How to Break Bad Eating Habits Using the Habit Loop

Nikkiey: What's up, WarriorBabe? Hey, everybody, Nikkiey here, and welcome to our Sunday WarriorBabe Revolution Rally Call. I am excited to be here with you guys, as I have a fire topic to bring to you all this week. It's something that I was listening to earlier in the week while I was doing a workout, and I was like, bam, this person just smashed what I try to verbalize to you guys on a weekly basis.

So I wanted to bring to the table what this person shared in the podcast that I was listening to. It's in the mindset realm, but it's really going to be a powerful one, so tune in and listen up. I'm excited to be here and bring this topic to you today.

Before we dive in, go let the Facebook group know that this call is live. It's going to be a fire topic. First of all, it's a new month, so this is going to bring an overall new vibe for you guys to re-hone in and focus on your goals. I finished my Blueprint Q&A a couple minutes ago, saying that now is the time for you guys to stay focused, because 2021 is right around the corner. You don't want to be that New Year's resolutioner who's getting set January 1. You want to start now. Okay? So if you're off the bandwagon, it's a new month. Now you have the choice to get on the bandwagon right now, or just to stay focused. All right? And this topic is really, really going to help with that tonight. So go on the Facebook group and let them know that this call is live right now and to tune in. Just comment and say, Rally Call is live.

So before we dive in, I want to give a huge welcome to the babes who've joined us in this past week across all communities. It's so freaking amazing to me to see how much our community is growing. And it's really starting to pick up by word of mouth, where you babes are sharing what you're doing, how much you're loving it and the progress that you're seeing.

And really what I'm saying, though, is it comes down to the people that are sharing that, the people that actually put in the work. I'm really starting to pick up on this, especially being able to communicate a lot more with the individuals in the Blueprint program. I'm able to pick up on people who are really serious about their journey and the people who don't even open up the modules and listen to them. Okay? The ones who are typically sharing the WarriorBabe journey are the ones who are putting in the work, who are taking in module by module, who are learning, who are implementing and who are showing up for themselves. And then I've got the other people, where I am giving some serious tough love on my Blueprint Q&A calls. But that's beside the point.

Right now, I really want to welcome all the new babes to the revolution. I am so excited that you guys are here and part of this community. Our communities across all platforms are just so inspiring, so motivating, so uplifting, so supportive. And we're all in it together.

I'm kind of sidetracked right here, but I did a couple interviews with some veteran babes on Friday. And when I asked what was the most value that you take away from the WarriorBabe Blueprint or the WarriorBabe programs in general, all of them said community. It's just so freaking amazing to see how strong our community is. There are women who are sharing, like, yeah, she's my best friend. I've never met her before, but I communicate with her every single day. Our community is hands down so freaking inspiring, so supportive. I love it. So welcome to all the new babes who are now a part of that, and a part of thousands of women who are becoming a stronger, more confident version of themselves.

So let's dive into the topic right now. Like I shared with you guys at the beginning, it was something that I heard earlier this week while I was working out. It was a podcast, and this person just nailed it. Nailed it on what I always try to verbalize to you guys. I'm always about bringing possibly the same things to you, but maybe in a different verbiage or in a different context, because it will hit home for you maybe differently than the last time I talked about it. It's repetition. You hear me say it over and over and over again, but sometimes you'll hear me say it a little bit differently. Or, wherever you are at this point of your journey, it just resonates a little bit more.

So I'm really excited to bring this topic to you guys tonight. I've talked about it before. I'm going to talk about it a little bit differently. It's the power of habits, and how to control your habits and everything that you do, the good and the bad.

What this person said that really, really hit home, and I know it's going to hit home for you guys, is that we are all habit loops. Every single one of us is a habit loop. We are conscious of only about 5% of our cognitive activity. So most of our decisions, actions, emotions and behaviors depend on the 95% of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness, typically our subconscious. So the behavior that you have on a daily basis, which mostly comes from the subconscious level, becomes automatic or habitual through regular repetition.

Every single one of you is an automatic and habitual creature. How many of you guys do not like change, right? Because it's human instinct to not like change. And you guys just create habits. And these habits, the way this person explained it, are so engraved, so grooved into your everyday experience.

So first of all, how are they formed? They're formed in a specific loop, usually a three-step loop. They're formed by a cue, by a routine and by a reward. The cue is just a trigger telling your brain to go into automatic mode. How many of you guys wake up, hear your alarm clock and look at your phone? That alarm clock is the cue. The routine, physical, mental or emotional, is the second step. The physical one here is checking your phone. And then the reward helps your brain figure out that this particular loop or routine is worth remembering for the future. So the reward is that you get dopamine spikes by looking at your phone, which is something I don't recommend that you do when you first start your day. Because it could either hit dopamine spikes, or it could hit like, oh, f***, what am I getting myself involved with? Or you're just so lost in your emails and text messages that you start being reactive to the world and not proactive.

So these cues, routines and rewards, that's a three-step loop. And over time, this loop, cue, routine, reward, cue, routine, reward, becomes more and more automatic. Right?

So the most familiar one for you: cue, you're bored, you're uncomfortable. Routine, you eat. Reward, you're satisfied. And that cue can be almost anything, right? It can be a visual trigger, like a candy bar that you see in a TV commercial. You're sitting down watching television or a movie on Netflix and you see them eating popcorn. Or it's just that you sit in front of the TV, and as a kid, growing up and being with friends, it was a normal thing to eat something. I'm guilty of it. That's why I have to work in a snack when I go and sit down in front of the TV, because it's just a habit. It's just an automatic thing that we've all been conditioned to. It's a perfect example of a habit loop, and how we are all habit loops.

