275. The #1 Key to Be Consistent With Any Habit

Learn the most powerful strategy to build consistency and stick with any habit, no matter how challenging.

In this episode, I offer practical, actionable insights to help you stay on track, overcome common obstacles, stay motivated, and make lasting changes with ease.

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Resources From This Episode

>> Insulin Resistance Diet Blueprint - https://www.zivli.com/blueprint?el=podcast

>> Free Low Insulin Food Guide - https://www.zivli.com/ultimatefoodguide?el=podcast

>> Join the Zivli Program Waitlist - https://www.zivli.com/join?el=podcast

>> Test Your Insulin at Home - https://www.zivli.com/testing?el=podcast

Have a question? Email us at: support@zivli.com

Transcript

My guess is you want to be more consistent in whatever habit you are working to build.

Hi, I'm Dr. Morgan Nolte, founder of Zivli. As a geriatric physical therapist, I saw the heartbreaking effects of insulin resistance. At Zivli, our mission is to help you prevent and reverse insulin resistance for long-term weight loss and disease prevention through a low insulin and inflammation lifestyle. Each week on this podcast, you'll learn simple, actionable tips to lose weight, keep it off, and get healthy. If you're ready to create a body and life you love,

you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Well, hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Reshape Your Health podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte. I hope that you are off to a great start with your new year's goals or your new year's resolutions or whatever you are focusing on in the new year. And this is about the time where a lot of people are starting to reassess that month one progress. Like, all right, how have I been doing this month with this new habit that I'm trying to implement? And my guess is,

you want to be more consistent in whatever habit you are working to build, whether that is exercise, whether that's tracking your food, maybe eating more protein, drinking more water, going to bed on time, having a journaling or a meditative practice. Maybe you're really focused on that morning mindset routine that I push a lot. It doesn't matter what habit you're trying to build. The key is to be consistent, right?

You can't go to the gym and do 10 pushups and expect to maintain those results if you don't maintain that habit. Also, you can't just expect to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger after 10 pushups at the gym. Sometimes I feel like we put in the effort, we put in the effort and the results aren't coming fast enough. And that's really just from our own expectations on how fast we think the results should come. So the first thing I just wanted to remind you of today is please be patient with yourself.

Be patient with the process. Think back to your life five years ago, 10 years ago. Think about how much has changed, how much you've grown as a person. You still have a lot of stored up potential inside of you. So if you're not where you want to be today, have hope because things could look very different for you in one year from now or three years from now or even five years from now if you keep on keeping on. But

There's a thing when it comes to consistency that I've noticed really gets people off track and inconsistent. And that is being too rigid with their expectations of themselves. I think rigidity is kind of the kryptonite for consistency. Like I am determined to get up and work out every morning at five o'clock. And if I don't do it, it doesn't happen for the rest of the day.

or if I don't track my food as I go along throughout the day, it doesn't happen. You can probably even hear in the tone of my voice, that is a little bit stressful to speak to yourself in such a rigid, inflexible way. And I will tell you from experience, being adaptable is really important for being consistent.

And I read a quote from James Clear this week I wanted to share with you as a really lovely follow-up thought to last week's episode where I shared a lot of strategies on how to be more consistent with your exercise. And I loved this quote especially because my word for 2025 is actually discipline. And he wrote, in theory, consistency is about being disciplined, determined, and unwavering. In practice,

consistency is about being adaptable. I'm gonna read that one more time. So James Clear writes, in theory, consistency is about being disciplined, determined, and unwavering. In practice, consistency is about being adaptable. And I have a couple of tips on how you can be more adaptable with whatever habit you are trying to build or whatever goal you're trying to achieve. And I think that James also wrote this

quote, but it could be somebody else. And I might be misquoting it just a little bit. But the sentiment is to be firm with your goals, but flexible with your systems. So if you have a goal to reverse your pre diabetes or your type two diabetes, or get to a healthy weight, that goal can always kind of be your North star. But depending on your life circumstances, your systems will have to be flexible. Otherwise, again, you're going to be falling into this all or nothing mindset. And

Unfortunately, that is just not how consistency is built through an all or nothing mindset. It's built through a flexible, adaptable mindset. So here are just a couple of tips, like general tips that you can apply to whatever habit you're trying to implement. And then I wanted to share some specific tips on food tracking. So I covered exercise tips last week. I wanted to cover some food tracking tips this week. So the first

thing to think about when it comes to becoming more adaptable in order to be more consistent is to use if then statements with yourself. So if I don't work out at 5 a.m., then I will work out after work. If I don't get a workout in today, then I will be sure to swap rest days. And that's actually my situation today. I'm probably not gonna work out today.

but I often rest on Saturdays. And so I'm swapping my days. This is not a procrastination method. It's not like, I'm just going to put it off till tomorrow because I don't want to do it today. It's just genuinely that is going to work better for my schedule today to do my lifting session tomorrow. And I will do it tomorrow. So if then statements are very helpful, not having too rigid of a plan in the first place or too high of expectations in the first place is also helpful.

