How to Break Bad Eating Habits With the Habit Loop

Nikkiey: What's up, WarriorBabes? Hey, everyone. Nikkiey here, and welcome to our Saturday WarriorBabe Revolution Rally Call. I am so excited to be here with you guys today. I hope everybody is having an awesome start to their Saturday. If you guys got your workouts in, proud of you. If you still have to go do it, kick some ass. So we'll get started in just a few minutes, guys. This call today is going to fucking blow your mind. It is going to be so valuable to you and how you act on a daily basis, and after learning what I'm going to share with you today, you're going to be able to catch yourself and make better decisions that serve you and where you're going here inside of WarriorBabe, to the body that you want to have.

So guys, comment inside of the Facebook group. Let the babes know that this call is getting started and they don't want to miss it. Literally, leave that in the comment: the call is getting started, you don't want to miss it. Nikkiey said it's going to be freaking awesome, because it is.

So before we get started, if you are new to WarriorBabe, welcome, you guys. I am so excited that you are here. I'm so excited for WarriorBabe and the team to be a part of your journey, where strong is the new sexy. We work to completely transform our bodies, and with literally everything inside the program, you have the tools and the resources to do it, so there's no excuse as to why you can't.

We do these calls every single Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So those of you who are new, make sure you mark your calendars. Make sure you set your alarms for five minutes before we get this call started so you can be here, you're on time, you're ready, and you're plugged in to listen to me light you up with some fire and motivation moving forward. These calls are so valuable and you don't want to miss them.

All right, so really quick before we get started, I want to remind all the new WarriorBabes to make sure that you are utilizing the WarriorBabe Revolution blast-off emails to their full capacity. They are so vitally important. I know the veteran WarriorBabes have heard me say this over and over again. But those 14 blast-off emails that I am sending you are strategic. They're there to help you start this journey on the right foot. Every single one of the WarriorBabes who have been extremely successful, the ones you see inside the group absolutely killing it, started on the right foot here inside of WarriorBabe and dove into those emails and those tasks I'm giving them, and they're setting themselves up for long-term success.

So within the first 14 days, I literally help you understand why you're here and the goals that you are here to accomplish. Setting your goals is so important: knowing why you're here, what the reasons are that you want to be here, and what the reasons are that you want to achieve these goals. And being surrounded by the right people while you're here is so important. Environment is stronger than will. When you're around the right people who are on the same journey as you, you're just going to excel beyond belief. And then it goes into the macros and it goes into the workouts. So those 14-day blast-off tasks are so valuable to you guys.

Now, everybody inside of WarriorBabe, I'm sure you guys have seen it. The excitement is all around in the Facebook group. There have been tons and tons of updates to your application. As you guys can see, we're working right now to get our calculators programmed inside the personal programming section, so it's just like click, click, click, here you go, here's your program, here's what you need to do. You guys can see the Learning Center now. It's shorter videos, really valuable content, but shorter videos so you can listen to them and understand what you need to do. And then we have swag coming soon. We've talked about that before. So I just wanted to give you guys those updates.

If you guys are new, I recommend this to eliminate the overwhelm: on top of the 14-day blast-off, go through the Welcome WarriorBabe Start Here section at the top left of your application. Inside of there are really short videos that are going to help you get set up and know how this whole system works: the support options, the Facebook group, getting yourself inside the Facebook group, just everything that's really valuable for you guys to start off so you know exactly where to start. I highly recommend going through those, and then you'll know exactly where to get your questions answered super fast, how to get a hold of our support team, and how to tag me and Kate and Raven inside the Facebook group. So make sure that you guys are utilizing that Welcome WarriorBabe Start Here section inside of the application if you guys are brand new.

One thing before we get started again, guys: make sure you are posting inside the Facebook group. I saw Raven do it. Where's everybody else? Get inside there right now and comment that this rally call is getting started.

