5 Habits to Start The New Year and How to Make Them Stick

When we evaluate our clients, an additional component we speak about is their lifestyle habits. We believe you deserve the greatest opportunity for success and know that rehab or training is only a piece of the pie. Having comprehensive discussions about these components can optimize your health and athletic endeavors.

Developing new habits can undoubtedly be challenging but we have you covered with some easy to integrate skills to help them stick. This guide will introduce you to our 5 foundations of a healthy lifestyle, helping you, your mind and body feel its best.

Sleep

There is no greater performance and life enhancing activity than sleep. Getting appropriate sleep can be a game changer in your ability to recover from workouts physically, mentally and help you prepare for the next day. The unfortunate reality is that the majority of us do not get enough sleep.

At GOAL, we appreciate that everyone has busy and sometimes complicated schedules to make this a reality, however the minimum amount of sleep time we recommend is 8 hours. Here are some of the science and strategies to set you and your sleep up for success!

• Athletes who sleep on average <8 hours per night have 1.7 times greater risk of being injured than those who slept ≥8 hours per night. Milewski et al. shows this over a period of 21 months. Notice the large drop off in likelihood with 8-9 hours of sleep.¹

• Testosterone, produced naturally in your body, is responsible for increased muscle mass and strength as well as reduced adipose tissue. Sleep deprivation is associated with reduced testosterone however quality sleep returns it to normal levels. Whether your goal is to increase athletic performance, gain muscle mass or maintain your current status, adequate testosterone is essential.²

• Growth hormone (GH) serves to protect and grow the structure of tendons and muscle. Lack of sufficient sleep or variation in sleep habits can change the normal cycle of GH production. With reduced sleep, GH production decreases.³ 

Here are some tips to maximize sleep hygiene:

• Create a quiet environment with no light present.
• Maintain a comfortable room temperature and ensure bedding/clothing is not too warm or restricting
• Sleep routine: keep your sleep and wake times consistent. Unfortunately, using weekends to “catch up” does not help. Your body adapts to the consistency of the cycle and “scheduled” release of different hormones at different points during sleep.
• Avoid caffeine after 3pm. Even though we all enjoy our coffee or a nice cappuccino after dinner, the half-life of caffeine is about 5 hours.⁴ This means it will affect neurotransmitters that tell your body it is time for sleep.
• Avoid using tv/phone before bed. Take in only as much light as necessary between 10pm-5am. Although blue light glasses can help, research shows that intaking light during these hours can alter your circadian rhythm and sleep cycle.⁵

Move

If you are already part of the GOAL community, it is safe to say you incorporate movement as part of your lifestyle. Movement can take many forms from strength training to a mobility practice, or participating in your sport or an outdoor adventure. 

Aim to strength train 2-4x/week. Within this, following a progressive loading plan is important as the ability to be consistent and make gradual progress is significantly more important than a workout that leaves you limping or needing 3 days to recover.

If that doesn’t convince you, try this on for size:

• From an injury health perspective, strength training has shown to reduce injuries by 50%.⁶ 
• We also know as we age, muscle mass decreases 3-8% per decade after 30 years old.⁷ Spending time in the gym will help combat both of these. See image comparing active vs sedentary triathlete.⁸

Integrate conditioning. Improving your cardiovascular fitness has a plethora of benefits. Firstly, increased aerobic capacity improves our ability to recover from intense bouts of exercise and allows us to perform exercise for longer periods of time. Greater cardiovascular fitness is also an important factor for longevity. 

Build a mobility practice. As our lives get more specialized, whether through sport, lifestyle, activity, or work, our body adapts to the postures and positions we put ourselves in. Spending time in other postures and positions can pay huge dividends in restoring normal joint range of motion and tissue quality and allow us to have the movement we need for other activities.

Hydrate

We need to drink plenty of water on a daily basis. Here are a few reasons why:

• Our muscles are 70% water so it seems appropriate to make sure we have our hydration dialed or at least start to build habits towards improving our success with it.⁹

• For our athletes, when we sweat our body is regulating our body temperature and cooling us down so we can keep going. Hydration is critical for this.

• Blood sugar regulation: This is less commonly thought of in the hydration game but dehydration can cause spikes in blood glucose.¹⁰

• Cognitive function: Dehydration can creep up on us when we are doing deep work or exercise and can impact our cognitive function. Unfortunately for all of us, coffee is a diuretic and can add to dehydration so water is essential. 

“simple rule is… your body weight in pounds divided by 30 will give you the number of ounces of water that you should drink about every 20 minutes when exercising or doing mental work.”¹¹

Dr. Andrew Huberman

Here are some indicators that you should have a glass of water:

• Urine isn’t clear or close to it
• Cramping
• Nausea
• Mental or physical fatigue

Eat quality food

Just like hydration, eating quality food is important to fueling our bodies and athletic performance. It can certainly get confusing navigating calories, protein, carbohydrates and fat macronutrients but we hope this checklist can help make quality food choices easier and more consistent.