The cue could be a certain place. It could be a time of day. It could be an emotion. It could be a sequence of thoughts, or it could be the company of other people. And then you move into the routine, which comes with the craving. You crave the reward. So you move into the physical, the mental, the emotional side of that, right? So if the cue is the time of day, you go to the gym. What you crave is the endorphins, or the confidence that you will feel in a bathing suit, or the delicious protein shake afterwards, right? So you start thinking about the cue, and you go into automatic: cue, routine, reward.

Now, habits can be ignored, changed or replaced. But you have to understand the loop first. The loop is so important because when these habits emerge, the brain stops really participating in decision making. It stops working hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So that's the case unless you deliberately fight the habit, unless you find new routines. That's so important, because if you want to accomplish getting somewhere with your body, but you have habits like these that don't serve you, you have to break that habit, which not many people try to do.

People just look into trying programs that are 30 days or 60 days, and that's not enough time to change a habit. And then people wonder why they're two weeks in and not seeing results. I'm sorry. You have to focus on implementing new and better habits for you to really work through the grooves that you're in, and build new grooves on top of them. You have to focus on making new grooves, grooves that serve you.

Understanding and learning new habits makes them easier to control. Once you break down a habit into its components, like what I mentioned above, you can fiddle with the gears. So when you're able to break down what the cue is, you recognize the cue, you recognize that the routine you're about to go into doesn't serve you, well, then you can rewrite that cue. You can rewrite that routine.

So for many of you, if you know that you snack when you go and watch TV, well, work it into your macros and still have that same experience of sitting in front of the TV, but you're snacking on something that fits into your macros. And this is where discipline comes in. You have to be disciplined enough to stop eating at that point. And not many people are disciplined. This world is not disciplined. But you choose to be disciplined. You choose to stop. You choose to know that eating more is not what you have allotted for yourself. You choose to be in control of that situation. And you can be in control of that situation. The choice is yours. So you have to make new grooves and make new habits.

Now, another thing is that your brain can't tell the difference between good and bad habits. So if you have a bad one, it's always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and rewards, right? And this can explain why it's so hard to create exercise habits or change the way that we eat. For example, once we develop the routine of sitting on the couch rather than running, or snacking whenever we pass a donut box or the Tootsie Rolls across the hallway from you outside of an office, those patterns always remain inside of our heads. Whether you notice it or not, because like I said, the majority of people operate from the subconscious level.

The way to change it is to be more conscious, to be more aware, to be more present, to break these habits, to be more aware when these habits are happening. It comes down to this: whether you have a good or a bad habit, your brain doesn't know right from wrong. It doesn't know that this cue is going to lead you to a bad routine, right? It's just so engraved from you making these specific choices in the past.

So you have to create new patterns, like by ignoring those donuts. You walk by the donut box, okay? Well, what you used to do is put your hand in the donut box and eat one. An easy way to change that is to become conscious and aware of what you know your next action is going to be, and not do it. Because it doesn't serve you, unless it's worked into your macros, okay?

Or how many people are just trying to get off the couch and work out? Well, that's a habit. You're so used to sitting in front of the television, not doing anything with your life for three weeks. It gets to the point where it gets really freaking painful and uncomfortable to break the habit. But you get up and you start working out, and it becomes as automatic as any other habit. You just have to start creating new grooves, which means creating new habits that serve you rather than pull you in the opposite direction of what you want.

So you're in control. You're the one who can choose what does and does not serve you. You're the one who can totally rewrite the story of where the cue starts with the habit that is so ingrained in you. And you can work with the habits to make them work better for you, like I said, by fitting things into your macros.

For example, one of my VIP babes went pumpkin picking about two weeks ago. She has four kids, two sets of twins, all around the age of four, I think. By the way, she's lost 62 pounds. So there are no excuses. I don't want to hear it from people being too busy. Anyway, she was pumpkin picking, and her son was like, hey, Mommy, are you going to have an apple cider donut with me? And she was able to make it work, right? She was already set up for success. She could have chosen not to have one, but she knew that she could still implement it.

So what I'm trying to say is, if your cue is to sit down in front of the television, like I mentioned, and snack, well, make it work. Right? Make it work into your macros. That way you're serving yourself. It doesn't have to be like, oh, I'm restricting myself and I can't eat anything because I'm watching TV. No, make it work for you. There's nothing about this lifestyle that has to be restrictive. You just have to work it around your new habits, formulate new habits that serve you and know that you're the one in control of it all. Okay?

So I hope this Rally Call really helps you guys. Remember, it's a loop. We're all habit loops. Cue, routine, reward. Cue, routine, reward. Cue, routine, reward. And it can start with anything. But you have to be consciously aware of how you know the habit is going to form. Right? From childhood to the teenage years to the adult years, there are so many habits engraved in you, and you just need to create new grooves. You need to create new grooves that will serve you and your goals and create a lifestyle for yourself.

So I really hope this helps you. Let me know in the Facebook group if this was a topic that hit home. And I will see you guys on Wednesday for our Q&A. It's a new month, guys. Remember, keep up the good work. Okay? See you later. Bye-bye.