Short vs. Long-Term Behavior Change

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Related Episodes:

• Habit Change for Weight Loss
• Willpower and Your Thoughts
• 5 Daily Habits That Help Eating Habits

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Full Episode Transcript:

Short vs. Long-term Behavior Change

Welcome, friend. Thanks for joining me today. I hope your week is going well and if it’s not, then just know that it can always change, starting now, right? I hope you at least walk away feeling a little more knowledgeable once you’ve learned a little something about short vs. long-term behavior change in this podcast episode today. I think you will.

Before I dive in, if you’re interested in joining Food Freedom, now is your chance before doors close Friday, September 30^th. If you’re listening to this episode on the day it was published, Thursday, then that means doors are closing to Food Freedom tomorrow.

If you’ve been wanting help breaking a bad eating habit, or several, then come join us. You will love it. It has everything you need to break your bad eating habits and form any new ones you want, by addressing behavior change, but also mindset change, which really plays a large part if you want lasting results.

To join, head on over to katemjohnston.com/coaching or visit the link on the episode page or in the show notes.

So, I know that you might already know that changing your eating habits means breaking it down and changing your behaviors that you have repeated over and over again in the past. What you may not know is the difference between short vs. long-term behavior change, specifically how each will affect eating habits, your results, and the pros and cons of each.

I want to make sure you’re really clear on the value and role of both, so you can be as successful as possible with breaking a “bad” eating habit or creating a new, healthier eating habit.

First, I want to define behavior change, plus define short vs. long-term behavior change. Behavior change is just simply changing the action, taking a different action. So, in the case of eating behaviors, you would be changing the action you’re taking regarding eating. It could be eating after a certain trigger, it could be overeating, or eating a specific type of food.

Short-term behavior change would be more focused on changing your eating behaviors only until you reach a certain goal, such as losing 10 pounds to fit in a wedding dress or to fit into your new swimsuit for the summer.

Long-term behavior change focuses on continued behavior change on multiple occasions over an extended period of time. Long-term behavior change brings you closer and closer to true habit change and that’s because the more frequently a behavior is repeated, the more likely it is to become a habit. Habits are typically longer term.

There are certainly a few other factors in there such as triggers and reward, but for this episode, I’m focusing a little bit more on the behavior or action itself.

Alright, so which do you think is more important to focus on when it comes to changing your eating habits, short or long-term behavior change?

I already gave away the answer, but it’s definitely long-term behavior change. Short-term behavior change still has an important role though and I’ll explain that.

The benefit of the long-term behavior change is like I said, it’s more likely to result in habit changes, since the behavior change is typically being repeated often for an extended period of time.

With long-term behavior change, your brain needs to form a connection, it needs to form neural pathways. Neural pathways are just communication pathways between neurons, which are another name for nerve cells. Neural pathways get faster and stronger, the more a behavior is repeated.

So, if you’re creating a new eating habit, you’re trying to strengthen the neural pathway and if you’re trying to break an eating habit, you’re trying to weaken the neural pathway.

Again, this is all long-term behavior change, not so much short-term behavior change. Short-term behavior change is typically not going to be a long enough duration to strengthen or weaken the neural pathways enough to create or break a habit.

The lovely benefit of putting the effort in for long-term behavior change, leading to habit change, is that it makes it easier on your brain to do the new habit, if you’re trying to form a new habit or just changing an existing one. Your brain loves habits, so it will try it’s hardest to form them.

Once you have formed a habit, the more it’s repeated, the stronger it gets. Your brain loves that because it just makes it more and more easy on your brain, AND the behavior is done more quickly oftentimes. Habits save your brain energy and time.

Think about it. Many of the things you do each day are habits. Starting your car and driving away, the way you brush your teeth, the order you do things when you first wake up. Your brain loves to automate your behaviors by turning them into habits, so that it saves it from having to really think all the time. It takes a lot less effort on your brain’s part to do something out of habit, than to have to deliberately think about it each time.

Could you imagine if you still had to run through each of the steps of starting a car and driving it after you’ve been doing it for years? That would require a lot of effort.

You might ask, well why does my brain form “bad” habits then? The short answer to that is, your brain doesn’t know “good” habits from “bad” habits necessarily. All it cares about is that it’s saving effort or energy. So, if the behavior meets all of the requirements, such as being done in the same context, having a reward, is relatively easy to do, and is repeated often, it will turn into a habit.

So, even though consciously you know that smoking is not a good behavior, if every time you get into your car, you light up a cigarette and feel relaxed after you inhale, your brain is going to turn that into a habit. It’s going to automate it for you, even though deep down, you know it’s not great for you and is even harmful. If it’s hitting all those requirements for a behavior to become a habit like I mentioned, it will likely become a habit over time.

And then of course, the more it’s repeated, the stronger that habit becomes. So a brand new smoker is more likely to be able to quit, than someone who has been smoking regularly for 20 years.

