Two Powerful Tips for Sticking with Healthy Habits Guide

As you move through Calibrate, the task at hand is to maintain the habits that have gotten you this far. But what about when life throws curveballs. In this short, two-part guide, we’ll delve into some tools for preparation and response.

Part 1: Getting up after falls with experiential resilience

It can be scary to think about having slips. But here’s the thing: you can recover from any of those falls. None of them have the power to derail you. In fact, you’ll be building your resilience. That’s because each of those tumbles will become a personal data point, which you can reference the next time you feel afraid that you won’t be able to get through a hard experience.

To see how this principle—called experiential resilience—works in practice, try this: look back and think about where you were at the beginning of Calibrate versus where you are today. Think in terms of what you can now do that you couldn’t do then. If you had told yourself a year ago that you could do those things, would you have believed it? From there, you can project that progress into your future with confidence; you know you’ve risen to the challenge before.

Part 2: Keeping a preparation mindset

Let’s say you’re cruising along, hitting all your tracking goals, and making health-supporting choices. Then something happens. It might be a fight with a spouse, a loss at work, or family drama. This is not a surprise. It will occur. And it’s understandable if you start to lose momentum.

When this happens, creating an articulated protocol for how to respond in tough moments is the best way to set yourself up for success. When structuring your plan, consider how to incorporate routines and people that you can rely on to help you switch into a damage-control autopilot mode for challenging days. Here are some examples of these that you can implement both in the moment and over time.

Long-range

• Get listy: Make a list of emotional health go-tos that you can reference during challenging times and keep it in your wallet.
• Look for lifelines: Identify the people and routines that serve as fail-safes in your life.
• Find a friend: A “joy accountability buddy” and make a standing plan with them
• Keep it regular: Set yourself up with foundational tasks (morning and bedtime routine; grocery shopping) and put them in your calendar. 
• Get back: Look into your past; was there a time you stumbled and recovered? Use it!

In the moment

• Move forward: Jolt yourself out of anxiety or cravings by doing something else: a pushup, a shower, or drinking a glass of water. 
• Assess: Take a step back, look at the action, and ask if you want to feel the consequences.
• Check in: Ask yourself what you are really looking for to satisfy that need otherwise.