The Wellness Connection with Fiona Kane

Episode 101 A New Perspective on Building Lifelong Healthy Habits

• Fiona Kane • Season 1 • Episode 101

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In this episode, I discuss new research that shows that forming healthy habits takes significantly longer than the popular belief of 21 days. By exploring the science of habit formation and the importance of neural pathways, we provide listeners with practical strategies to build and maintain healthy habits to help you achieve your goals. 

This episode includes:
• Discussion of the 21-day myth and research findings 
• Insights into how neural pathways are established 
• Overview of the four stages of habit formation

Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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The Beat of Nature

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Fiona Kane:

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast. I'm your host, Fiona Kane. Today I'm actually going to be talking about healthy habits, and I'm talking about how long it takes to establish healthy habits and also a little bit about what's involved in changing the pathways in the brain to create the healthy habits. So a little bit of all of that. So today in the news, so I'm just excuse me for anyone who's watching. I'm sort of reading for the moment.

Fiona Kane:

So I'm looking in Science Daily and this is published on the 24th of January and it's a study from the University of South Australia and they are saying the myth busted healthy habits take longer than 21 days to set in. So what they're saying here is that researchers found that habits can begin forming in about two months. So they say 59 to 66 days, but can take up to 335 days to establish. So that's most of a year, right? That's like what's that? 11 months. So it's good to understand that healthy habits are something that we need to sort of just work on for a long time, rather than think that there's something wrong with us because the 21-day magic time or whatever hasn't been enough to set it in, which is why it's really important to set yourself up for success with habits and things in the first place, because it takes a while. So we really need to support ourselves to achieve these results. So what they're saying here is I'm just having another sort of look so they're saying that, yeah, so this is obviously a really important in regards to health interventions and understanding how long it takes to change something, especially in regards to lifestyle factors that can be involved with chronic disease, that we've got to understand. That takes time and you know, yeah, it says that adopting healthy habits is essential for long-term well-being. But forming these habits and breaking unhealthy ones can be challenging, of course, and the issue is that we do that kind of it should be you know, new year, new you, whatever and it's by the time this episode comes out, it'll be late in February and that'll be long gone for most people. But one of the issues is because we expect it to happen so fast and we have such high expectations of ourselves and understand that anything you do takes time and it's important to understand this.

Fiona Kane:

So there's a few different ways of explaining the neural pathways and how this works, but I think it's useful to explain it. I'm going to explain it in the way that I have always explained it, but I'm also going to. I've seen another explanation of this that I think is quite good, so I'm going to use that one as well, because sometimes one way of explaining it doesn't make sense but another way does. So, the way I've always explained neural pathways. So neural pathways in your brain are basically how your brain makes new pathways so it can do a new thing, right? And the example I've always used and I've used previously on this podcast is if you think about when a baby is born, so, like when a baby giraffe is born, they pretty much almost land on their feet and they're walking within moments, right.

Fiona Kane:

But when a human baby is born, that is not the case because we do not have a big enough pelvic opening to fit a head through the size that it would need to be to have all those neural pathways set, so they're not set yet. So when a baby is born, there's the potential to walk, but it can't walk yet. And all of the things that you see a baby do right from, uh, from when it first learns, you know, because at first you've got to hold its head, so because it can't hold its neck up, right. So the first few weeks it's strengthening up the neck, neck muscles so it can hold its head up. But then what you see, bit by bit, you see it do like they do tummy time, where they sit, lay on their tummy and lift their head up, and then they eventually get to the point where they can roll and shuffle or whatever. And then they get onto their hands and knees and they crawl and then they start standing up and standing up and falling down, and standing up and falling down, 60,000, bazillion times. And then they take that first step, that first very unsteady step, and then fall over a lot and keep trying to walk and do that over and over again.

Fiona Kane:

And what essentially that is doing is that is actually creating neural pathways. So it's literally your body laying down neural pathways, laying down neurons right in the brain and in the whole neurological system for this to happen. So we do have to create neurological pathways, new pathways for new things to happen. So our body does it. Watching children grow up shows you how that works learning how to talk, learning how to walk, all of those things. And the same goes for you know, if you're learning how to sing or if you're practicing a sport or something like that. We have to do it. How many thousands of times do you have to do something to get good at it? You know, famous singers, you know, don't just the very first time they sing, you know, have it all together and sound amazing and know how to perform and do all the things. That takes practice, right.

Fiona Kane:

So we have to understand that new habits require new neural pathways to be created and pathways to sort of what we would normally do. So let's just say that your normal response to feeling stressed or celebrating is to open up a champagne or to have a cigarette or to have a chocolate or whatever you do, and that's kind of standard things. So it's what you do every time you're bored or every time you're hungry or every time you're in emotional pain or whatever. The reason is that you're growing for the food. If your normal sort of pathway is to go through the drive-thru or go to the fridge and get out a certain thing, that's kind of the standard inbuilt thing. It's just a habit, right? You're just so used to doing it. We do it unconsciously. So what we need to do is we need to make the new habit a.