So one more thing before I dive into the topic today. I see repetitive comments and repetitive questions inside the group. So please don't be the person to ask questions that can be answered inside of the app. Especially now that the videos are broken down into smaller videos, your answers are right there, and I guarantee you they can be answered super fast. You just have to take the time to go to that Learning Center and watch those videos.

If you can't find your answer inside the app, then take the time to go to our Frequently Asked Questions resource page. We've built out an entire platform of all of our frequently asked questions, from veteran WarriorBabes to WarriorBabes now, with articles that answer all of our questions. The links are not at the bottom of the videos right now, but we will make sure that we get the links at the bottom of the videos on the platform so the Frequently Asked Questions resource page is easily accessible.

Now, if the question can't be answered inside of the application and it can't be answered in the FAQs, then come to the Facebook group, and your fellow WarriorBabes are there to help you. Maybe it's something they've asked before, and they can chime in and help you. They can tag Kate, or you can tag me.

That's the order I recommend to get your questions answered super, super fast. First, the application. Make sure you're utilizing everything that's inside of there. Second, go to our Frequently Asked Questions resource page. Third is the Facebook group. And then support is literally the last option to get your questions answered on nutrition and workouts. Nutrition and workout programming is something that you can find inside the app, the Frequently Asked Questions page or the Facebook group, okay? Support is the last option unless it's something technical with your application.

All right. Are you guys ready? Guys, this topic is going to be absolutely fire. Like I said at the beginning, it's going to fucking blow your mind. What I recommend is that you get out a pen and paper if you can, or try and take some mental notes as I go through this, okay?

All right, so the topic for today is the power of habits: how your habits control everything that you do on a daily basis, the good and the bad. You guys may or may not know this, but it's going to blow your mind, the first thing I'm about to tell you.

We are conscious of only about 5% of our cognitive activity. So most of our decisions, most of our actions, most of our emotions and behavior depend on the 95% of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness. That means 95% of your actions, your emotions and your behaviors on a daily basis are based on your unconscious brain. You're not even conscious that you're doing this.

So the behavior that you have on a daily basis, which is mostly unconscious like I said, becomes automatic or habitual through regular repetition. Can you guys think of habits that you already have? Think about those right now, and then let me blow your mind even more.

Let's talk first on the broad spectrum of how these habits are formed, and it's in a three-step loop. I'll dive deeper into what each one of these three is. You've got a cue, you've got a routine, and you've got a reward. Cue, routine, reward. And this loop, cue, routine, reward, cue, routine, reward, becomes more and more automatic.

Now, for me, and I know for a lot of you guys, before I got into the habit I'm now unconsciously in, the routine of good nutrition, of workouts every single day, of being on point, my cue for eating food was being bored or uncomfortable. Being bored, just laying around at night watching television, or being uncomfortable in social situations. That was my cue. That was my trigger telling my brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. So my cue was being bored and uncomfortable. My routine was eating. And my reward afterwards was that I was satisfied. I felt good, and I was more comfortable because I was actually doing something that was taking me away from a social interaction. How many of you guys can relate to that? I'm sure so many of you can.

So the cue can be almost anything, from a visual trigger, like seeing a candy bar or a television commercial. How many times have you guys seen something food-wise on TV and you're like, oh my God, I'm hungry, right? That's a cue. And then you probably go into a routine of eating and then the reward of being satisfied. It can also be a certain place. It can be a time of day. It can be an emotion. It can be a sequence of thoughts. It can be the company of other people. Just settle that in your head.

Then with a cue, we move into the routine by craving a reward. So, for example, let's say the cue is the time of day to go to the gym. This is how you can create a good habit. You crave the endorphins, or the confidence that you will feel in a bathing suit, or the accomplishment. You crave that feeling, right? Or a delicious protein shake after you work out. You allow yourself to think about the shake or think about the endorphin rush that you're going to feel. So you have a cue, then you crave that feeling, and you allow yourself to anticipate that reward. And eventually that craving will make it easier to push through the gym doors every single day. That's how you create something good.