I think another thing to think about is what is the next step down from your outcome or your goal that you want to achieve? A really good example this week was I was just so tired one day after work and it had been kind of a busier than normal workday. I did not do my normal workout time from two to three p.m. before I got the kids. And I know personally, like if I...

get the kids home, that workout is probably not going to be as effective. And I really just wanted to crash on the couch. And the thoughts that were going through my mind were things like, I don't wanna work out, that's the last thing that I wanna do, I'm so tired, I just wanna lay here on the couch. And then I caught those thoughts and I said, you always feel better after you work out, working out gives you more energy, it's a good example to set for yourself and your members and your kids.

and be a person of integrity and you don't have to do the whole thing. And you don't even have to get into your workout clothes. Why don't you just go do the first set of your strength training routine for today. And if that's all that it is today, that's all that it is today. And at least you didn't break that streak. At least you showed up for yourself. At least you were a person of integrity. So you can.

I like to say like, don't compromise down, like never compromise down, but in some cases, compromising down might be just what you need to stay consistent. So just be sure that first of all, those expectations aren't too high. But then second of all, don't be afraid to do like an 80 % or a 50 % or a 20 % workout. Like 20 % effort is better than 0 % effort, okay?

50 % effort is better than 0 % effort. Anything is better than nothing. So that is kind of the first overarching theme is anything is better than nothing. And then please use if then statements when planning those key action items for the day. And you can do that with anything like your water intake, your bedtime, your morning mindset routine, your workouts, your food tracking, if then statements.

And that really goes into having the last tip here is have a plan A, B and C. So for example, for food logging, I'll tell you kind of my normal routine right now, it's to track the night before. So that's my plan A is pre-tracking what I'm gonna eat the next day, the night before. And I do that because it allows me time to reflect on what I'm actually gonna be eating.

Does this meet my calorie and macro goals and my needs? And most importantly, it saves me time the next day and reduces decision fatigue the next day. I find it's a lot less stressful for me to track my food if it's already just done the night before. So that's my plan A, right? Plan B, like if what I eat doesn't match what I planned to eat, then I will change it.

throughout the day that happened this morning. Last night I planned to have three eggs and a chicken sausage for breakfast. This morning I woke up and I was like, you know, I really want a health code shake and one of my date balls. So I just changed what I had tracked, right? Very simple. It didn't take very long. And it didn't really feel like reworked to me because I don't know, I had the health code shake and the date ball yesterday. So I just copied it from yesterday to today.

Now, plan C is this nighttime accountability check. I've developed a really great habit of an evening routine where I look at the action items I had planned for the day, did I get them done or not? What are my action items for tomorrow? I try to read some scripture and just have a little bit of decompression time mentally in the evenings. And that's also where I'll go back and review my food log.

and kind of wrap it up and finish tracking for the day. So that's a plan A, which is pre-log the night before, plan B is adjust throughout the day, plan C is adjust like the final adjustments for the day. Okay. You can do the same thing with your exercise, the same thing with your water intake, the plan A, B and C is always a wise thing to have. And that really reduces that all or nothing mindset.

A good example, I think also is with exercise. Like your plan A could have been to go to the gym for an hour after work, but then something came up at work, you weren't able to get off your computer. So plan B is you're gonna do a half hour workout like right after dinner, but then maybe the kids needed something or your spouse needed something or something came up. So plan C, like what is that last ditch effort to get some movement in for the day?

10 minutes of stretching while you're watching TV at night, okay? A plan A, a plan B, a plan C, and that will help you be consistent with your goals. Adaptability is the key to being consistent. Okay, with that being said, at our Zivli member call that we just had at the time of this recording, it was this week, we talked about some tracking strategies for food tracking. If you have a weight loss goal, tracking your calories and your macros will...

help you reach that goal faster. I understand that some people have a very strong aversion to food tracking. I understand that for some people with eating disorder history, it might not be psychologically healthy for them, but it is helpful. If you can tolerate it mentally, it is very helpful. And so I gave you my system for tracking, but I just wanted to share a couple other members systems. One of our members lost like 55 pounds in the last two years.

