Just One Habit

In this episode of Navigating Nourishment Podcast, Wendy and Debbie discuss the importance of doing Just One Habit: small, consistent actions for significant life improvements. They emphasize that people often fail to achieve their goals due to unrealistic expectations and the "say-do gap." They share several real-life examples of their own habits and their clients. These habits, when practiced regularly, can lead to substantial long-term benefits. They stress accountability and the use of tools like apps to help maintain these new habits. 23 minutes Transcription (edited for readability) Small, Consistent Steps for Lasting Change Wendy 00:00 So many of our clients come to us and say, I want increased energy, clear thinking, to get back to my ideal body weight. These are some of the things people come to see us for. And one of the questions we always ask people is, how long did it take you to get where you are? Say you're 60 years old and you're 10 pounds different than you were when you were 50, or you can't run a mile at the same pace that you used to 10 years ago. Today, we're going to talk about small, little-mini-wins done consecutive over time, yielding the results that you're really looking for Debbie 00:44 You're going to walk away from this podcast with something that's really going to change your life. That's our goal, at least The "Say-Do Gap" and the Importance of Small Actions Wendy 00:53 That's right, and we want to be realistic about expectations and time. I think time gets away from us so quickly, and we have these great intentions for ourselves, and we think about it all the time, but we're not doing anything. There's this say-do gap that we see that we want to shine a light on. We’re here to give you some really easy, doable ideas. Debbie 01:24 It's like, we have these intentions about things, and time flies away from us, and here we are at the very end of summer, just like that! (snap) I know I had many intentions of things I wanted to do this summer that didn't happen and that's just an example of a couple months. But think about the years, the things that you intended to do for years now that you didn't do. Wendy 01:53 There’s a ‘static’ about that - when we want to do something and we still don't do it. Dana and I say this all the time: It's like ‘death by paper cuts,’ which is kind of this morbid idea, but it's these little things that we promise ourselves that then don't happen. That gap of promise causes us suffering. We want to shine a light on that and say you don't have to change everything in your life all at once overnight! We know with 17 plus years of coaching that that does not work. Debbie 02:34 All or nothing doesn't work. Wendy 02:39 It's proven time and time again. The marketing in this industry is sexy about these ideas of quick change. And we want to bring people back to the basics. And if this is the first time you're hearing us, my name is Wendy. Debbie 03:05 and I'm Debbie, and we're Navigating Nourishment. So let's talk about baby steps. Baby Steps and Compounding Effects Wendy 03:14 When we think of baby steps, sometimes we think we're not getting anywhere, but the compounding baby steps really takes us on long, long walks - one step at a time. And if we could strap on a little bit of curiosity and patience with ourselves, the baby steps really add up. So we have a bunch of ideas to share with you today, Debbie 03:43 We do. And here's the takeaway, we're going to share a bunch of ideas. We're asking you to choose one, just one, because it's almost impossible to not do one thing. And these one things are not big. We're talking about doing a very small, one thing that'll change your life after compounding it over and over and over and over and over…. Wendy 04:12 Here's a visual example that, before we turned on the podcast, that you talked about was the Grand Canyon. Debbie 04:20 It happened drip by drip by drip. We have a bunch of examples of compounding. There's famous ideas about saving a penny a day. And we don't have the kind of time that the Grand Canyon had. Wendy 04:40 No we don't, but one of the things we do talk with our clients about is: How many summers do we have left? If we reverse engineer that idea, it might speed up our intensity of doing these mini things. Not intensity, but dedication to doing these many small things. And how truly important they are to our overall well being. Debbie 05:03 So let's give some examples of baby steps. We want to challenge you to choose one. Just One Thing for Daily Hydration and Movement Wendy 05:11 Let’s start with something that we all know we need more of. Well, most of us, anyway, need to start out our day with hydration, we need to drink water. Debbie 05:24 If you're not starting your day first thing in the morning with water, this is the one baby