The Habit Loop: How to Build Healthy Habits and Lasting Confidence Ep. 195

Are you struggling to stick to new habits or feeling overwhelmed by big goals? Lisa dives deep into the science of habits, showing how understanding the habit loop can transform your movement practice and boost your confidence. This episode is packed with actionable insights on creating sustainable habits that stick and empower you.

Takeaways

•  The misconception that motivation is enough for habit formation
•  How the habit loop (cue, routine, reward) works and why it's powerful
•  Common mistakes that cause habits to fail, especially focusing only on routines
•  Practical examples of how to apply habit looping to movement and daily routines
•  The importance of starting small—building habits one step at a time
•  Debunking the myth that confidence must come before action
•  Why consistency beats motivation for long-term success
•  How movement and habit-building reinforce each other to develop self-trust

Resources & Links:

 The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

If you like this episode, please be sure to subscribe everywhere you listen to podcasts!

FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM

🍂 FALL RUNNING SEASON is coming! Check out the 🆕Coaching Programs that include running and mindset goals! HERE

Check out the WEBSITE

Help support this podcast by buying me a cup of coffee. I need it to stay awake editing!

BUY ME COFFEE

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to Ella Go. My name is Lisa, and this is not just a podcast about running. This is a podcast to empower women through fitness and health and everything in between. Because let's be honest, ladies, this journey could suck if we don't get our shit together.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Welcome back to the ELAGO podcast. My name is Lisa and I am your host. Let's talk about habits and why you can't stick to them, okay? So, as you know, with ELAGO, we're all about movement, it's so much more than exercise. It's a tool for building confidence, resilience, and creating the life you want. So, today's episode is about something every single one of us struggles with habits. So, here's the thing. How many times have you told yourself, like, this is the week I'm going to start walking? Or this is the week I'm going to start finally running. I'm just going to do it. Okay. Or I'm going to start eating healthier, starting on Monday, starting the first of the year, starting the first of the month, or I'm just going to stop scrolling my bed before bed. Okay. We all say these things, right? And then Monday turns into Wednesday. Wednesday turns into next week. And eventually that goal quietly just disappears. So if that's you, I'm going to tell you something. You're probably not lazy. I know. I know. I know. You're thinking, but I feel like I am. Okay. And you probably don't like discipline. You simply haven't learned how habits actually work. How do you do that? How do you create this habit where I'm going to start running every other day or start walking or start building boundaries? Like, how do you start? So today I'm going to introduce you to something called habit looping. It's a concept that was made popular in this book called The Power of Habit by Charles Dohig. I hope I'm saying that right. And it's called the Habit Loop. Okay. So what this is, it's a simple concept that can completely change the way you build healthy habits. And here's the part that I really want to talk about. How habit looping doesn't just help you create habits, you know, the habits of movement. It's going to help you build confidence. Because confidence isn't something that you're born with, it's something you build. Remember, this is El AGO. We're talking about empowering ourselves, building confidence through movement. So what is habit looping? Every habit, according to the book, has three parts. It has a cue, it has a routine, and it has a reward. That's it. So instead of making thousands of decisions every day, our brain creates shortcuts. And those shortcuts become habits. So think about brushing your teeth. You don't wake up every morning wondering if you're going to brush your teeth. You you just do it. You don't even think about it. Why is that? Because you repeated that loop thousands of times. The cue might be waking up. The routine is brushing your teeth. And the reward is feeling fresh and ready for the day. So it eventually becomes automatic. And that's exactly how we want movement to feel. You know, when people say it takes 17 days or I don't know, 24 days for something to become a habit, there really isn't a specific number. It's just that you've been doing it for so long, you're practicing it, practicing it, that it just becomes a habit. But what we're talking about here with the habit looping is that the habit is created based on those three parts: the cue, the routine, and the reward. You know, you have a client that comes in, they're excited, they want to start moving, and they're just super excited to get going, getting onto the plan. But then it happen something happens and it starts to fall apart. Now, the problem is this. Okay, I'm gonna work out, I'm gonna eat healthier. But they're never thinking about the cue. Like what cues them to get to that movement, nor do they think about the reward. And that's what most people do with habits. If there's no cue reminding you to start or no reward reinforcing the behavior, eventually the habit fades away. So let's go back to habit looping and how can we apply this to movement. So I hope many of you are listening and you are listening because you want to create this habit of movement and you feel stuck and you're like, I never can follow through. I don't know what's wrong with me. I say I want to go to the gym, I want to work out, I want to do all these things, and it never happens, or I make up excuses, or I try