And she's a really good example of adaptability with your systems and had a good idea that she tends to meal prep for like three to four days at a time. And then she knows what she's gonna eat, right? Say for lunch. So she'll just copy that lunch from one day to the next in her food tracking app all at the same time. So like I'm doing one day at a time, she's doing like three to four days at a time, which is great. Another one of our members is really focused.

on blood sugar management. So she created her own system for journaling where she journals about her sleep. She writes down what she ate, what time she ate and what her blood sugar was. So she's not using like a phone tracking app, but she is using blood sugar monitoring data to inform her meal choices. And she's holding herself accountable by writing down what she's eating, being mindful about what she's putting in her mouth.

And then just the last couple of tips, I find it very helpful to have planned versus actual food. So I like to plan out what I'm gonna eat. It doesn't have to be perfect or anything like that. But then I like to see what did I actually eat? And there was one day this week where, I mean, I know I'm pregnant, like I'm in the third trimester now, but I ate like a pregnant woman on that day.

I know there's a lot of stigma there, but I ate a lot of food that day. And I knew that I wasn't like physically that hungry, but I had some underlying anxiety going on. And so what I did was I followed my system. I tracked all that food that I ate throughout the day and at the end of the day. And I'm like, my goodness, that was not according to plan. So what happened today or I journaled on it. I think that evening.

you know, what happened today that threw me off? Did I eat anything different that increased my food cravings? Do I need boundaries around certain foods? And I had made all of these date balls. They're really good. We had like all of these dates in the cabinet that was, they were very expired and my husband's like, you need to use these up. So I made date balls and if I don't have a boundary around something sweet, I tend to overeat that food.

And that's kind of what happened is I was just like kind of eating the date balls, too many date balls with every meal. And then that sweetness made me want more food, I guess is the best way to put it. So when I was journaling, I said, you know, yes, there was some underlying anxiety for today. And you can deal with that by adding in a meditation session tomorrow and being sure that you're just staying grounded in God all day and don't rely on your own strength.

for patience. Don't rely on your own strength for kindness. Don't rely on your own strength, like abide in God and he will provide that for you. Because I think sometimes I know I try to be good on my own, I guess, for a lack of better words, instead of just abiding in God and letting that goodness like flow through me like a vessel. So my anxiety is always lower if I can remind myself to abide in God all day.

but I did that. I added a meditation session and then I created a boundary around the date balls and I said, you're, you know, one date ball per meal. And that's, that's it. No date balls, snacking, no date ball at night. Like one date ball per meal, if you want to date ball, and then you can pre-log that. And that worked great the next day, but taking a little bit of time to journal on when you're inconsistent.

What was the cause of that inconsistency or when you're incongruent with what you said you were gonna do with what your planned action was, when your actual action was different, journaling through that, just free handing it and asking for some insights. I love asking God for insights like, hey, this is my behavior, please give me some insights about that. And then sitting and waiting for that answer, I promise you that journaling will open up more insights.

than what you would get if you were just like sitting there thinking about it, at least it does for me every single time. So if you're struggling with consistency in an area, then maybe try journaling about it and you'll be surprised what new insights and ideas come up for your plan A, B and C. Maybe you're gonna start to create some if then statements. But my hope today is that you understand the importance of being adaptable and being flexible.

in order to be more consistent. So if you love this episode, let me know. You can message me on Instagram. I'm at Dr. Morgan Nolte. And then also just kind of a housekeeping thing. Our podcast platform is allowing us the ability to like get questions from people that listen to our podcast. And so we did add a link at the top of the description of each episode where it's like, have a question, send us a text message. So.

If you have a question about nutrition or habits or literally whatever, you can text us and we're just going to start collecting questions. And then if we get enough, we might do like a question and answer episode. So feel free to reach out via that mechanism as well. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and I'll talk with you at the same time, same place next week. Bye for now.

Thanks for listening to the Reshape Your Health podcast today. To learn more about Zibli, our online course and coaching program to reverse insulin resistance for long-term weight loss and disease prevention, check out our website at www.zibli.com. That's z-i-v-l-i.com. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a rating and review on your listening platform and share it with a friend.

I'll talk with you at the same time, same place next week. Bye for now.