Habit Stacking - What is it & How Can it Help?

Have you heard of "Habit Stacking" before? 

Breaking down old habits and patterns that don’t support our goals and creating new ones is a practice - it’s not always easy, and it’s about discipline and focus. 
So - how can we make it easier for ourselves? 

Habit Stacking is what I have my clients do when it seems like there are too many new things to remember. For example, my client is working on paying attention to her food intake. I want her to:

• Take pictures of her food and send to me each day
• Drink a 80oz-gallon of water per day
• Journal 5 sentences minimum about her relationship with food each day
• Prep her food every Sunday (Carve out 2hrs) 

For a busy woman, this may seem like a lot of things to add onto your plate - so here’s how we stack:

• Every morning while she has her breakfast and coffee, that’s when she will journal. She "stacks" the two new habits together. 
• Every time she cooks, whether it’s meal prepping or making dinner on the spot, she has to finish one full water bottle so by the time she sits down to eat, she’s already had at least one glass or bottle of water. She stacks these new habits together. 

 
It can feel scary and intimidating to introduce so many new habits into your daily routine - that’s why a lot of people fall off. They introduce so many, arguably too many, new things into their routine. It's uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and becomes unsustainable - and they don’t stick to it. Introducing new habits together, habit stacking, lessens the load, and introduces them slowly as to not knock your whole routine off.