Changing Habits - The Importance of a Support Network

For the last couple of months I've been helping 2 friends with their nutrition. This has involved looking at their lifestyle, habits, work day, stressors, living situation, activity, food timings and social situations. Yes these are all relevant when trying to improve health habits! One of the things that has been really helpful to their progress is our group chat - we set this up for them to check in, share experiences, recipes, discuss goals and things that are going well or not so well, encourage each other and come up with solutions to any problems. It can be invaluable to have a support network when you're trying to change your habits - feeling like you are accountable to someone and are not alone can really help with a sense of community and being part of something. I love this extract because it highlights why this works so well >>

We recently figured out that when Kate runs on an empty stomach it really ramps up her appetite and leaves her grazing all day and forever chasing sugar. Here she was in a rush and ran on empty which meant she was starving by the time she got to her friends and although she had the salad at the ready it made it hard for her to say no to the chocolate in the afternoon. She recognised what went wrong and now knows the importance of properly fuelling her runs and can try to avoid a similar situation in the future. It really doesn't matter if you have a day where things are a little off - that's why I actually took her message as a good thing because she was honest, knows where she went wrong, has learnt from it and picked herself up faster than she would have previously. I love that it actually made her really determined to make the next day better too!

If you are looking to change your eating or activity habits for the better make sure you have a support network in place - maybe your partner or a friend or group of friends that have similar goals or interests who you can check in with, share recipes, pick each other up when it's not going so well, congratulate when it is and share ideas and techniques that have worked for you. Tell people why this is important to you and turn down food that you genuinely don't want or that is not in line with your goals and say as such - be honest! We seem to think turning down food is rude but I bet 99% of your good friends would be supportive if they understood your reasons for turning down a slice of cake and would probably rather that than you eating something out of obligation and feeling dreadful for it. I know I would feel guilty if I pushed food onto someone and left them feeling uncomfortable and disappointed with their perceived failure.

Be honest with yourself and your group and try journaling your food and activity to spot any habits that aren't best serving you - like Kate with her running. Finally, don’t rely on google for the best way to do something - be your own experiment because what works for one person may not work for you! 😎