But if you go into it negatively, which I think I've talked about before, you're not going to crave going to the gym every day. You have to feel the craving for the endorphins. Feel that rush. You know you're going to get after it. You guys have definitely had good workouts. I know you have. I see you inside the group. And you feel so good afterwards. You feel accomplished. Hold on to that and crave that feeling, because that feeling is going to make this whole journey so much easier. It's going to make everything you're doing turn into a habit, and a good habit, unconsciously, one of the 95% of things that we do unconsciously.

So that's the cue, and you want to crave something, because without a craving, these habits don't form. That's a big part of the habit loop: craving something.

Then the routine can be so complex or it can be ridiculously simple. For example, take habits related to emotions. In a routine, emotions are measured in milliseconds, like how you act. If something pisses you off, you go into a routine of being frustrated and pissed off for 10 or 15 minutes, right? And then the rewards can range from food that causes physical sensations to an emotional payoff, such as the feeling of pride that accompanies self-congratulation, like I said, with the reward of feeling accomplished after a workout.

So from a broad perspective, again: you've got the cue. You've got a craving for the reward. So cue, craving, the routine that you go into, and the reward afterwards.

Now, habits can be ignored, they can be changed, they can be replaced, but understanding this loop that I just shared with you is so important, because when habits emerge, the brain stops fully participating in decision-making. Like I said at the beginning, 95% of our actions are unconscious. So when a habit emerges, a habit that you've done routinely so many times before, good or bad, and I'll get into that next, your brain stops really participating in decision-making. It stops working as hard and diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit, unless you find new routines, which I'll share in the next point, the pattern will unfold automatically.

Let me just say that again, because that is so fucking strong. Your habits can be ignored, changed or replaced, but understanding the loop I just shared with you is so important, because when habits emerge, good or bad, the brain stops really participating in decision-making. It stops working as hard and diverts focus to other tasks. I'll share some examples in a couple of minutes. So think about what you already know are habits for you. I even shared one: bored and uncomfortable, you go into a routine of eating, and the reward is being satisfied. Unless you deliberately fight a habit, unless you find new routines, the pattern is going to unfold automatically. And then 10 minutes later you're going to be like, what the fuck just happened?

How many times has that happened for you guys? You're in the kitchen, you're eating, and then 10 minutes later you're like, what did I just do? Right? That's a habit. That is a perfect example of a habit.

Now, understanding and learning how habits work makes them easier to control. Once you break down a habit into its components, like I just mentioned, cue, routine, reward, you can fiddle with the gears to turn it into a good habit. I'll talk about that in my third point.

But my second point is good versus bad habits. Your brain can't tell the difference between a bad habit and a good habit. So if you have a bad one, it's always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and the reward. Like I said, if you're bored and uncomfortable, you go into the routine of eating when you know you shouldn't, but it's just a habit. And then you have the reward of feeling satisfied. So even if you know that's a bad one, it's always lurking for the TV commercial to come on, for your friends to say, hey, let's go grab some food and some drinks, hey, let's go out for dinner. It's always there lurking, waiting for you to just cave.

So this can explain why it's so hard to create exercise habits or change the way we eat, right? You guys are picking up on this: okay, now I can understand why it's hard to break, because I've been in it for so long. You've been in this routine for so long, so it can be hard to create new habits. By the end of this, if you do what I tell you to do today, you will be able to create new habits, strong habits that serve you moving forward. But you've got to fucking listen to me, and you've got to implement. I can talk to you until I'm blue in the face. I can share this stuff with you, but unless you actually take action, nothing is going to happen.

All right. So it's hard to create exercise habits, and it's hard to change the way we eat. For example, once we develop the routine of sitting on the couch rather than running, or snacking whenever you pass a donut box, or like Cheryl's Tootsie Rolls outside of her office, those patterns always remain inside of your head. Good or bad, you're satisfying something. If you're sitting on the couch watching TV, you're satisfying yourself. You're engaging in entertainment, even though it's false entertainment, it's shit entertainment. It's just messing with your head even more. Or with the snacking, you're satisfying your hunger. So good or bad, it's always going to remain inside your head.

