5 Strategies to overcome TRIGGERS that break HABITS

When it comes to dialing in habits we must be aware of the “triggers” that could pull us away from our new habit and behavior.

Rest assured that if you want to change an old habit or create a new one you will be met with resistance.

The resistance often shows up in the form of a trigger.

There’s 4 types of triggers that you want to be aware of:

Location
Time
Emotional state
People

The action that follows is another thing to take into consideration!

These triggers can all impact you one by one but often show up together.

Here’s an example of how almost all these triggers could play out at once in a social setting:

“Going out for brunch (time) to your favorite spot  (location) with friends (people) can be really enjoyable (emotional state).  It can also be a disaster for your health and fitness goals.

I’m not saying skip brunch, that’s not very sustainable long term.  We need to learn to make decisions in social settings that are in line with the improvements we want to see in our health and fitness.

If we are able to stay congruent with our nutrition strategies of using your hands, and building meals around the 5 pillars there is no negative to enjoying a brunch.

However, if it leads to smashing mimosas and chicken and waffles (my favorite) we may want to take a deeper look at why the behavior came about.

Look at each factor that plays into a trigger.

The weekends can be sketchy and this situation may not play out exactly in your life but I bet you can see some similarities in how those triggers may show up in your life.

In this case here’s a few strategies that could really have value for you:

1. Eat a good breakfast around the 5 pillars and make sure you drink water.  Being more satiated before brunch can prevent going over board.

2. Communicate with your company that you are going to try a different approach to brunch but you’re cool if they do as they do.

3. Consider a different brunch location that may have healthier options or make a decision on what your brunch will consist of ahead of time

4. Make vow:  we will often do more for others than we will ever do for ourselves.  A vow for others looks like this “I will stick with my nutrition plan because it will allow me to have optimal energy over the weekend to connect and support my family as well as getting all the things done that must get done to set me up for a good week.  Sheesh, that’s a long run on sentence.

5. Choose your company wisely and set boundaries with “guilt trippers”. We all have those friends and family members who like to “give us crap” about things we choose to do for ourselves.  It’s so common that I could write a whole post on this topic and how to handle it.  Remember those  criticisms are less about you and more about how it makes them feel.  Be empathetic of that but set boundaries.  That may look like this “I understand when I change how I do things for my health it challenges how we usually do things.  It’s really important to me that I focus on changing “xyz” and I would really appreciate your support”

Learning how to deal with your triggers is required for long term habit change.

We must be able to see our patterns and work to create new ques and routines.

Hope this was helpful and if you have any questions about how to solidify your habits please ask.

I got your back!

Stay Strong,

Andy McCloy