Summary: Is there a behavior or action that you want to decrease or stop altogether? Learn the beginning steps to breaking a habit!

Habit breaking

What is a habit?

Definition: A routine or practice performed regularly or an automatic response to a specific situation.

Behaviourally - there’s an MO, an SD, the behaviour itself and a consequence (a reinforcer!).

In more common literature – there’s a cue, a routine and a reward

1. Define it
2. When and when does it happen? What’s the cue (SD)?
3. Note all the behaviours in a chain - which habits are good or bad or neutral?
4. What habits would you like to include?
5. What is it getting you? Function. All habits/behaviours are getting us something or serving some function. Meet your needs in a different way.
6. Competing activity/response (incompatible)
7. Set up your environment for success (Hide the SD that prompts the unwanted behaviour)
8. Motivation - habit inconvenience
9. Social support
10. Start small SMART goals - success breeds success

BJ Fogg help people feel successful- simple reinforcement isn’t the same as feeling successful

66 days to form a habit? (Lally) 82 participants- the range of days was up to 254 days (8+ months) even small behaviours like drinking a glass of water after breakfast.

James Clear :

· Make a new habit obvious, attractive, easy, satisfying.

· Break a habit - make it invisible, unattractive, difficult, unsatisfying.
Shaping
Chaining
Self monitoring

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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Episode name: How to Build a Habit
Summary: There are many different definitions of what a habit is, but in the end, all we really want to do is learn how to create a habit!
Emily- eating veggies and proteins
Jo- reading more!

Habit building

What is a habit?

Definition: A routine or practice performed regularly or an automatic response to a specific situation.

Behaviourally - there’s an MO, an SD, the behaviour itself and a consequence (a reinforcer!).

In more common literature – there’s a cue, a routine and a reward

1. Define it

2. When and when should it happen? What could be the cue (SD)?

· Will it happen in a chain?

· Habit stacking = behaviour chain.

· You have a current chain - add to it!

· The consequence for one behaviour serves for the cue (SD) for the next behaviour in the chain.

3. Set up your environment for success (Hide the SD that prompts the unwanted behaviour) Social environment and physical environment

4. Motivation - habit inconvenience

5. Social support

6. Start small SMART goals - success breeds success

BJ Fogg help people feel successful- simple reinforcement isn’t the same as feeling successful

66 days to form a habit? (Lally) 82 participants- the range of days was up to 254 days (8+ months) even small behaviours like drinking a glass of water after breakfast.

James Clear :

· Make a new habit obvious, attractive, easy, satisfying.

· Break a habit - make it invisible, unattractive, difficult, unsatisfying.

Use:

Shaping

Chaining

Self monitoring

Everything we do, every behaviour, is a vote for the kind of person we will become.


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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Definition: A principle that states that making the opportunity to engage in a high-probability behaviour (i.e. something you are more likely to do) contingent upon the occurrence of a low-probability behaviour (something you are less likely to do) will function as a reinforcer for the low-probability behaviour. In simple terms, you create a "First X, then Y" rule.

1) Identify the behaviour you want to increase
2) Identify a behaviour/consequence that would serve as a reinforcer

More likely to be successful if they're in a similar context, easy to execute

Response deprivation hypothesis

Food/nutrition examples: First water, then wine. First veggies, then fries. First protein, then carbs. First nutritious meal, then dessert. First meal prep, then TV.

Other 'life' examples: First reading non-fiction book, then TV. First scanning, then laptop away THEN leisure time. First skin brushing, then bath.

Differs from reinforcement in that the reinforcer is not a stimulus but actually an acitivity or behavior

The reverse is punishment- example: the Premack would be first go for a run (30min), then watch tv (tv). The reverse would be punishing if running is not reinforcing. If you watch tv for 30min, then you need to run for 30min would decrease the future likelihood of watching tv which would decrease running.

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Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

In this episode, we talk about stimulus equivalence and how it can relate to our health and fitness behaviours.

