Australians are surrounded by information about their health and wellbeing. Every magazine, newspaper, Facebook feed and web browser is full of hints and tips about how to live longer, how to get healthy and how to stave off chronic illnesses.
We know that metabolic conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance are significant issues in older Australians. In 2020, 1.3 million Australians were living with diabetes and over 570, 000 Australians were living with coronary heart disease.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) recognises that many people who have one chronic condition, often suffer from multiple chronic conditions or comorbidities.
These comorbidities include arthritis, back pain, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung conditions, diabetes, kidney disease, mental health conditions and osteoporosis.
Read: Plagued by low back pain? This study is for you
All these conditions have been linked in some way to our lifestyle – high levels of stress, poor sleep, inactivity, poor diet, and excessive alcohol consumption to name a few.
A European study published in 2020 found a significant association between healthy lifestyle habits and the number of years people lived free of chronic illness. The most important were maintaining a healthy body mass index, not smoking, doing enough physical activity, and drinking only a moderate amount of alcohol.
We are frequently told to exercise more. Exercise helps with blood sugar regulation. It improves your sleep; it helps manage low back pain and it even improves your mental health.
We are told to drink enough water and eat lots of fruit and vegetables. But should you follow the 5:2, the Mediterranean diet, the keto lifestyle or become vegetarian?
There are often too many choices and no clear-cut answers. Better quality sleep is linked to enhanced mental health, improved blood sugar regulation, and even less pain. And yet, according to the Sleep Health Foundation, almost 40 per cent of Australians are estimated to experience inadequate sleep.
We all know how important it is for your health and your happiness to eat well, move more, sleep enough, drink a little less alcohol, and manage stress.
So why is it so hard to make the changes that matter?
This is where a little bit of knowledge about habits and behaviour change might be helpful. BJ Fogg from Stanford University has been researching habits and behaviour for most of his career. He believes three things are essential for you to build new habits:
- motivation
- prompting
- ability.
Motivation is what helps you to do things that are difficult to do. It is the reason behind the way we act and behave. If the change we want to make is difficult or time consuming, we will need more motivation and if the change is easy or familiar, we may need less motivation.
Motivation, however, waxes and wanes. Some days you will have high levels of motivation and some days you will have low levels of motivation. When the sun is shining and you have slept well, it is much easier to be motivated to go for a walk around the block than when there are puddles on the ground and the rain is pouring down.
Motivation to eat well might be higher after you have had a health scare, or you are about to go on a summer holiday. You may be less motivated to go to bed on time when you are binge watching something on TV or you have a lot on your mind.
Pain is a great motivator. Many people remember to do their exercises when their pain is bothering them, and they forget to do them once their pain starts to get better.
Knowledge can also be a very strong motivator. Professor Luigi Fontana from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney says most people will be able to start changing their health behaviour if they understand why it is important and what they can do.
Ask your GP for information about healthy habits, read a well-researched book if you have time or speak with family and friends whom you think might have the knowledge to share.
Prompting is also known as a trigger. It is something that tells you, or reminds you, that now is the time to use the desired behaviour.
A growling stomach is a trigger that tells you to eat something. The sound of the postman’s bike tells you to go and check the letter box. A red light on your computer or iPad tells you to plug it in for a recharge.
When it comes to changing your habits, you may need to create your triggers. Setting an alarm to remind you to go for a walk or to practice your meditation is a helpful trigger. A post-it-note on your computer monitor can be a great way to remember to get up and move around during the day. An app on your phone that reminds you to go to bed is also useful.
The trigger needs to be well-timed. An alarm that goes off at 7pm won’t help you go to bed if you are not yet sleepy or if you still have lots of things on your to-do list. A phone call from a friend reminding you to go to the gym won’t help if it is made the day before or if you’re entrenched in other tasks. A well-timed trigger or prompt is often key to getting you started with new habits.
And the final piece of the puzzle is ability. This means you need to feel that you have the skill or the capability to perform the new behaviour.
Motivation and ability balance each other out. This means you need lots of motivation to perform a task or skill that you are not confident you can do and less motivation to perform something you are confident you can do.
Start with something small that you know you can do. Add one extra fresh vegetable to your dinner plate rather than forcing down a meal you don’t like. Meditate for five minutes rather than baulking at trying to find 20 minutes to sit quietly. Go for a five-minute walk rather than heading to the gym for an hour-long session on the treadmill. Starting small and building up builds your confidence and your ability. So, you need less motivation.
James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits, recommends you become the sort of person who does the behaviour you are trying to create.
Become the sort of person who eats more fruit and vegetables, the sort of person who exercises daily or the sort of person who mediates. If you start with small, achievable goals, soon you will become the sort of person who walks every day. It is a small step towards becoming the sort of person who walks for 10 minutes every day, and then 15 minutes every day until you have reached your goal.
You need to set yourself up for success. Preparing your clothes and gym bag the night before might make it harder to skip tomorrow’s gym session. Have healthy snacks prepared at the beginning of the week and put ‘temptations’ to the back of the cupboard.
It is much easier to snack on a carrot stick if it is already chopped up in the fridge than having to peel it and chop it up when you are already hungry. This is especially true if a packet of delicious biscuits lies open on the bench top beside the fridge.
Tee up a friend or partner to go for a walk with you each day, so you are less likely to disappoint them by not showing up. Stock your fridge up with non-alcoholic options, moving the wine and beer to a more inconvenient place.
Healthy habits may seem daunting, but they don’t have to be. Start by arming yourself with knowledge and reasons for making change. Make the task easy and achievable by starting small and building up.
Lastly, create some triggers such as an alarm, a reminder app, a post-it-note or a friend to give you a nudge in the right direction. Setting yourself up for success is also an important part of changing habits. Before you know it, you will be making tiny steps towards being healthier and happier.
If you want to read more about habits, BJ Fogg has many books and can be found at bjfogg.com and James Clear also has many books and resources that can be found at jamesclear.com. You can find more of Prof. Fontana’s work on healthy longevity at the University of Sydney or his YouTube channel.
Health and wellness coaches are trained in principles of behaviour change and can help support you and motivate you to create personal health habits and achieve your health goals. You can find many public and private health coaches online.
If you have chronic low back pain, you might also be interested in visiting the Get Back to Healthy website and volunteering for a research program that is aimed at supporting people with low back pain to follow the advice they have been given by their treating health professionals.
What habits would you like to change? How do you stay healthy? Why not share your tips in the comments section below?
