The Recovery Power of Micro Habits

Have you ever white-knuckled your way towards achieving a goal? You reach your goal. You are happy — even ecstatic — for a while. But eventually something starts to happen. You revert to your old ways of thinking, feeling, doing, and then suddenly your achieved goal slips through your fingers as your grip loosens (one can only hold so tight for so long).Yet again, your goal starts to feel like a moving target you just cannot hit. In the end, you tell yourself that next time you just need to try harder and be more disciplined. 

Maybe you are familiar with all-or-nothing thinking like: “I am going big or going home,” “I will do whatever it takes no matter the cost,” or “I can give that up, at least for a while.” 

Many of the people I have worked with have experienced this as they try to make changes in their health. Some even experience this as they ride what I call the “weight loss roller coaster merry-go-round.”   

And then I introduce them to habit work. Micro habit work. This work becomes an exit strategy for those wanting to get off the “weight loss roller coaster merry-go-round.” It takes patience, a willingness and openness to thinking in a new way, self-reflection, and practice. Micro habit work offers a much more doable, manageable, and sustainable approach to change versus the white-knuckle approach to change. 

In this article I am going to introduce you to what a micro habit is, and how micro habits can become a part of your recovery work from disordered eating, long term dieting, or an eating disorder. 

What is a micro habit? 

A micro habit, in very simple terms, is something that can be done in five minutes or less, and something that can be done every day. For some perfectionists and all-or-nothing thinkers (of which I continue in recovery for), this can be quite a blow to the ego. Doing something small does not feel significant compared to doing something radical and impressive, and most people don’t applaud you for these endeavors. 

A great example of a micro habit that contributes to one’s health is teeth brushing. Typically, this takes about two minutes and most people do this at least once per day. The reward, for most, is good oral health, a fresh feeling mouth (and breath), and a decreased risk for cavities. That is a pretty good reward for something that you devote less than five minutes of your day to.   

Another micro habit would be, before turning off the light at night to go to bed, journaling for two-five minutes –writing a highlight, a lowlight, and something you are grateful for from that day.    

Often when people think of habits, they tend to think of it taking 30 or 40 days to build a habit, rewire the brain, and establish a new routine. And while research provides varying information on exactly how many days it takes to create a new habit, thinking about the number of days you must endure something before it starts to become easy is often a set up for failure and not success.

In micro habit work, we flip the paradigm of thinking by starting small (five minutes or less every day, or nearly every day) with what is easy, what is possible, and what you want to do. That feels a lot different than enduring something for 30 or 40 days in hopes that it will become easier. A common and very all-or-nothing thought pattern that also comes with that type of thinking is, “If it isn’t easier in 30 or 40 days, I am going to quit!” There is no room for pivoting or adjusting. In micro habit work, we pivot and adjust based off the information you gather about yourself along the way. This approach gives you the opportunity to learn more about yourself and simultaneously holds you accountable to working with yourself instead of against yourself. It is like learning how to intuitively eat versus following a diet.  

How can micro habits become a part of your recovery work? 

1.) They help you get unstuck when you feel stuck, and they birth hope.  

Maybe you currently feel stuck on your journey. Perhaps you have lost hope that you can change or recover more. Keep reading, my friend!   

Years ago, I learned a technique from Tammy Beasley, a registered dietitian and pioneer in the eating disorder world. She shared a story in helping a client with an eating disorder who felt very stuck. Tammy explained how she worked with this person to make what is called a “lateral shift.” The client thought they were incapable of changing their behaviors. They had tried, and tried, and tried and started to lose hope of ever being able to change or to recover.   

The lateral shift that Tammy presented was asking if the client could park in a different spot to stop and eat the ordered food after going through the drive- thru. The client typically repeated the same routine, even parking in the exact same spot. The client was having a hard time breaking the cycle of unhelpful behaviors. They were willing to try this one small change. They were able to park in a different spot. While on the outside this may seem very insignificant, to the client it was huge! This person experienced that they were capable of change and were not completely stuck. This small but meaningful experience sparked a new sense of hope, motivating them to keep going in their recovery.  

Micro habits are like lateral shifts; they are small things that help get you moving and unstuck when you feel stuck. If you are reading this article and are thinking of an unhelpful behavior that you are currently struggling to get out of, know that you are not alone in the struggle. There is hope for you too! 

2.) They cultivate inner confidence and trust with yourself, showing you that change is possible and even sustainable.  

When change occurs in one area of your life, it unlocks the potential for change in other areas. Just as when dysfunction seems to be present in one area of your life, it usually overflows into other areas. Eating disorders are one such dysfunction. 

Cultivating micro habits help you build trust with yourself because these habits are small, possible, and therefore easy to repeat.This sets you up to succeed right from the beginning. Each time you do the micro habit, it is like putting a deposit into your “self-trust” account. The more you do it, the more trust in yourself you have. Through repetition inner confidence is built.   