Definition: The recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another.
Stimulus equivalence = the emergence of accurate responding to untrained and non-reinforced stimulus-stimulus relations following the reinforcement of responses to some stimulus-stimulus relations. Reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity must all be met for stimulus equivalence to said to have occurred.
verbally say "bird dog"- able to select a picture of a person completing a bird-dog exercise--- client can look at the picture and then complete a bird-dog
This would then lead to the derived relations of being able to read "bird-dog" in a programing template and then be able to complete the action or hear the auditory cue "bird-dog" and be able to complete the action
Discriminating between bird-dogs and deadbugs. Very similar topography- one is completed in the supine position and the other in the prone on all fours
We talk about stimulus equivalence training with portion sizes research.
With clients, Jo walks about teaching some clients to go from tracking to hand portion sizes to eye balling.

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Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

How do we discriminate a ‘healthy’ choice over an ‘unhealthy’ choice?

What sounds good?
Allergies – e.g. nuts, gluten
Does it fit my macros / calories?
Is it socially appropriate? E.g. getting out a box of salad at a birthday party might not be!
So… assuming our listeners might want to choose their food based on health…
What is healthy?

First we need to determine our values around health, remembering deep health isn’t just about calories and food:
· Relational
· Physical
· Existential
· Mental
· Emotional
· Environmental
Health-based values – what are our current goals?
· Maybe eating organically produced food is important to you, but money is tight. You have to weigh up the cost-benefit analysis to your overall health around spending the majority of your money on organic food and the potential stress around money this will cause.
What is ‘healthy’ food?
Look at food labelling

Only eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce.
· Some overgeneralisation here too.

Dietary displacement:
· Often when we try to eat more healthily, we focus on what NOT to eat.
· If you’re trying to focus only on calories, you could eat your entire days worth of food with just sweets and chips.

The American Gut Project research discovered that individuals who ate 30+ different types of plant-based foods per week had a more diverse mix of gut microbes than those who ate less than 10.
Research shows that greater gut microbe diversity is associated with health.
Plant-based foods include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

Takeaways:
· What are your goals?
· Don’t cut out any food groups (unless your allergic)
· Don’t cut out any macronutrients – we NEED fats, proteins, carbs, fibre and water.
· Aim for ~30 varieties of plant based foods per week

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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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[email protected]

Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Do you find yourself saying, I should drink more water? Are you adequately hydrated?


Weekly Behave Yourself Check-in
Emily - Steps have been super low this week, much more sedentary
Jo - steps have been super high so have been working out less and eating more

Why should we drink more water?
Aids in digestion, bowel movements, blood circulation and overall bodily functions
Increases energy
Clearer skin


Human body is made up of about 45-70% water, average 60%
Recommended daily fluid intake: 2.7L/day for females, 3.7L/day for males
Individual for each person based on body type, health issues (GI/Kidney), and other variables so it’s not a one-size fits all recommendation!

How to Increase your Water Intake:
Keep a water bottle near you that you enjoy
Straws, sports caps, open mouth- what’s your preference
Room temperature water, ice, or ice cold freezing water
Reminders on your watch or phone
Make it Flavorful (cucumbers, melon, lemon, other flavors to your water)
Be mindful of sugars in water flavors and add-ins
Based on your activity level (especially athletes), your body will require more water than an average individual


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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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instagram.com/behaveyourselfpod
Email:
[email protected]

Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Emily: Worked out in a super small space!
Jo - reminding myself that being productive doesn't make me a good person

Definitions – what is sugar?
Sugar is a generic name for sweet tasting, soluble carbohydrates. I could talk for hours about sucrose vs fructose and disaccharides vs monosaccharide but… only nutrition nerds like me would be interested and that’s not what we’re here for!

Why might you want to target sugar eating as a behaviour?
No food or food groups are ‘bad’ or should be completely omitted from a varied diet.
BUT…
With sugar, it’s very easy to over consume calories.
When we consume more calories than we expend, our bodies store the extra energy as fat.
When we have too much fat on our bodies, we may become overweight or obese.
We know being overweight or obese is linked to many life threatening conditions such as type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, some cancers such as breast and bowel cancer and risk of strokes.

