Embarking on a health and fitness journey is a transformative experience that goes beyond just workouts and diets (In which I’m not a big believer in diets to begin with). In the pursuit of a vibrant and fulfilling life, fostering a healthy habit is paramount. We all have habits. Whether it is a good habit or a bad habit, each day we subconsciously go about doing either one or the other. I hope this guide serves as your compass, navigating the terrain of positive habits essential for achieving and maintaining optimal health and wellness.
What is a habit?
Habits are routine behaviors regularly repeated, often unconsciously. They can be both positive and negative. Forming good habits can contribute to personal growth and well-being, while breaking bad habits can lead to positive lifestyle changes. The formation of habits involves a neurological process in the brain, creating a loop of cue, craving, response, and reward that reinforces the behavior over time.
Cue and Craving is your problem phase.
Response and Reward is your solution phase.
Eg. Cue: You wake up.
Craving: You want to feel alert.
Response: You drink that cup of coffee.
Reward: You satisfy your craving to feel alert. Drinking coffee becomes associated with waking up.

Why Small Habits Make a Big Difference
All big things come from small beginnings. Small habits make a difference. 1% better every day, the effects of small habits compound over time. If you get 1% better each day, you will end up with results that are 37 times better after one year. Not bad right! The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. Habits are the compound interest of self- improvement. We often dismiss the small changes because they don’t seem to matter very much in the moment. If you go to the gym 3x in a row, you’re still out of shape. We make few changes, the results never seem to come quickly and so we slide back into our previous routines.
Making that 1% better each day seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.
Success is the product of daily habits.
Not once – in – a – lifetime transformations.
A slight change in your daily habits (1%) can guide your life to a very different destination. What matters here is whether your habits are putting you towards the path of success. If you want to predict where you’ll end up in life, all you have to do is follow the curve of tiny gains, and tiny losses, and see how your daily choices compound months or years down the line.
Are you making it to the gym each week?
Tiny battles like these are the ones that will define your future self.

In part 2, I will discuss forgetting goals and focusing more on systems instead.

Coach Steph

References: ChatGPT 3.5, Openai.com, “Building a Foundation for Health and Fitness: Your Compreshensive Introduction to Positive Habit”, “Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results – Atomic Habits”, Author James Clear, Pg 15-18, Penguin Random House New York, 2018