• The day starts with breakfast, make it count. We often don’t leave enough time to eat in the morning but breakfast is the perfect opportunity to set up the day for success. You need fuel for the day. Build in a balance of some health fat, carbohydrates and protein.
• Avoid inflammatory oils: vegetable, corn, sunflower and canola oil are processed and can be a source of inflammation for our bodies.  Substitute with olive oil or avocado oil to your diet and cooking.
• Eat the rainbow! Include a diverse mix of fruits and veggies. At each meal, include a fruit and vegetable option.
• Protein for the win. Focus on minimally processed lean protein options. The quantity of protein can vary depending on activity level and goals however adding around 1.5 g/kg of body weight is a good place to start. It is also important to include if you’re recovering from injury!
• Learn to be your own chef! Cooking at home is a great way to control the ingredients you put in your body.

Get sun and be outside

As humans, our daily life often entails waking up in our house, driving to work, performing daily errands and driving home. If you take a step back and analyze your day, do you even spend any time outside? Sadly, most of us don’t seize it the way we should. The outdoors plays an important role in all of our health.

First, getting sunlight into our eyes within 60 minutes of waking up is essential. When we say sunlight, we mean go outside– don’t use sunglasses, not through a window, or through your phone camera (#nofilter) – go outside. Just don’t stare directly into the sun please.

Early exposure to sunlight sets our circadian rhythms and provides us with increasing energy throughout the day. This activity also increases cortisol levels in our body. Now cortisol has gotten a bad rap as a response to stress however at appropriate doses, it can help manage sleep rhythm, increase energy, mood and reduce anxiety.¹²

The volume of time needed can depend on how sunny or cloudy it is. If it is bright, 5-10 minutes will suffice; If overcast and cloudy, closer to 30 minutes will be necessary¹². That being said, even 1 minute is better than nothing at all!

Habits for getting sun and being outside

1. Take a nature break: if you find yourself sitting for long periods of time at home or work, set an alarm periodically as a reminder to go outside for a few minutes. Short breaks to get outside can help regulate stress as well as help with mental clarity and improve performance on activities as you go back to school or work.

2. Park further away from where you’re going. If you find your day is filled with various errands, adding a few extra minutes of walking can be an easy way to start the habit of increasing your time spent outside. 

3. Remote work can be done anywhere. Today, more people are working from home than ever. You can more easily take calls going for a walk in a local park or through your neighborhood. Research has shown that going for walks can also help boost creativity and brainstorming ability.

How to start building habits to upgrade your actions

Creating new habits can undoubtedly be challenging and it is important to know that nobody is alone in feeling that way. Habits are generally shaped by the decisions that came before them and therefore the outcome is often a delayed metric of the habit. Healthy teeth are a delayed metric of brushing your teeth just like the need for having a cavity filled is a delayed outcome of not having the necessary dental hygiene.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, discusses the idea of habit stacking. This is essentially the action of layering habits on top of one another to achieve the desired action. A key component of making this successful is to break it down into the smallest manageable action. 

Here’s an example. 5-6 days/week I train on my bike at 5 am. I do out of necessity so I can spend more time with my wife and daughter during the day. The consistency of pulling this off is tough. If I woke up at 4:30, and had to collect all my training gear, water, fuel, coffee etc before riding, I would likely be significantly less successful at pulling this off as there are too many opportunities to give up, never-mind waking up half the house!

Here is step-by-step how I habit stack down to the smallest task:

The night before

1. I put coffee on auto-brew and put coffee cup next to the coffee maker
2. Make my water bottles with appropriate energy mixtures and put it next to my bike
3. Lay out a towel, socks and bike kit next to my bike
4. Pre-program my daily workout
5. Crack open the basement door 
6. Set my alarm

Day of

1. Wake up
2. Drink water and coffee
3. Walk downstairs and put kit on
4. Turn on bike computer and fan
5. Get to work

My goal was to remove as many barriers as possible to create the opportunity for success and the only way I could pull it off.

If you look at a new habit you want to start, whether one of the few mentioned above or something else, what is the smallest actionable step you can take to make it successful? Start there.

One highly successful strategy for change is  finding or creating a community that embodies your new habits and lifestyle. Communities are an incredible way to build camaraderie  and support with like minded individuals or those you wish to be like. . This could be a welcoming gym environment or a cooking group based around healthier food choices while you’re learning a new skill. 

The topics covered in this article all warrant their own deeper dive but understanding these basic points can get you started with making an immediate impact on your health in the short and the long term. 

Where should you start? Pick one thing, focus on the smallest habit to get you there, stay ruthlessly consistent and the momentum will build!

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