WHAT IS IT?

Essentially, myDIYdiet is a program I created that makes starting your weight loss journey much easier by taking small steps towards building healthy habits. In creating my own plan, I realized that this could be customized and used by anyone! So I decided to share it on my Tiktok, Youtube & Instagram.

 

THE SCIENCE BEHIND HABIT FORMING AND HOW I USED IT TO BUILD MY PROGRAM

 

When I decided that what I really needed to successfully reach my weight loss goals was to create healthy habits, I got to work researching online. How do people go to the gym 5 days a week? How does that neighbor lady get up every weekday at 4:30 am and do her yoga? That guy I see running almost every morning on my way to work, how does he do that? Well? These people have made it a habit! Whether they want to or not, they have repeated a behavior over and over again, to where a habit was actually formed. When they get up in the morning, it doesn't feel like the first time they are going on that run. It is a lot easier for them. Almost mechanical, like putting on your seatbelt right when you get in the car. It is just automatic! That is because as they repeated a task over and over again, something actually physically changed in their brains! It is a scientific fact, that when a habit is formed, a neural pathway is actually formed in your brain! Think of it as a sort of short cut. When you repeat your task over and over again, for a certain amount of time, that neural pathway is formed and your habit is created! Once that happens, doing that task becomes an automatic behavior and therefore it is much easier and requires little willpower to keep doing it!

 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO FORM A HABIT?

 

We have all heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I thought it was true. After doing some research however, I learned that is not the case. In a study published by the European Journal of Social Psychology, they found that it took the participants anywhere from 18-254 days to form a habit. It is different for everyone of course, but on average it took 66 days.

 

WHAT IF I MISS A DAY? DO I HAVE TO START OVER?

 

In the same study cited above, they actually tested this out. They found that if the participants missed 1 day of doing their task, it DID NOT affect that habit being formed (yay!). Unfortunately, they only tested this with 1 day. They did not try it with 2+ days. However, I found a blog post during my research by Melissa Brake where she tested this herself. She found that if she missed 1 or 2 days, she seemed totally fine to just keep on going with her task/habit. But if she missed 3 or more days, suddenly doing that task became much harder and required more motivation and willpower to continue. She hypothesized that this may be associated with our 5 day work week. We are used to doing something 5 days a week, taking 2 days off, then getting right back up on Monday and starting it again. Our brains may have this programming already set, you know? So, I use that as a standard in my plan. Whether it's a cheat meal, a weekend getaway, or just a bad day; I try to keep it to 1 or 2 days. I avoid going 3 days at all costs, because I do not want to lose all the habit forming.

 

CAN I REALLY START SMALL? HOW DOES THAT WORK?

Yes! The smaller, the better! When researching the science of habits one of the main things I kept seeing is that you need to start small. Why is that? Because if you start small, it makes your task easier. If it is easier, you are more likely to keep doing that task! And we know that the only way to build a habit is to KEEP DOING IT!

So, take your goal and make it small, micro even! Start there, and slowly work your way up. Say you want to be someone who walks a mile a day. If you start walking a mile a day on day one, you are likely to give up quickly because that is a challenging task! It requires a lot of willpower and motivation. Yes, some people are able to just do this, no problem, but we are not those people right? That’s why we are here, right now, let’s be honest. And that’s okay! That doesn't mean that we can never be people who walk a mile a day, it just means that we need to approach it differently.

Let’s go through some examples here:

-Amy’s goal is to walk a mile everyday before work. She should start with walking to her mailbox and back everyday for 1 week. Then move it out a little. Week 2; walk past the mailbox and down to Old Man Bob’s house and back. Week 3, maybe Amy is walking down to the corner now and back. 

-Suzy drinks 12 cans of soda a day. She would like to cut down to zero. So week 1, Suzy can start with cutting back to 11 cans of soda a day. Then week 2, 10 cans etc.

-Me? I want to work out 5 days a week at least 30 mins a day. So, I started with 5 minutes a day for 2 weeks. Every 2 weeks I move it up by 5 minutes.

 

The goal here is to repeat the task over and over again for at least 66 days. Once your habit is formed, it is just going to be second nature for you. Your body will want to do, or in Suzy’s case NOT do that thing you are teaching it because creating a habit greatly reduces the need for willpower.