Regarding eating habits, someone who has a habit of eating 3 slices of pizza every time he or she has pizza regardless of how hungry they are, for the past 3 months, will have an easier time breaking that habit than someone who has been doing that same behavior at the same frequency but for 5 years.

That’s not to say that you’re a hopeless case if you have had an eating habit for years versus months. It just means that it might take longer to “break” that habit, to disrupt the neural pathways enough that you have good control.

I do want to mention here that I’ve had a client tell me that she has had certain eating habits for years, but I noticed as I was coaching her, that because she had them for years, she was very familiar with the details of her eating habits, such as her thoughts and other little habits that went along with the eating habits. She knew her habits so well, that she was actually able to catch onto her brain fairly well.

And this makes sense, right? The longer you’ve been doing something, the more familiar you are with it, whether it be something in your career, a hobby, a sport, etc.

So, what are some examples of short-term behavior change and long-term behavior change? Short-term behavior change might be used when you want to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date. Such as losing 10 pounds for your wedding or to fit into your new bathing suit. Your goal is very specific and for a specific date or circumstance, so you focus on changing your eating behaviors to reach that goal for that date, event, or circumstance, such as fitting into the wedding dress or bathing suit.

Now, although you’d of course love to keep that 10 pounds off after the date or what have you, it’s mainly important to you to lose that 10 pounds just for that date, event, etc.

But you basically set out to lose the 10 pounds in say 2 months, so it’s really going to be more short-term behavior change. When you have that bathing suit goal, you aren’t necessarily thinking, “yeah, I’d like to make some long-term eating behavior changes, so I can fit into that bathing suit in 2 years.”

Now, you can certainly have that goal, but obviously that will be long-term behavior change that will help you reach that goal, right? Change your eating behaviors for 2 months and then going back to the original eating behaviors won’t necessarily help you fit into that bathing suit two years down the road.

Another example of short-term eating behavior change might be if you know you have a doctor’s appointment coming up and you’ve had consistently high blood pressure, but you want it to be low for when you’re in his or her office, so you make sure to lower your salt intake for the week prior. You have a goal of making your blood pressure look better for the sake of the appointment, but as soon as you leave that doctor’s office, you’ll go right back to your normal salt intake, causing your blood pressure to rise right back up again.

This example of course is an example of short-term eating behavior change that is not really beneficial to you, since the result is so short-term. You’re essentially only interested in that extremely temporary positive result, and unfortunately will go right back to your baseline high salt intake.

The benefits of short-term behavior change are that it can help you reach a short-term goal of course, such as losing that 10 pounds. It doesn’t have to be weight loss though, it can also be that you want to not eat dairy for a few weeks, so see if you feel less bloating or stomach pain if you’ve been suffering from something like that. Of course, it may turn into long-term behavior change if you find that the results are something you’d like to keep up.

A main downside to short-term behavior change is that oftentimes because you want a quick result, you may not be addressing the behavior change appropriately. You might be relying on willpower, resisting urges, among other things. These tactics will rarely last. I address this in Food Freedom as well because it’s such an important thing.

Also, regarding something like weight loss, your body doesn’t like drastic changes, it much prefers stability. In fact, it loves homeostasis, which just means it works hard for its systems to remain in a stable state. So, quick short-term weight loss, especially if it’s more than just a few pounds, might not be so great for your body.

Now I want to turn the attention over to long-term behavior change. Long-term behavior change as I mentioned earlier, is way more likely to lead to true habit change. Plus, the benefits can be endless, right? If you’re trying improve your blood pressure (and not just for that one doctor’s appointment), a whole slew of additional health benefits can occur from that.

Another example might be if you’re trying to really decrease or break a sugar habit. You might go from eating a candy bar and cookies every day, to being deliberate about the sugary treats you eat, which can benefit you in so many ways down the road, especially if you’re a diabetic.

Yet another example would be if your goal is to lose weight and keep it off. Short-term behavior change won’t be great for that, but long-term behavior change of course will. And if the extra pounds were causing other health issues, those health issues may improve or even resolve completely with the sustained weight loss.

Also, the thing with long-term behavior change is that the changes are usually smaller and therefore easier to do and to maintain, because you’re not in a rush.

That’s really how I recommend making the long-term changes more long-term. By making small changes that aren’t drastically different than what you’re currently doing. Your brain loves habits remember? Which means that it doesn’t love change.

Now, with long-term behavior change, even though you aren’t in a rush, you are typically still eager to see results. The difference is that you understand that in order to truly change your habits and have long-term success, you are making long-term changes, which take some time. The journey there will be slower, but with the understanding that the results will typically then last.

It’s easier on your brain and oftentimes easier on your body. You aren’t relying on willpower, fighting these strong urges only for them to keep coming up for you. You’re also less likely to have negative feelings associated with your eating habit journey, because you’re more patient and the changes are more doable. There will be less likelihood of failure because the changes aren’t as drastic.

That’s what I have for you today on short vs. long-term behavior change. Thanks so much for listening, I’ll talk to you next week.