for a good week and a half, and then it just falls apart. Okay. So let's talk about how we can apply habit looping to movement. So let's say your goal is to become more active. You want to move more, you wanna run, you wanna do a 5K, okay? Your cue could be putting your running shoes by the front door. And I gotta tell you, this is exactly what I did when I started my running journey. And not only did I do this when I started the running journey, I still do it, especially if I'm struggling. Like if I feel stuck, I would put my shoes right by the door. I would put my clothes out. As soon as I wake up, I'll see my workout clothes. That's the cue. So let's go back to putting your running shoes by the front door, laying out your workout clothes the night before, and then scheduling your workout in your calendar like any appointment. So, you know, making sure that you have a plan, okay? So the cue removes the decision for you to say, oh, should I, should I, should I do it now or should I wait until I get back from work? I mean, I'm telling you right now, if you don't do this cue, this is this, this shit is what is gonna happen. It happens to me when I'm having a challenging time in my life. If life is life and I feel like, God, well, I can't get back into my routine. If I don't create this cue, I'm not gonna fucking do it. I'm not gonna do it. Okay. So the cue removes that decision. Okay. Now comes the routine. Maybe it's a 10-minute walk, maybe it's a run walk, maybe, maybe it's just stretching. Okay. Now, here's the important part: don't make the routine so big that it becomes intimidating. And again, I gotta tell you, as a running coach, especially with new runners, beginner runners, people who are new to the workout, people who are new to movement, they make the routine so grandiose that it becomes scary to doing it. So people think they need to go from doing nothing to running five miles. Ain't gonna happen. You wanna start slow. Start with 10 minutes. Start with five minutes. Say I'm gonna just take a five-minute walk. Okay. Start with simply putting your shoes on. It's these small little wins that are gonna create the momentum. And I know this is so hard, especially if you are a beginner, runner, beginner in a fitness journey, just starting off and you've never worked out before. It's very hard to say to somebody, look, hey, you know what? The small win is just putting your shoes on and walking for five minutes. They're gonna be like, what? But it's gonna create that momentum. If you make it so big and so grandiose, I'm gonna tell you so many times, it's gonna be so intimidating that you're not gonna wanna do it. So now comes the reward. And I don't mean like rewarding yourself with pizza because you walked around the block. I mean rewarding your consistency. So maybe it's checking a box on your calendar or on your planner or on your running plan. Maybe it's writing in a journal. Maybe it's just simply taking a minute to say, oh my God, I just did that. I just did the thing that I said I was going to do and kind of feel happy, do a happy dance. Because that that feeling matters. And that feeling matters. So now your brain starts associating movement with success. Remember, in this journey of making changes in your life, and whether it's movement, whether it's building boundaries, we are rewiring our brain. And I know a lot of people sometimes don't believe that you can do that, but yes, you can create new synapses in your brain that's going to start associating that goal that you have, that you start doing with success. All right. So let's talk about the one thing that I always hear that I'm gonna tell you right now: motivation. Motivation is bullshit. When people say, I just need to be more motivated. No, you don't need more motivation. You need a better system. Motivation is gonna come and it goes. And remember, when I spoke to you all about creating these habits, I think it was about two or three episodes ago, where I said you had to create that why. You had to have a why, okay? And the why is what's going to push you, right? But even with that, you still need to have a system in place, right? Some mornings you're gonna feel like I'm gonna conquer the world. I'm not even gonna think about it. I'm just gonna go out and move. And other mornings you're barely gonna want to get out of bed. And successful people do not rely on motivation, they rely on habits, and habits are built through repetition, not inspiration. The more you do it with the consistency, that is where you're gonna get to the point where you're not even going to think. So another mistake that we make when we're starting, another mistake that we make when creating habits is not starting small. We try to change our entire life all in one day. And I mentioned it just, and I just mentioned it, you know, I'm gonna run five days a week, I'm gonna run seven days a week. I'm not gonna stop. I'm I'm just gonna give it up. I'm gonna give up sugar. I'm gonna give up, you know, eating sweets. I'm gonna wake up every day at 5 a.m. And I love the enthusiasm. I love it. I really do. But we have to be realistic. And we need to take a step back and just create one small habit. That's all. Just build one habit until it becomes automatic. Like I said, if it's just putting your shoes on, your workout clothes, and doing a loop around the neighborhood, that is a win. It's gonna become automatic. And then once you start making that automatic, you are going to be able to build another habit on top of that. Because the small habits don't produce small results, they produce that consistency. And I'm gonna say it over and over again. It's the consistency that is gonna change your life. You doing it over and over and over again. That is where you're gonna find that success. So now, where does this whole like confidence and empowerment? And, you know, Lisa, you're talking about empowering yourself and building