing up active brain engagement. In other words, using habits can alleviate small stressors of decision making in anyone’s life and thus free that person’s mind to focus their energies on more complex matters.
The New York Times reporter also talks about the idea of “keystone habits” or habits that have ripple effects into the rest of a person’s life. He notes that one of those keystone habits appears to be “food journaling” or writing down in detail what one eats and surrounding details about that experience including how one responds to the action taken.
Curiously, online food journaling in some sort of health diary program is a habit that some health insurance company programs have chosen to reward. Certain health plans will offer rebates of a portion of insurance premium money paid for eligible enrollees to report on health related activities they have engaged in during a period of health insurance coverage in a particular plan. Such monies may typically be considered income paid out as a taxable dividend payment for any health plan member earning them.
So, if you decide after going through the January exercises of exploring possible health related resolutions for this year, that maybe this Springtime, during a time of renewal, you are ready to take action and commit to the necessary follow through, then perhaps the habit you would like to explore is one of food journaling aka keeping a food diary. This can be particularly important if you have been advised by your health care professional to explore ways to lose some excess fat weight. (We only offer infotainment on this site and always urge you to contact your own health care provider(s) for their recommendations tailored to your own unique health care needs).
“Greater food journal use predicted better weight-loss outcomes” according to researchers who reported their findings last summer in the J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012;112:1428-1435. The researchers noted that in addition to keeping a food journal, individuals should avoid skipping meals, and also choose not to eat out too often. The study involved a specific group of postmenopausal women per se, but the researchers found themselves wondering if their findings would equally apply to other racial groups of color and populations as well.
Those habits of keeping a food journal, not skipping meals, and eating out less often just might reward you in more ways than one!
BTW, if you are interested in creating a habit, Duhigg has a flow chart for that as well.