Video | Habits | Portion Size | Food Choices | Justification | External Cues

Patterns, habits, and routines, no matter how we label them, your brain loves them. These repeated actions save your brain effort, so it is constantly looking to form them. In fact, the more actions that you can turn into subconscious habits, the less energy you must put toward thinking through basic behaviors. 

We want certain actions to be habitual. It would be awful if we had to relearn how to brush our teeth every morning or had to consciously walk through each step just to tie our shoes. 

The problem is that this habit-forming part of your brain doesn’t judge your actions as good or bad. If you do an action over and over again, your brain says, “Hey, let’s turn that into a habit.” 

If you have bad habits when it comes to food, you find yourself staring into an open refrigerator with no recollection of how you got there, or your best intentions of not eating after dinner remain strong all day – until after dinner. You have some established patterns that make weight control difficult. 

There is a way to step out of these habitual behaviors, and it is surprisingly simple. In this blog post, I share how putting 5% more effort into your awareness can get you 50% better control over your weight.