NHS recommendations 7tsp per day: one can of soda can have up to 13tsp.

Sugars in fruits, vegetables, dairy products and so on come with so many other nutrients, like fibre and micronutrients, we need to worry less about overconsuming them (it’s a lot harder to overconsume them!).

What about ‘natural’ sugars?

‘Natural’ sugars like maple syrup, coconut sugar, honey, agave are just as natural as table sugar. Table sugar is made from sugar beet (which is a root) or sugar cane (which is a grass). All sugar is natural – there is no laboratory made sugar, unlike sweeteners.

Why do we love sugar so much?
It’s evolutionary (think phylogeny!). Sweet foods typically are high calorie, whereas bitter might toxic.

It’s also learned (think ontogeny!). Sweet foods are typically paired with celebrations.

How to reduce or monitor sugar intake?
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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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Email:
[email protected]

Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Weekly Behave Yourself Check-in
Emily - I am here and showed up!
Jo - Prepped for the week with a fridge full of prepped food, clean clothes, etc

Can we change behaviour? How do reinforcers, consequences and punishments play into chaging our own behaviour?

Behavioural definitions
Reinforcement: a stimulus that follows a behaviour that makes that behaviour more likely to occur in future
Punishment: a stimulus that follows a behaviour that makes a behaviour less likely to occur in future.

Positive reinforcement (+examples)
Negative reinforcement (+examples)
Quality of reinforcement

Positive punishment (+examples)
Negative punishment (+examples)

Can we self-reinforce?
Can we self-punish?

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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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instagram.com/behaveyourselfpod
Email:
[email protected]

Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Weekly Behave Yourself Check-in
Emily - got in 3 strength workouts, despite feeling off track
Jo - Stayed true to my values throughout difficult conversations

How do ethics or morals apply to wanting to change your own health and fitness behaviours? Emily and Jo take a look!

Definitions
Definition: the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.
Definition 2: moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

Ethics of changing your own behaviour (Modified from medical ethics):

1) Respect for autonomy: respecting the decision-making capacities of autonomous persons; enabling individuals to make reasoned informed choices.
Practicing within your scope of competence / expertise
Public statements about non-behavioural services

2) Beneficence: this considers the balancing of benefits of treatment against the risks and costs.
What's the function of our health behaviours? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?


3) Non maleficence: avoiding the causation of harm; All treatment involves some harm, even if minimal, but the harm should not be disproportionate to the benefits of treatment.
Is there morality in what health behaviours we model to others? What about social media?
Do our health behaviours harm others? e.g. protein targets can mean a LOT of meat - environmental harm?
Intensity levels

4) Justice: distributing benefits, risks and costs fairly.
Is there morality in NOT wanting to improve your own health? What about a National Health Service?
Being able to work on your own health and fitness is a privilege when many families experience food insecurity. (Food insecurity, a condition in which households lack access to adequate food because of limited money or other resources, is a leading health and nutrition issue in the United States. In 2013 almost fifty million Americans (14.3 percent) were food insecure. About one-third of these were at a more serious level known as “very low food security.”)


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If you have any questions, comments, concerns or topics that you would like us to cover, please reach out to us!
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Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services. 

Episode Name: Real talk

Weekly Behave Yourself Check-in
-Emily: Anxiety gremlins are lurking...
-Jo: One more straw before the camel's back breaks

Just in case anyone was wondering if we're human...
10 months of lockdown is starting to take it's toll
We have a raw and real unstructured chat about life, work, stressors and how we're doing.
We talk about balancing not wanting to overshare or bring others down with wanting to be real and reflect the realities of life.
Having a job in a 'caring profession' brings extra difficulties, wanting to support others maintaining professionalism while also dealing with your own struggles.
Forcing positivity for so long is now leading to a lack of flexibility in other areas.
Physical manifestations of anxiety and how we 'cope'.
Sometimes getting the health basics done isn't enough.
Identifying and celebrating the wins

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instagram.com/behaveyourselfpod
Email:
[email protected]

Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services.