Are You Making The Biggest Food Habit Mistake?

One Food Habit At A Time

The “one-habit-at-a-time” thing is pretty central to all habits-based coaching.  We know that with one habit at a time, we have the highest chance of success.

If you work on two habits at once, our chances of success drop by a third…  And then if we go to three habits at once, it’s not if we’ll fail, it’s when.

Habit Stacking?

Habit stacking is what I call it when we work on one habit, and then we add as second habit and work on two habits.  Then add a third habit and work on those three habits.  Ect.

Essentially, the one new habit is the focus point.  In theory the other habits feel easy, or even automatic, by the time you add the next habit.

Some people can stack habits, other can’t. Basically, the longer someone has been doing a habits-based approach to fat loss, the more effective they’ll be stacking habits. So I let people self-select.

Focus on One, Revisit Others Later

From a success standpoint, people are most effective *focusing* on one habit at a time.

The previous habits, some will stick and some don’t. Which is why after every 4rth or 5th habit or so, you should recycle the whole series and do them again, taking them up a level.

This frees you up to totally focus on one habit at a time.  Each time you go through the cycle, you up your game on each habit as you move through.

When I do the Reinvention Coaching Group, every fourth or fifth habit we re-visit whichever habit we have the hardest time with, and bring that one up.

Habit Strategies and Metahabits

Most of the Fat Loss Happens on Monday habits are in a habit “strategy”, which actually makes stacking easier. We can focus on one habit in that habit family, and regardless of which one it is, it strengthens the umbrella habit of that habit family.

Journaling, planning, and cooking, are all in the the planning and preparing strategy. Protein, whole foods, adjusting macros for fullness are all secondary habits in the planning and preparing strategy.

So even though those are six different habits, they’re kind of all working on the same thing.  And that’s why we can work on one habit at a time, as a focus point, and they’re all feeding the “meta-habit” of that strategy.

Similarly, there’s a mindfulness strategy, made up of a bunch of interrelated habits.  There’s a fullness strategy made up of interrelated habits.  I also the use core habits  from Georgie Fear’s book Lean Habits as a “hunger mastery strategy.”

Each habit then, is really just a different focus point for that one big meta-habit.

So Don’t Stack Habits?

This is still a hotly debated topic among habit coaches=)

One of my favorite things is how we try to have people focus on one thing, but since it actually builds on the last thing, they reinforce each other.

In that way, with the Fat Loss Happens on Monday habits, you really don’t ever have to stack.

1. You repeat the cycle of habits often
2. Each habit is part of a bigger meta-habit that you’re working on continuously