Fiona Kane:

We need to make the new habit, something that we can do unconsciously as well, but at first it has to be quite conscious and, um, and another way of explaining those neural pathways is you know, it's like a road, and the road to the new habit is got sort of. You know, it's a bit confusing. You don't, can't see the signage. Maybe there's some potholes, maybe there's not. You know, maybe it's a dirt road, okay, whereas the road to the drive-through or the chocolate or whatever your normal habit is, it's really fast, you can go there really quickly, you can just get there straight away.

Fiona Kane:

So this can also be in our response to. It could be an example of, like how we respond to stress or how we act or whatever. We've got all of these kind of standard ways of behaving and standard habits and standard ways of being, and a lot of those are just like pure habit and that's the neural pathway to that response or that behavior is so fast and and so well worn, and we've done it so many million times that like it's completely unconscious, and so you've got this great sort of super highway that's really fast to get to. You could even say it's like your broadband or whatever. Um, and then the, the one that we want to create the habit we want to create. It's the dirt road or it's the really poor uh, I don't know what's internet type connection thing, whatever you call it right, but you get what I'm saying, uh.

Fiona Kane:

So so we need to create really strong new neural pathways and you do that by repetition, the same as you do if you're learning to sing, learning to play basketball, whatever it is. You do it over and over and over again until you get better at it. Now, another explanation that I've seen to explain this, because it's just really good to understand find a way for you that you can understand, that you can really relate to that you can about the story that you tell yourself about what you're doing and why you're doing it. So two things. So, first of all, I should just wanted to you know when I was talking about that being sort of unconscious, uh, and that's what happens when we are making a change and we want to make the change to be more, um, we want the new habit to be unconscious, right? So there's kind of. You know the four steps to to that which you would have heard. You know a lot of um, motivational speakers or coaches and stuff might use this language and it's, but it's true, this is what it is.

Fiona Kane:

So what we want to do is we want to go from deliberate to or you know to, automatic. So at the beginning it's deliberate and over time it will become more automatic. So, essentially, we start in the beginning. You're unconsciously incompetent, you just don't know what you don't know right. And then you're consciously incompetent, where you know what you want to do, but you have to be really conscious about it. So now you know, now you've got to choose. Do you care about the thing and are you going to do the thing right? So you've learned this new thing and you've got to choose to do it. So that's your new habit, that you decide that. That's the point where you decide you want to keep doing this thing because you've discovered that eating protein regularly or exercising or whatever it is, is really supportive of your health. So then what you want to do is you want to become consciously competent. So you practice until it's a thing right. You keep practicing until I can do this, I can do this. So you become consciously competent. But then what you want to do is become unconsciously competent, which is you're now a natural right.

Fiona Kane:

So the person who, before they bowl the cricket or whatever, what they do is they just put everything out of their mind because it's unconscious. Now, right, so they've had to work hard to get there, or they've had to work just diligently, just day after day after day, until it becomes natural. So that's what it is like when we're changing our habits. When we're changing our habits, we actually have to be willing to just do it every day. Let's do it every day, just do it. Let's do it.

Fiona Kane:

In the beginning you've got to be very conscious about it. You've got to be very conscious and say, all right, I have to make sure, if I want to go for a walk every morning, all right, what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave my shoes, your trackies or whatever you go for a walk in hat and keys or whatever you need to get out of the house and go and do that walk. And for me, it's like I like to put my little earbuds in because I like to listen to a podcast, not so loud that I can't hear traffic or whatever, but I do like a podcast or something when I'm walking because it takes my mind off the fact that I'm actually walking. But whatever you need, but you have to be really conscious about it and set it all up and have it in place. You might need to set your alarm, whatever it is that you need to do. I also even just check things about weather because I you know if it's going to be too hot. I definitely make sure I go really, really early when it's not hot yet, because I know that I am not going to go for a walk when it's 35 degrees. Yesterday here, it was 40 degrees for a walk when it's 35 degrees. Yesterday here it was 40 degrees, which is Celsius for those of you who aren't in Australia, so it was very warm. I am not walking in that, so I would have to go to the gym and walk there instead, but anyway, so I plan it right.

Fiona Kane:

So at the first, in the beginning, it's very, very conscious, but eventually you just do it. I'm out the door now before I've even sort of had time to think about do I want to? Am I going to whatever? I've already made that decision a long time ago. I'm just out there and, um, and that's what I do, and that's because I've done it so many times, right? Uh, and like another way of explaining the neural pathways. That I thought was sort of really cool when I heard it. Um is redirecting a river, so I was talking about the motorways versus the dirt road, but another way is river. So if you want to redirect a river, it takes a lot more effort in the beginning because you've got to. I don't know what you do to redirect a river, but I assume you've got to dig out a whole bunch of dirt and move it and whatever you need to do to encourage the current to go a different direction. But obviously with something like a river, there's a big current going down and it's used to going down a certain way and it's going down that way no matter what.