step you can do: drink a glass of water every morning. Wendy 05:38 Pretty simple. It's something that's doable, it's something that's easy, it's something that can clearly be a habit. I wake up, I go to the kitchen, I have a glass of water. Just one habit. Debbie 05:50 And it doesn't necessarily matter if it's eight ounces or six ounces, start with whatever glass you want, and start drinking one glass every morning. And after doing this a while, perhaps you'll see your skin looking a little bit better, your energy maybe getting a little bit better over time. Maybe digestion will improve. Who knows? There are many, many things that happen when we become hydrated. Wendy 06:17 The next one we wanted to offer up as an idea is a daily movement intention, and this could happen any time of day, but it's picking one thing that you'll do, one, just, just one piece of movement. Maybe it's a 10 minute walk or one push-up every day or doing a 20 second plank - some form of movement of any kind is helpful. We want to hook it to a habit, and it needs a time stamp, and it needs something that you can clearly know that you've done. So what one thing could you do every single day in the way of movement that could, over time, improve your cardiovascular health. Debbie 07:23 And if you're someone who works out regularly and does activity every day, your movement is in a place that you like, maybe there's just one thing you can add that you haven't done yet. Or perhaps you choose another one of our habits. Not everybody's going to want to necessarily do all these things, and we're only saying to choose one. Hopefully one of these things resonates with you as something that you really could use. So if movement's not your thing, we have a few other examples. Just One Habit for Mindful Eating and Gratitude Practice Wendy 07:58 I really like this next one about mindful eating. This is something I need to continue to work on. I often eat too fast. YI don't have any story behind it, except it is kind of a habit. I'm just not conscious enough about it. It's not something that I'm practicing. So before I eat, if I could remember to chew more with intention. Maybe it's putting my fork down after every bite. Debbie 08:30 It could be that you choose three minutes during one of your meals eating with chopsticks, or it could be that you actually sit down with nothing, nothing to read or watch, sitting there purposely without anything else to do but eat. Having a whole meal like that when you're not doing that is too much to ask, so maybe it's for three minutes or five minutes, but every day, sitting at one meal for five minutes without any other distraction, except for your food, your meal. So if mindful eating is your one habit you need to work on, that's definitely something you can do as a practice pretty easily. Just choosing what would make you mindful for a few minutes, if you're not mindful at all, we often don't have mindful eating because we often eat familiar foods every day. You know, a lot of us have similar foods most days, and so it makes it an easy way to be mindless because it's nothing new. Whenever you eat something new or different, you're often mindful. And that might be too big of a thing to say, eat something new and different every day. So the practice has to be, eat something that you're used to eating, but do it mindfully, so choose your way of doing that just for a few minutes. Wendy 09:46 And the compound effect of this is that you could become more aware of your satiety - how full am I? Your digestion might improve because you're chewing more. And maybe you'll actually enjoy that peanut butter and jelly sandwich a little bit more. Joy in food is really important. We kind of get away from that when we have the same foods, but if we are connected with the food a little bit more, we might have some more joy in the food. Just One Habit for Sleep Routine, Gratitude, and Stretching Debbie 10:20 If sleep seems to be something you struggle with, one habit you could choose is to get to bed earlier. If you have a habit around sleep that's not nourishing, you can start with something small. Maybe it's going to bed 15 minutes earlier. If you're struggling to get to bed a little bit earlier and you go to bed at midnight. And you say you really wish you could go to bed at 10:30 an hour and a half is a huge ask for someone who's not used to doing that. So maybe it's going to bed at 11:45 instead and making it a conscious decision to go to bed 15 minutes earlier than you usually do. Wendy 11:07 I really like that example, Debbie, because it is a perfect example of overshooting your expectation for yourself. We're trying to get these ideas so they are so doable we can't fail at them. And so if it's five or 10 or 15 minutes over time, our sleep quality is better and so is our mental c