Anchor: A Way

May 20, 2022

Hey you all - Vanessa here today. Do you feel like the only thing consistent about your weekends is sheer and utter chaos? Do you shop for a 5-day rather than a 7-day week? Do you stay up late on Fridays re-watching ER on Hulu and then have trouble getting up to start your Saturday routine? Ok, that last one is probably just me. But regardless, you're not alone! Karen will talking to you this week about Weekend Eating and how to make it more in alignment with the rest of your week.

One practice that I've been working on that Karen is going to talk about is the concept of anchor habits. These are small and basic daily habits that are all the way (or most of the way) ingrained into our daily routine, like getting out of bed in the morning or brushing your teeth. Once you have an anchor habit, you can attach another tiny behavior to it. This is a really effective way to form a new habit - by attaching a new behavior that you'd like to make into a regular thing to something that you already do. I'm going to let Karen cover the nutrition-related ideas in her lesson, but here are some ideas of all-purpose daily anchor habits (listed first) along with potentially new behaviors you can attach to them (listed second):

Wake up. Meditate or sit silently for five minutes.
Get out of bed. Stretch for one minute.
Walk to the bathroom. Clean the litterbox.
Go to the kitchen to make coffee. Drink a glass of water.
Check your phone. Connect with a friend or family member.
Check your calendar. Create a to-do list with two or three important tasks to accomplish today.
Check outside for the newspaper. Get outside, even for a few minutes.
Let the dog out. Go on a short walk.

Trying new behaviors, whether nutrition-related or not, increases the likelihood and ease with which you will continue to build new habits. What anchors can YOU build on?