Creating a System for your goals #55
The Habit Tracker
Hello lovely people,
It’s the last Sunday of January. A month has already flown by in 2024. Time passes so quickly these days.
This is the last post as part of my Behaviour Change series. Next week we will get back to PCOS topics and discuss Ozempic and weight loss injections.
Let’s quickly recap the most important things we learned;
The secret to achieving your health goals is identifying which habits are not serving the person you want to be
True behaviour change it’s an identity change - who do you want to be?
The key to achieving your goals is NOT in what you wish to achieve, but in what pain you are willing to go through
Setting goals around doing specific habits will get you to your goals
Your Chimp (emotional brain) will try to hijack your efforts, so learning to manage it is essential
And lastly:
Creating a system that allows you to track how you are doing and reflect on what you are learning is the last step of this behaviour change world tour
When I worked in type 2 diabetes management, I had the pleasure of working with a talented behaviour change specialist who introduced me to the BCT Taxonomy. This is a list of 92 behaviour change techniques that can be used to design behaviour change interventions.
One of the most powerful ones is Feedback on behaviour.
In order for us to deem a behaviour worthwhile, we need to see evidence that is working. This is why we step on a scale after eating healthy for one week. The more it works, the more our Computer stores it as a great way of achieving something.
Anyway, you get the point - you need a system to keep track of your habits and reflect on your learnings.
This is mine:
Every Sunday at 7:30 pm - triggered by finishing my dinner, I sit down on the couch with my Habit Tracker
I look through my past week and tick off if I did what I planned. If not, I write down why not and what I am learning from it
I then reflect on my overall week - how do I feel, where in my cycle am I, and how was the week?
I then plan my next week
Rinse and repeat every Sunday
I attempted to do this daily but couldn’t fit it in. I find reflecting weekly much more enjoyable.
Habit Trackers
You can buy one of the many habit trackers on the market, make your own, or you can use my free template available here:
https://sweltering-newt-021.notion.site/Weekly-Reflection-and-Habit-Tracker-cae7cf5bf427452eb1e30ff9eae7611e
Conclusions
I wish you good luck with your goals in 2024. I hope you get to look back in December 2024 and be proud of yourself. I know having PCOS puts another layer of pressure on eating the perfect diet and exercising. Please be kind and compassionate to yourself. This is a marathon, not a sprint. You will fall back into old habits, which is totally natural. The key is getting back to your plan and adding evidence to your new identity.
See you next Sunday with a more PCOS-focused newsletter.
Francesca