Perhaps part of the recovery work you want to do is learning how to tune in with yourself: physical sensations (including hunger and fullness), thoughts, and feelings. Say you cultivated a habit of checking in with yourself before one meal a day by writing down three physical sensations you are feeling, two thoughts you are aware of, and one primary emotion you are feeling. You set a timer for five minutes to do this so that there is a well-established time boundary in place.  

Chances of you continuing to do this or doing it and then making a pivot (but not quitting) are very high. You can do this every day because it is simple (though not easy), and you feel proud of yourself and uplifted. You gain confidence and trust in yourself that you can and will do this (as it is only five minutes of your day). A positive reinforcement loop is created: do the behavior and feel competent, capable, and proud. A little dopamine is released, and the behavior is reinforced. As you do this each day, you are building trust with yourself and you notice that change is possible, and even sustainable. You think, “I can do this, and I can keep doing this!” 

Now imagine if you were to start off doing this for three meals a day, every day. You start out and maybe you can do it because you have some initial motivation, but then life happens, and you are not able to consistently do this for each meal each day. Every time you are not able to do the habit, you get down on yourself and lose motivation. You do not feel competent, capable, or proud of yourself. Thus, no dopamine is released, and the behavior is not reinforced. Each time you tell yourself you will do the habit but then you don’t do it, you are experientially breaking trust with yourself. You eventually think to yourself, “What the heck, I might as well just quit.” 

The first example is a light load, the second is a heavy load. Part of habit work is cultivating a habit muscle.  This is done in small and steady doses.  Think of an athlete building endurance over time to run farther, lift heavier, jump higher. Done right, athletes start small and then build upon their training. 

3.) They provide a paradigm shift and a new framework to draw from, challenging you to change the way you think.     

As humans our thinking, feeling, and behaviors are interconnected. This is the basic premise of the widely and effectively used cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)¹. When you think differently, you can do differently.  

Micro habit work gives the framework that over time, small things add up. Most people do not have lasting change, because the changes they make are too big and too drastic.   

Think of a triangle. It is small on the top and gets larger on the bottom. Over time, if you keep doing something small, and add other small things, it will add up to big changes. Now envision that triangle turned upside down, being big on the top, and small on the bottom. Most people approach change this way. They start out with something big, and the result ends up being small, because what they do is often not sustainable.   

4.) You can start implementing a new micro habit today!   

Think of an area of your life or your recovery where you would like to implement change. Reframing change as heading in the right direction versus getting to the destination will help you sustain the new habit. With one degree of change your destination is totally different. Focusing on a habit versus the outcome enables you to live out helpful recovery principles such as “little bits of better,” and “progress, not perfection.”   

Now it’s time to brainstorm. Set a timer for five minutes and write out a list of things that you could do to start heading in the direction of the desired change. Don’t over think or judge your ideas, just start writing down whatever comes to your mind. After your time is up, look through your list and see if what you wrote down meets the following criteria: 

• Can you do this in five minutes or less? 

• Can you do this every day? 

• Does it require anyone else for you to do this?  (If so, scratch it off your list. This must be done by you alone.)   

• Are you capable of doing this? 

• Will this help you head in the direction you want to go in? 

 If you find that after going through the criteria you don’t have options left on your list, re-read the criteria and take another five minutes to create a new brainstorm list. Next, from your brainstorm list, circle 5-10 ideas that you would want to do. Finally, select one circled thing that you most want to do (not need to do). This is what you will start with.   

To implement this new micro habit, attach it to an already-existing habit you have. Looking back to the example of doing a self-check-in by journaling, the habit was tied to the already-existing habit of eating a meal.  

Now that you have a micro habit to work with, see if you can be consistent with it each day. As you experiment with this, notice what thoughts and feelings come up. What information about yourself are you gathering by trying this out? Choosing curiosity instead of judgment will greatly impact your ability to learn about yourself in the process. Use the information that you gather to make necessary pivots.   

In summary, the recovery power of micro habits helps you create momentum when feeling stuck, births hope when feeling hopeless, cultivates inner trust and confidence that change is possible and that change can be sustainable, and challenges you to think in a new way. When you can do the small and the possible, recovery happens!   

 

Resources 

[1]- https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral

 

Joyce Oliveira is a Registered Dietitian with a passion for empowering those with disordered eating, long term dieting, and eating disorders to rebuild trust with their bodies, nourish and nurture their authentic self, and create balanced relationships with food, body, and movement that promote peace and well-being.   

She provides nutrition therapy and habit coaching both virtually and in person and can be found at www.empoweryounutrition.com for more information. 

 

Images: From Unsplash and Pexels

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