Or take this as a fire example: emails or text messages. When your computer chimes or your smartphone vibrates with a new message, your brain starts anticipating the momentary distraction that opening an email or responding to a text provides. Guys, how many people do you see on the side of the street just walking on their phones? Or you're talking to somebody and automatically they pull their phone out of their pocket and start responding to a text message? That's a distraction. The cue is the vibration, the routine is checking it, because people are looking for a distraction, and the reward is that they're satisfying that need for distraction. They're into something that's more engaging.

Just think, you guys, if someone put their phone on Do Not Disturb, which I do on a daily basis to get my work done, which proves my point, that removes the cue of picking up the phone and checking it when you hear a vibration. Think how much longer people could work, for hours, without thinking to check their phones. Just think about that. Or if you put your phone on Do Not Disturb while you're out to dinner with your family or your friends or your kids, or you're on your first date, think about how much more engaging a conversation you're going to have with someone.

By the same rule, though, if we learn to create new neurological routines that overpower these behaviors, if we take control of the habit loop, if you guys take control of these loops I'm talking about, we can force these bad tendencies into the background. You can just force them back, and you can create a new pattern. And once someone creates a new pattern and a new routine, completing a workout or ignoring the donuts or the email, that becomes as automatic as any other habit. I'm going to share with you exactly how you can overcome the habit and implement these new routines next.

Okay, so the way that you can do this, and it's my third point, is to overpower. You have to overpower these habits. You guys can probably think now about what doesn't serve you. Going out with your friends when you're not supposed to, when it's not a cheat meal night. Guys, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It means going out of your comfort zone and doing different things, right? Or if you find yourself snacking when you're not supposed to be eating, how can you overpower this habit?

So this is a perfect example. A top habit of successful dieters is that they eat breakfast every morning. Let me just say that again for all you people who don't have time for breakfast or get up and work out right away. Successful dieters eat breakfast every morning, which is a meal cued by the time of day. So you have a trigger, which is the time of day. But most of them also envision a specific reward for sticking to their diet. This is how you can connect strong habits with your purpose, strong habits with your why, why you're here inside of WarriorBabe.

So they eat breakfast every morning, cued by the time of day, and most of them also envision a specific reward for sticking to their diet. For example, a bikini that they want to wear, or the pride they feel when they see the results in the mirror, something they choose carefully and really, really want. That is why I make you do this at the beginning, and I'm smacking all of you on the hands who haven't gone through the goal setting, who haven't gone through establishing your why. Go back and do it right now, because what I'm talking about right now is going to help you dramatically change your habits.

So you can envision a specific reward that makes you want to hit your macros, makes you want to stay on point, makes you want to go and have a workout. You can use your imagination to envision what you want, whether it's a bikini that you want to wear, or feeling really good inside with your results and looking in the mirror and seeing your body changing, something that you really, really, really freaking want. I've established this already in the videos. You need to go back and listen to that. Then focus on your craving for that reward when temptations arise.

I can connect myself so well to this. At the beginning of my journey, when I dove in not knowing what I was getting myself into, tracking my macros, working out, striving for an end goal of being shredded, looking toned, stepping on stage, but even before stepping on stage, just wanting to be happy with my body, I had a big reason for what I really wanted to do. And whenever cravings or temptations arose, I was able to focus on what I wanted to accomplish and imagine my body. I could see it. I literally could fucking see it right in front of me. So my craving for the reward, my craving to have that body, crowded out all of the temptation around me. Anything that arose, I didn't even give two shits about. I had no reason to give up on my diet. I had no reason to give up on my new lifestyle, because I had something that I really, really wanted.

So if you identify the cues and the reward, you can change the routine, you guys. But what I just shared with you is also really important: you've got to know what you want. Most people don't know what they want. They just go through the day not knowing. You've got to know what you want, and you've got to be able to see it. Then you can use that to change your habits.