Fiona Kane:

And that's what we do in a way that we respond to things in life, like I said, whether it be food or whether it be our emotional response or whatever it is. So this isn't just about your habit of what you eat, but it could be the habit of how you respond to certain situations. That you know that if you always respond in anger to a certain situation or you always get upset with a certain situation, whatever it is, if you kind of know what it is that you do fairly regularly, like when you have that. You have a not not a very healthy way of responding to things in life. It's all of these things. It's basically it's changing habits.

Fiona Kane:

So you consciously choose to do something a different way. You go for the walk, or you choose to sort of count to 10 and breathe before you respond to something, or you choose to ask yourself one of the things I ask myself when I'm going to respond. I don't pretend to do this perfectly by any means. You could just ask my husband but one of the things I ask myself when I'm about to reply or say something it's a bit nasty or a bit snarky or a bit angry is is this going to help the situation or not, or is it just going to, kind of like, just relieve a bit of tension in me but then cause more trouble? You know things like that.

Fiona Kane:

So we may put in different things that we want to do that is going to change our life for the better, but we need to practice it and at first we have to do it very, very consciously and it really is a bit like changing the direction of a river and that you know the digging or whatever you need to do in the beginning to sort of change that flow. It's more work in the beginning and then less work and less work and less work until it becomes just what you do. And that is exactly anyone who's been successful at anything just watch the Olympics or whatever anyone who's been successful at anyone at anything just watch the olympics or whatever anyone who's been successful at anything that is what they've done. So there's no sort of it's not like a big secret of how do you do it. It's like, well, you know there might be secrets, just like technical strategies and things like that. Obviously coaches and nutritionists and all different people can tell you, but essentially it's actually the diligence of just doing it every day, consciously doing it. And in the beginning it's harder work and then it's less hard and then it just becomes what you do.

Fiona Kane:

And so much of success in life. When you listen to any podcasts or read any books about anyone who's had any success in their life whether it be a success money-wise and business-wise or career-wise, or whether it be in regards to sports and other sorts of achievements so much of it just comes down to their habits, right? So habits are kind of everything in regards to success. Well, they're not just kind of everything, they pretty much are everything. So just learning how to create new habits and not being.

Fiona Kane:

Don't get caught up in the oh, it says it should be 21 days. I haven't done it in 21 days. I'm useless, I'm hopeless or whatever. Just start again. Right, and that's the other thing too that I have talked about this before, but it's just worth as a little reminder is perfectionism will not help you. So if you choose to quit the new thing that you're doing the first time you stuff up the first time, you don't do it whatever it is, and so it's not good enough. I'm just going to have to start again and it's all going to be so hard and I'm off track and I've got to get back on track. If you do any of that stuff, it's not going to help you at all because all that does is just like getting in your head and it's going to stop you.

Fiona Kane:

Like I've said before, the whole perfectionism thing is really a get out of jail free card, because you're already giving yourself permission to give up before you began, right? So forget the whole perfection thing. Forget the on or off track thing. Forget the shame blame, whatever judgment about I should have could have, would have I stopped doing it and blah, blah, blah. Just do it. And if something's happened and got in the way and you haven't done it or you feel like you're stuffed up or whatever, just keep going. Just do it again. Just keep going. Decide you have about your next choice, just do it right.

Fiona Kane:

So just a reminder that success in anything in life, so much of it is about your habits. And get out of your head and just start taking action and just do it. And do it over and over and over and over, consciously, until it does become something that's for you, is unconscious. So you're unconsciously competent, you can do it, but you don't even have to think about it. You're a natural right. So everything in life it's sort of anything you want to achieve you do it by creating the habits that will help you get there and the habits to create new neural pathways. And when you're creating the pathways pathways it can feel clunky and hard and challenging and whatever, but eventually you've got that river flowing in the right direction or that superhighway or whichever language you like to use that helps you understand your neural pathways and you're becoming, or you become, you know, unconsciously competent, which is what you want to do anyway. Uh, it's just good to understand how our brain works, because we just get so caught up in hating on ourselves when things don't work out exactly how we think they should, or we think we should be this way or we think it should work that way, and hey, it just needs some time and some effort. But you can get there. Anyway, that's enough for today.

Fiona Kane:

Please, if you could like, subscribe, share and rate and review as well, it's really, really important. I've been getting a lot of great feedback about this podcast, so unfortunately, no one's actually doing it sort of on the review site. So if you can do it on Spotify or on iTunes or on YouTube and give me ratings and feedback and comments and things like that, please do that, because I want more people to hear about this, because I like to have conversations about real conversations, about things that matter, and I feel like I am doing that and I want to keep doing it. So the more people know about it, the easier it will be for me to keep doing it. So thank you so much. I hope you have a wonderful week and I will see you all again next week. Thanks, bye.

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