Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 110 // Managing Autoimmune Health with Tiny Habits

Transcript

110 // Managing Autoimmune Health with Tiny Habits · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  Welcome to the very last summer short episode of the Health with Hashimoto's podcast series.
• 0:06
  I'm doing the summer, hoping to keep them between about eight and 10 minutes. I think I've done okay.
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  I am curious, what do you think about this short version versus the longer version
• 0:17
  that I typically do, which is about 20 minutes?
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  You can let me know either on the app, the Health with Hashimoto's app in our
• 0:23
  community, which is 100% free, or on Instagram.
• 0:26
  I am healthwithhashimoto's and there's a dot in between each of the words.
• 0:31
  You can comment on either place.
• 0:34
  In this information age that we live in, where every single thing is literally
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  at the tip of your fingers, there's so much that we can learn.
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  And then as we learn, we want to do better.
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  We're learning things that can impact our health. And you know,
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  as a listener of the Health with Hashimoto's podcast, that I try to keep things
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  simple and sustainable.
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  Because if it's not simple, you're not going to be able to you do it and do
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  it well, if it's not sustainable, then you're going to implement it and then
• 1:04
  drop off and you just wasted your time.
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  So I want you to be able to implement things and sustain them because that's how we make change.
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  And I recently read a book and I highly recommend it. I'm going to tell you
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  a little bit about what I learned.
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  And you might have read a similar book, Atomic Habits.
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  I have read Atomic Habits several times and I learned so much and I loved it.
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  And somebody told me that it is like a smaller version of the book Tiny Habits.
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  And I was like, well, I've already read Atomic Habits twice.
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  Why do I need to read Tiny Habits? But I happened to put it on my list of books
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  from the library when I went on my introvert retreat.
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  And I will be doing an episode on an introvert retreat. I always get questions
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  on how do you do it? What do you do? How does it benefit you?
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  I'll do an episode on that.
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  But I had a stack of books for this retreat and one of them was tiny habits.
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  And I am so very grateful that I put that on my list because I found it far
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  more helpful than atomic habits.
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  And one of the reasons is because he breaks it down and I'm going to tell you the anatomy of a habit.
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  And then at the end of the book, there's a flow chart.
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  So if you want to stop doing something like here are the steps that you do.
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  And if you want to start doing something, here are the steps you do.
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  And then troubleshooting if you're having a hard time implementing a new habit.
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  Here is what you can do. The book was so helpful, but I love this book overall
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  because we know that habits drive about 80 to 90% of our daily behavior.
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  It's just routine. We just do things.
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  And so if you're trying to implement a healthier habit or a healthier lifestyle,
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  then making tiny habits that are helpful is good.
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  So let me tell you about the The Anatomy of a Habit, and it's ABC.
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  So A of ABC for a tiny habit is you want an anchor moment.
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  In Atomic Habits, he called them triggers, which is typically the language that
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  I use, since of course, I've read that book twice.
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  I love the word anchor and whether you call it an anchor or a trigger,
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  either way, you are tying the habit that you want, the new routine that you
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  want to something that already exists in your life.
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  And the way that he puts it in tiny habits is you want that anchor moment to be the end of something.
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  One example he gives in the book is a habit that he implements in the boot camps
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  that he runs, like it's a strength habit.
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  And so he has people do a specific action, whether it's pushups or squats or
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  something like physical strength related after they use the bathroom.
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  Bathroom and you can say that after I use the bathroom, I'm going to do three
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  squats, which is what I've been doing since I've written in this book.
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  But he says, instead of this broad thing of use the bathroom,
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  tie it to the last specific action that you take while doing that.
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  So for you, is it like after I flush the toilet, I'm going to do two pushups.
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  Now, if I was going to do pushups in the bathroom, then I would do it after
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  I flushed the toilet because then I would wash my hands. and of course,
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  after like touching the ground in the bathroom, I want to wash my hands.
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  I chose squats for my action. And so for my last, that anchor moment,
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  I said, after I dry my hands, because that is the last thing I do before opening
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  the door when I'm leaving the bathroom. And I'm going to do the squats while
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  I'm still in the bathroom.
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  So it's not after I use the bathroom, it's specifically the last thing I do
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  when I'm using the bathroom.
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  Does that make sense? after I wash my hands, I will do three squats.
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  Now for me, I have a lot of tension migraines. They're hormonal related.
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  I've been working on my liver health and a lot of stuff related to Hashimoto's with those migraines.
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  But I know that there's like some muscles up in my neck and upper back.
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  So with my squats, I've been raising my arms and doing like some stretches.
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  And I feel like that's going to really help. I mean, it's the things that my
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  chiropractor has been telling me to do.
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  So doing them actually implementing in the day is going to be so good.
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  And since I use the bathroom several times in the day, I'm getting those stretches
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  and strength training things into my day where I wasn't before.
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  And it takes what 15 seconds.