confidence through movement. I'm gonna tell you, this is where habit looping becomes really powerful. Okay, because most people think confidence comes before the action. I have to have the confidence to go to the gym. I have to have the confidence, you know, to be able to put this dress on. Or once I lose weight, then I'll start running. I mean, how many times have I heard that? You know, once I lose weight, then I'll start running outside because I don't want people to look at me. Once I'm more confident, then I'll wear those shorts I've always wanted to wear. But it's not the confidence that comes first. I know this and if you're thinking, Lisa, are you are you sure? Because I thought I needed to like build myself up before I do it. No, the action comes first. All right, let's go back to that habit looping. Q routine reward. That process, q routine, reward. You're collecting evidence. Evidence that you can follow through, evidence that you keep promises to yourself, evidence that you can do hard things. That's what I say to women. When you are starting out and you're choosing this running journey and you're able to do it, you're gonna look at yourself and be like, oh my God, I just did something hard. I could do hard things. And this is where the confidence is going to grow from that evidence. Not because someone told you that you could, because you proved it to yourself. Remember, the coaching, me being your coach, your running life coach, is not me telling you that you could do it. I mean, I'm gonna tell you you can. But at the end of the day, when you actually do it, that is where you prove it to yourself that you have that capability. And that's one of the biggest reasons why I fell in love with running. Because when I started, I wasn't confident. I wasn't freaking athletic. Come on, I tell you the story all the time. You know, I wasn't like the kid that was in all these different sports in high school. And when I think of running, when I thought of running back then, I was like, oh hell no, that is not something that I could do. Now that that's for those people. Okay. I never had the confidence that I can run. So when I started, and I always tell you, like, when I first started, I was like, oh my God, I should get paid for this. Like I felt like it was impossible. But every time I did it, every time I showed up, it was another piece of evidence that I was capable of doing it, that I can do it, that, oh my God, I'm doing this. And every time that I would do a race, no matter how big or how small, it was proof that I was stronger and more capable than I thought. So over time, I stopped saying, I hope I can. I hope I can do that race. I hope I can finish that half marathon. I started saying, I know I can. That's the confidence, not perfection. By the way, this is not a linear journey. It was just proof that I can do it. All right. So remember, we talked about how we're gonna go on this journey together, create these habits, get you moving, and giving you all these resources to get going. And not only for movement, but to build that confidence, build that empowerment within yourself. So here's your challenge this week. Pick one habit, not five, not five with three parts in it, you know, just one. Okay. Is it I'm going to go to the gym and go on the treadmill and walk? Or is it I am going to walk around the block? Then after you create, you pick that one habit, you're going to ask yourself, what's my cue? What's the cue that I need to say, yep, I got to do that? Yep, I'm gonna go out and do my walk around the block. Yep, I'm gonna go to the gym. What's that cue gonna look like? Is it you putting your shoes out? Is it you putting your workout clothes right next to your bed so that you see it the first thing in the morning? What's the cue? And then what's the routine? What is it that you're actually gonna be doing, and what's your reward? Ask yourself, what's my cue? What's my routine, and what's my reward? Then repeat it. Not perfectly, but just consistently. And remember, you're not trying to become perfect. It doesn't matter how it looks as long as you show up and follow through. Because every time you complete that loop, you are going to become that person. So I hope you enjoyed this. I I definitely enjoy this. I love talking about this because a lot of times when we are on these journeys, we talk about our goals and then, of course, our whys. And yes, those are important. But then there's like, how do I do this? Like, where do I begin? And it goes beyond the plan. It goes beyond the running plan. Because if I was a coach that just gave you a running plan, that is not going to get you to be successful. You have to create the habit. So before we wrap up, I want you to remember this. You don't become confident by waiting until you feel ready. And I hear this all the time. I'm gonna start running when things start feeling a little bit like less chaotic, or I'm gonna start running when I start feeling you know better about myself, or I lose some weight. Um, you don't become confident by waiting until you feel ready. You become confident by taking action before you feel ready. The action needs to happen first. Every walk, every run, every healthy choice, every promise you keep to yourself. You're not just building a habit, you're building trust with yourself. And trust is the foundation of confidence. So remember, movement isn't just about changing your body, it's about changing really the way you see yourself. Because when you start seeing yourself as someone who follows through, girl, everything changes. Everything changes. Okay, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me today. And if this episode helped you, share it with someone who's been waiting for that perfect time to start. And remember, confidence isn't built in one giant leap, it's built one habit, one promise, and one step at a time. So until next time, bye, I'm not sure.