Habits you will need to lose weight this year

The only habits you will need to lose weight this year are those that foster good eating habits, support your mental health and incorporate exercise. At the start of every new year, countless people set their resolutions along the lines of, ‘I want to be skinny this year, I will eat well and go to the gym 4 times a week‘. Before the month is even over, these goals are broken because they are not realistic nor do they have the right systems in place to support your end goal.

A few months back, I read a book called Atomic Habits which absolutely changed the way I set my goals and instead focus on fostering good habits. Since I started implementing those new habits, I have seen a difference in my approach with respect to setting goals to lose weight to be more healthy and in the process I have lost weight. The habits you will need to lose weight this year are not too different from what you already have but will need to be adjusted.

Habits You Will Need to Lose Weight this Year

When it comes to losing weight, more often than not, we go extreme which then leads to us failing instead of taking 1 step at a time approach. Sure, you will lose weight by reducing the carbs you consume and exercising but how long can you last for without putting the correct systems in place? The secret is changing your mindset towards losing weight – becoming more healthy and putting systems in place that foster the habit – meal prep every Sunday ready for the new week.

In the Atomic Habits book, you are taught about building better habits in 4 simple steps – (1) how can I make it obvious?, (2) how can I make it attractive? (3) how can I make it easy? and (4) how can I make it satisfying? The idea is to ensure the habit becomes an automatic behaviour because we have repeated it enough times that we spend as little energy and effort as possible. We all want to become better versions of ourselves but to do that, we need to continuously edit our beliefs.

Now that we are aware of the 4 laws of behaviour change highlighted in the Atomic Habits book, how do we ascertain which habits you will need to lose weight this year? Remember, “all habits can be broken down into feedback loops – cue, craving, response and reward“.

Make it Obvious

So, I want to lose weight this year but in order to do that and not lose momentum once I start, I need to ensure I have clarity. What habits do I already have that I can improve on and eventually will lead to forming a good habit that will foster my desire to lose weight? Every morning when I wake up, I make my bed before heading downstairs for the first cup of tea – this is my existing habit. In order to make my habit obvious, every evening I hang my workout clothes at the back of my bedroom door.

After making it obvious, my habit will now look like this – after I make my bed, I will change into my workout clothes, head downstairs, exercise on my peloton bike and make a cup of tea after my workout. The simplest form is, after I make my bed, I will exercise at 7am in my workout space downstairs. The cues here are my time (7am) and location (downstairs), I also make my habit obvious by placing my workout clothes on my bedroom door which means I see them before I can leave my bedroom.

Make it Irresistible or attractive

When it comes to developing good habits you have to make it irresistible or attractive because the more attractive it is, the more likely it will become a habit. In Atomic Habits, it is recommended to implore the following strategy – pairing an action you want to do with the action you need to do. In our case, we want to lose weight and what we need to do is eat healthier and exercise. So, how do I make eating healthier and exercising more attractive?

Let’s be real for one minute, making exercising attractive is a hard feat but I think about my end goal. I want to lose a few pounds and I can not dream those pounds away so I need to exercise and it can be anything from taking a brisk walk or riding the workout bike. Whereas you can make eating very attractive by meal prepping, fruit platters and much more. It is very important to ensure you make your habits attractive by associating them with positive feelings – I feel great and energetic once I have exercised.

Make it Easy

Humans naturally gravitate towards habits that are easy or path with least resistance, if it’s difficult we more often than not won’t do it. How can you make your habit easy, before you can get there, the habit needs to have existed in the first place. It is important to focus on taking the action and not being in motion, for me the action is drinking water, this is something I have tried to improve for many years and always failed but I put a system in place that supported my end goal.

Every evening before bed, I fill up my filtered jug with water and pour the water into a glass, I drink this every morning when I get up and I now automatically refill the cup so next time I just pick up the glass and drink. This action is so automatic to me that I don’t spend much time thinking about having to fill the jug and pouring the water. These days I just do it automatically. With respect to making my exercise easy, I download the exercise I want to do the night before and just press play in the morning.

Make it Satisfying

It is often said that we are more likely to repeat something if we find the experience satisfying. I watch movies that I love on repeat because I find them satisfying and it is the same with seeing my workout calendar ticked every day after a good workout. Like most people, I find myself getting bored doing the same exercises every single day so I made sure I do different exercises every other day.

To get a habit to stick you need to feel a sense of satisfaction immediately, for me this is in a form of after I workout I feel great and energetic to start my day. This is why I find working out at the start of my day much better than later in the day as I am most likely to repeat that every morning than any other time in the day. Another way to make it satisfying is by having an accountability partner, I have someone I work out with (virtually) and it’s always satisfying when my Apple Watch indicates I have closed the exercise rings for the day.

So, what habits will help you lose weight?

I am sure everyone has losing weight on this year’s ‘resolution’s list’ and I am no different except I am not focusing on losing weight but rather to be healthier. The habits I have developed over the last few months have shown me that if I continue to foster these good and healthy habits, I will become healthier and as a by-product lose weight in the process. So, what habits will you need to lose weight?

• Healthy Eating – this is all well and good but unless you make it obvious, easy, attractive, and satisfying, you will struggle with maintaining healthy eating habits.
  • Meal Prep – this goes hand in hand with eating healthier meals, I batch cook every weekend but also allow for a day where I spontaneously cook whatever I fancy eating.
• Exercising frequently – whilst exercising is important, you need to ensure you have added in a rest day as well. I workout 5 days a week but one of those days is actually a rest day where I spending 30-minutes stretching my muscles and the other two I completely rest.
• Hydrate often – I was so bad at drinking water before I needed to put a system in place that fostered good habits where I drink a lot of water daily. I have a filtered water jug filled daily and drink water often plus I use an app that reminds me to drink water.
• Read up on healthier lifestyle – I find sometimes its best to read up on something that I don’t understand to educate myself so I can make the best decisions about my lifestyle. I have educated myself on foods which I can eat in abundance and those which though healthy I should still minimise.

In order to lose weight, you need to re-assess the current habits you have, adapt those that are unhealthy and make them healthier. Forming good habits will help you lose weight faster than dreaming about being a smaller size especially when you don’t have systems in place that will foster good lasting habits.