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  I love it. Another thing about a tiny habit is that it is tiny.
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  And so that's the B of ABC.
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  A is your anchor moment is an existing tasting routine.
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  So like if you're going to choose to floss your teeth, by the way,
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  your dental health is really tied to your overall health.
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  It's, it's kind of mind blowing because we think of our mouth as a separate
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  entity, but your dental health, keeping your teeth clean really impacts like
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  your heart health and your immune health.
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  It's crazy. So like if you're going to floss, if you want to start flossing,
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  you would say after I brush my teeth.
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  So then what would it be like after I put my toothbrush back in the holder, then I will.
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  And that's B is the new tiny behavior. So B is B. So A is anchor, B is behavior.
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  And you want to pick a tiny behavior that will start off this new habit or lifestyle.
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  For me with squats after I use the bathroom, so after I wash my hands, I just am doing three.
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  If I want to do more, awesome, I can do more. But my tiny behavior is three.
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  In the evening, I've been trying to work on my blue light and on my stress.
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  And we know that scrolling social media or being on your phone or reading the
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  news or doing all of those things on your phone, even playing some games,
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  can raise your stress level.
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  Also, the blue light of your phone interferes with your sleep,
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  even if you don't think it does.
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  So for me, I have been messing around with seeing what specific anchor moment
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  will work for me to put my phone away.
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  And I put put my phone in my underwear drawer when I get my pajamas on right now.
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  I would like to make that a little earlier. So I've been working with that because
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  I know that I have an addiction to my phone and I know that getting it out of
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  sight and, you know, putting it to bed for the night will help me because I
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  don't touch it after that.
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  So I've been working on what anchor moment and then the tiny behavior is I put my phone away.
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  Putting my phone away is going to impact my blue light, my stress, so many things.
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  If you want to start flossing, maybe you're going to floss one tooth.
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  If I'm doing my squats, I set that behavior as three.
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  If you want to go out for a walk or a run, your tiny behavior would not be,
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  I'm going to go for a walk. It would be, I'm going to put my shoes on.
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  Or if you're going to go for a run, I'm going to put my sports bra on.
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  Like what is that tiny behavior that will take you 30 seconds to do?
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  And that will get you started.
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  And then the C of this anatomy of a tiny habit really surprised me.
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  The author is BJ Hug, I believe, he says that emotions create your habits.
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  Emotions create your new lifestyle. And so the C of a tiny habit is celebration.
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  If you really want to cement a habit into your life,
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  celebrate. It is the good emotions that help us repeat it.
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  So after you have that anchor moment and you do the tiny behavior,
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  incorporate some sort of celebration.
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  For me, I am not a celebratory kind of person. I am very like logical,
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  fact-based. I don't do emotions very well.
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  And so for me, it's I smile myself in the mirror. When I sit down at my desk
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  and I wake up my computer, I open my planner, I congratulate myself because
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  when I open my planner, I stay on track and I'm getting my goals done.
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  If I just open my computer, a lot of times I'll get distracted and I'll do what first pops up.
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  If I open my planner, then I will focus on my top priorities for the day.
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  I encourage you to get the book Tiny Habits in the back. He has a list of a
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  hundred ways to celebrate.
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  Here are some of them. Say I nailed it.
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  Drum a happy beat on the wall or your desk. Imagine your mom giving you a big
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  hug. Do a subtle head nod.
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  Pretend you just nailed a half-court shot.
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  Visualize fireworks going off for you. Smile big. Do a double thumbs up.
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  Draw a happy face and feel it. Hum a few seconds of a peppy song.
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  Think of your favorite teacher saying you did a great job. Raise your arms and say victory.
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  Briefly massage your own shoulders or neck. Think yes, I am succeeding with
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  change. Do the floss dance. Throw imaginary confetti.
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  Smile at yourself in the mirror. There's so many different options.
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  I do that last one. Smile at myself in the mirror after I do squats.
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  So those are the ABCs of implementing a tiny habit.
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  And that is how we implement change in our lives by things that are both simple and sustainable.
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  Go ahead and grab yourself from the library or the audible version or the actual book.
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  Get the book, Tiny Habits. I would recommend recommend actual like look at it
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  book, not the audio book, because you'll get those charts in the back that help
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  you stop habits that you don't want to do and troubleshoot your existing habits.
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  Oh my goodness, it's 10 minutes and 13 seconds. So this one will be a little over 10 minutes.
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  I guess it's time to get back to the regular 20 minute episodes.
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  I will see you in the next episode for about 20 minutes.
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  Let me know in the app, the Health with Hashimoto's app or on Instagram,
• 10:25
  what you want to hear about and what you have thought about these shorter episodes.
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  I'll see you next week. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
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  Please discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare professional.
• 10:38
  If you found this episode helpful, will you please share it with a friend?
• 10:42
  I'll see you next week on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
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  Music.