New Year, New Habit Loop: How to turn your new year resolutions into lifetime habits

The new year has well and truly arrived, and with that comes new gym memberships and  a spike in health foods sales. When we think of resolutions, we think about exercising more, eating healthier, and overall being “healthy”. But often, we give ourselves these big goals (shoot for the stars and land on the mood, right?), and we don’t create smaller stepping stones to reach it. This year, however, I’ve decided to work on the small to make way for the big by focusing on hormone and period health. Taking The Fix’s supplements continuously can give future-you a cramp-free, bloat-free and breakout-free clean slate to focus on your bigger goals. But, if you’re anything like me, you probably work actively on your goals for about 2 weeks before forgetting about them. But that’s where the habit loop comes in, a four step routine to help turn resolutions into habits. 

Creating a Cue

The hardest part of creating a habit is actually starting it. If you don’t set yourself physical reminders, the chances of you remembering to actually do your habit is close to zero. Let’s be real, if your goal is to continuously take your XBreakout supplements, but you have the bottle hidden away in a cabinet, you probably won’t remember to take them! So to achieve your goal, try having your supplement bottle somewhere visible around where you will be when it’s time to take it. The Fix’s XBreakout and XAll supplements require you to take them with or immediately after a meal, so keep them in the kitchen next to your milk or if you never have breakfast at home, have your supplements waiting for you on your desk at work. Physically seeing the supplements at the time you’re supposed to have them will help you remember to actually action this habit!

Make it a Craving

The second part of making a habit stick is making it attractive, you want to benefit from it in some way. For instance, if your period tracker says that your period is starting in 7 days, you may want to start taking your XCramp supplements to get ahead of the pain. Your craving in this instance is the fact you don’t want to go through the crippling pain you get with your period, and you know there is a way to reduce the cramps, making you want to take the supplements. Use your period tracker as a reminder to what taking these supplements can help you overcome! 

Your Response/Action

For every craving there is a response, aka the action of actually taking the supplement. Whether you’re taking a daily supplement like XAll or XBreakout, or only taking supplements starting a few days before your period such as XCramp or XMood, your action is what you need to prioritise in this habit loop. You can have a cue and a craving, but if you push away the action by thinking “I’ll take the supplements tonight”, chances are tonight will roll around and you’ll forget. Act on your response as soon as you get the craving to prevent forgetting and to just get the action out of the way.

Reward yourself

The reason why some habits stick and others don’t, is because you feel like there’s an instant reward that comes from it. It’s often harder to stick to a big goal like working out regularly or eating healthier, because we don’t see instant results. It’s important to reward yourself when you are achieving goals, not only to let your subconscious mind associate this as a good behaviour that makes you happy, but also to remind yourself that you are on the right track. For instance, if you take The Fix supplements everyday for a week, you can reward yourself with a treat you wouldn’t normally get or you only get on days that you need a pick-me-up. Personally, I am a big believer in treating yourself even on your good days, but this will also help your subconscious understand that this habit results in good rewards, even if the supplements often take a few weeks to be able to see actual results! Once this habit gets easier to action, space out your time between rewards until you eventually do it without needing a reward.

Once you have mastered this habit loop, you’ll notice how second nature taking your supplements has become. Before you know it, you’re still half asleep and reaching for that XBloat bottle! Focusing on creating healthy habits to benefit your hormones and period health will free up your time, energy and happiness to help you achieve those bigger goals you may have. You’ve got this!