So if you can identify the cues, the triggers, and then the reward, you can change the in-between. You can fiddle with the gears of the routine. So let's go with bored and uncomfortable. Normally what you do is eat. Fucking go for a walk. Drink some water. Find somebody at your work to walk with outside. And then, after your new routine, you're satisfied. It's as simple as that.

But there's one more ingredient that is extremely necessary in this process, and that is belief. Sorry, I just got cut off there by the woman telling me my input was invalid. So the one other ingredient that is extremely necessary in this is belief.

You do need the capacity to believe that you are getting better. You need to believe that every single day. But even though you have to do it, it doesn't always come down to just you. A community creates belief. There's something extremely powerful about groups and shared experiences. People might be skeptical about their own ability to change. I'm sure once you got into WarriorBabe, you were like, can I actually do this? Is this actually going to work? And then as soon as you got into the group and you saw the community, you saw the inspiration, you saw the empowerment, you saw people sharing the same experiences that you're looking to be involved with, people on the same journey as you, I'm sure your belief level rose, right? Because if you're in a group where everybody's changing and everybody's working, that's going to convince you to believe even more.

Reach for the stars. You have to believe that change is possible, and then surround yourself with others who are doing the same thing, a.k.a. the WarriorBabe community, the WarriorBabe Facebook group. So guys, take advantage of the group right now. Go in there and ask the babes, hey, I catch myself in this bad habit, what do you guys do? Ask them what they do, because I'm sure somebody has been through it and changed their habit, changed their routine, and they're still getting the same reward.

At the end of it all, you have to study your habits. For example, determine why you really leave your desk for a snack each day. Like I said, find someone to go on a walk with you rather than going to the snack bar, or drink some water. Go to someone's desk that has fruit instead of Tootsie Rolls, right? If you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative routine, and your odds of success go up dramatically.

So like I said, you've got cue, routine, reward. If you identify the cue and the reward, the triggers and whatever the reward is for you, like a sense of accomplishment, you can change your routine. I'm always going to go back to this: if your cue is an emotion, being bored or being uncomfortable in social situations, and your routine is eating, how can you change that routine? Drink some water. Have something in your hand, like a water bottle. Because I know whenever I'm in social situations, I just want to eat too. But if I have something in my hand, my hand's occupied, so it won't affect me. I'll just drink my water. I'm triggered by that cup in my hand, knowing not to eat. And the reward is that you're satisfied. The reward is an accomplishment. You won. You did it.

Guys, I hope you loved this rally call today. I hope it blew your mind. And I hope that you actually take action, study your habits and change up any routines that don't serve you. Because like I said, your brain doesn't know good or bad. But trust me, no matter what, the bad habit is always lurking and waiting for you to cave into it, to cave to the right cues and the right rewards.

So if something doesn't serve you, I want you to take the time to figure out what right now isn't serving you. The cue can be a visual trigger. It can be watching too much television. It can be having your phone on loud. It can be a time of day. It can be an emotion. It can be a sequence of thoughts. It can be the people around you, the company that you keep. Just study your habits and see how you can change the routine in a way that is going to make you better.

Guys, let me know how you enjoyed this rally call. Leave a post inside the Facebook group and let the babes who didn't get a chance to listen know to tune back in when we put up the recording on our YouTube channel and inside the application. And I highly recommend that you listen to it again, because there is some valuable content in this rally call. You absorb it the first time you listen, but the second time you absorb even more. It's like watching a movie: more things are going to make sense. So definitely listen to it again.

And make sure that you plug into these rally calls every single week, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, every single Saturday. I am going to give you a topic that lights you up with some fire and motivation to move you forward into a stronger week, a stronger month, a stronger journey. Plug in, listen to these, and then take action. All right, guys? I hope you have an awesome rest of your day, and I will catch you guys at our next Q&A session on Wednesday. All right. Bye, everyone. Thank you.