Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

In todays FAQ show I’m going to focus on: Keystone Habits… those most effective actions that when added to your daily and weekly routine will form the foundation from which your other positive habits grow.

The either super-awesome or absolutely-detrimental thing about Keystone Habits is as mentioned, having them builds momentum and constant improvement. And NOT having them means you’re starting from a massive disadvantage with every other smaller positive habit you attempt to form.

First up let’s roll with 5 Keystone Habits and then I’m going to show you how you can structure them into your daily and weekly schedule… And, because todays show is an excuse free zone I’m going to give you the blue-print for the week where you have just 15 minutes a day to commit to your health and also the middle-ground 30 minute a day to commit to your health and also the most fabulous yet perhaps not realistic yet: 60 minutes a day to commit to your health.

So, those 5 Habits?

One: 7-8 hours SLEEP.

Two: Plan and then consume NUTRITIOUS MEALS consisting of fibrous veg + quality lean protein + good fat and plenty of water.

Three: Incorporate at least 20-30 minutes of PHYSICAL ACTIVITY daily.

Four: PLAN your day to come the night before.

Five: Consciously practice GRATITUDE daily.

To briefly illustrate the keystone nature of each habit…

=> How much tougher is it to get up for your early am walk before work or to prepare an omelette for breakfast or perhaps to resist those muffins that everyone else is gobbling at 3.30-i-tis time when you’ve just come off a night of inadequate sleep? It’s so tough it got a show of it’s own. Check out # 067: ‘Sleep & Overeating‘ if you haven’t already.

=> Equally with no planned and prepared meals you’re going to find it a whole lot more challenging to stick to the salad not sandwich habit you’re trying to form, especially when a colleague offers to grab you a meatball and cheese sub.

=> I’m a massive fan of exercise daily, (or 6 days with one planned rest day) because it eliminates  “I’ll do it tomorrow” self negotiation. When you don’t lock and load your keystone habit of daily physical activity it’s so easy for today to become a day you skip exercise because: it’s raining, it was a bad nights sleep, you’re feeling a little sniffle’ly or any number of 101 other excuses that will jump in the way of achieving your goal.

=> When you don’t plan your day to come it’s super easy to get caught up in urgent and reactive. To get sucked into busy’ness that may not be effectiveness and to feel like you don’t have time for any number of important health creating habits.

=> I will go so far as to call Gratitude a superpower. It can fix anything. If you’re feeling a little tired, perhaps your knee is giving you some grief or maybe drinks at the pub after work is a whole lot more tempting than going to the gym GRATITUDE reminds you you are lucky to even have the physical capacity, time, money and the freedom to get yourself to the gym. So do it now! When you practice more gratitude you experience less fear (the two simple can’t exist at the same time) and more to be grateful for. Of course Gratitude deserves a show of it’s own, and it got one in show # 011.

Let’s move on to building these keystone habits into your week. 

First: the week in which you have a mere 20 minutes a day to commit to your health. If you’re listening to this podcast then you 100% can have 20 minutes a day.

=> perhaps you get up 20 mins earlier / or stay away from social media before lunch / or ask a family member to take over one 20 minutes task so that you can put the time towards achieving your health goal?

It’s not ideal however it’s a billion times better than running with the not enough time excuse and not starting. It’s a foundation to build on.

Here’s how it could look:

• 2 days a week you do a 15 minute weights routine.
• 5 days a week you get outside for a brisk 15 minute walk while planning the great meals to fuel your body with this week,
• 7 days a week you take 5 minutes to plan your day to come and also consciously think of 3 things you are grateful for.
• 7 days a week you get to bed 7-8 hours before your ideal time to get up. This one takes zero time, just some discipline paid in advance tonight to let you enjoy a fresher, more productive and more disciplined day tomorrow.

Next: the week in which you have 40 minutes a day to commit to your health.

=> perhaps you now feel up for getting up 40 minutes earlier (I recommend working up to an earlier wake up time!) / or maybe you keep social media purely to meal times (yes, that’s not the best habit however it currently works for me!) / or block your food shopping in one or two bigger more time effective shops… or even order online and get it delivered.

It’ll start to look more like a solid yet sustainable week now.

Here’s how it could look:

• 3 days a week you do a 30 minute weights routine.
• 1-2 days a week you do 15-20 minutes of high intensity interval training.
• 2-3 days a week you make a 15-30 minute walk happen, perhaps you can even listen to a podcast or audio book as you still have time left over for meal planning.
• 7 days a week you take 5 minutes to plan your day to come and also consciously think of 3 things you are grateful for.
• 7 days a week you get to bed 7-8 hours before your ideal time to get up.
• At this point, dependent on your choices you’ll have a minimum of 45 minutes for meal planning and up to almost 2 hours. Bonus right?!

My recommendation is to block that time and in your first week of 40 minutes a day use it to plan 3 Go2Dinners. Or whatever main meal it is that is currently most detrimental to your best eating week.

So maybe it’s the meal that is most often stodgy takeaway. Or leads to a spiral of poor food choices. Conversely it could be the meal that fixing will have the most impact on great choices for the remainder of the day. So that could be 3 Go2Breakies.

I’ve done shows on each of the main meals. Here are the links…

097: Tuesday Tucker, Lean, Clean Breakfasts:

102: Tuesday Tucker, Lean, Clean Lunches:

107: Tuesday Tucker, Lean, Clean Dinners:

Next: the week in which you have 60 minutes a day to commit to your health.

This is the goal. 60 focused minutes is perfect, however we don’t generally get perfect on our first try so if this is more of a ‘work towards’ week that’s just fine!

Here’s how it could look:

• 3 days a week you do a 45 minute weights routine.
• 2 days a week you do 15-20 minutes of high intensity interval training PLUS30-25 minutes brisk walking.
• 2 days a week you walk briskly for 45 minutes.
• 7 days a week you take 5 minutes to plan your day to come and also consciously think of 3 things you are grateful for.
• 7 days a week you get to bed 7-8 hours before your ideal time to get up.
• At this point, you’ll have over 60 minutes for meal planningand week by week you’ll be able to come up with your 3 Go2Breakies, 3 Go2Lunches, 3 Go2Dinners and even 3 Go2Snacks!

Of course there are limitless ways to create a schedule of keystone habits that work for you. The thing is with limitless choice it can be daunting and easiest to make no choice and make no progress.

My intention is to help make your best keystone habits as simple and sustainable as possible.

To get actionable today, I’d love to hear what works for YOU? Especially if you have a keystone habit I’ve missed that rocks your world? Please let me know!

That’s it for today and for this week in Healthiifcation.

Super huge thanks to you for hanging with me this week – I appreciate it and I absolutely value and welcome your questions, feedback and suggestions!

If you liked this you’ll also like: Results yesterday v. Actions tomorrow (that equation doesn’t work!)

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.