October 11, 2024 • 51 mins
Forget New Year Resolutions - with the clocks having recently reset, and the school holidays coming to an end, now is the last chance many women will have to reset their healthy habits before the Christmas rush takes over the last few months of the year.
With some tips of how to create these habits and stick to them, today Francesca and Louise are joined by naturopath Erin O'Hara.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hi, I'm Francesca Rudkin and I'm Louise Area and this
is season three of our New Zealand Herald podcast The
Little Things. It's a podcast where we talk to experts
and find out all the little things you need to
know to improve all areas of your life and cut
through the confusion and overload of information out there. So
in the weekend, we had a few days at Wahiki Island,
(00:29):
didn't we low lovely Yes, you, me and our mate Tony,
And it was just heaven. And we walked and swam
and read and did the mother of all foot peels
and took a breath and had a moment and it
was just divine.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It was a long overdue, simple little mini break, perfectly
time to reset before launching into you know, this time
of year, which can be quite busy. I can't even
believe I'm saying the sea word Christmas Daylight Savings is here.
The days are longer, It's time to reset some healthy habits.
But look, I honest I struggle with daylight saving change.
I think I've said this to you before. It's supposed
(01:04):
to be a spring forward, but I always feel ge
lagged and I go backwards for a couple of weeks,
especially on my morning routine. So this conversation is perfectly time.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The key to start that saving is you just ignore it.
You just go the time is the time, it is
what it is. You just ignore it and then it's
not a problem. Don't let it become a thing.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
But I've just gotten used to it being nice and
light to get up and do my whatever.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, and then it's.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But just say to yourself, oh but I remember when
I got up and it was dark. I've done this before.
This is fine, This is fine my body, it doesn't
pick it up.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Ignore it.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Isn't that terrible.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I have definitely picked up some bad habits though this winter,
and it's because I've been so inconsistent with my exercise
and things because of my bad knees.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Is everyone's sick of hearing about my bad knees? My mysterious?
Can I say bad neegs? No one seems to know
what's going on with knees? I definitely and craving more
of a sugar hit these days. I'm probably having a
glass of wine or two more than I know I should,
and I haven't. I have you use the knees as
an excuse to not do other forms of exercise, which
(02:05):
is and I know that there's stuff I can still do.
I know there's exercise I can still do and I
can keep moving, but it got really comfy not doing that.
I'm sort of keen to shake my body awake again,
letting it totally.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And look, I don't think a week or two of
a break is something to beat yourself up about.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's been like a couple of weeks of every month.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
You know, I love moving, I need to move.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I love the resistance training, but something, you know, if
you're filling your days with something, something else does tend
to give. And I loved meditation.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It really helped with my post cancer recovery and I
really miss it. So that's something I need to try
and fit back in somewhere without dropping something else. I
was also stretching fifteen minutes a night just in front
of the telly. It was really easy, and I've dropped
it again. What the hell I don't know, And so
I know what it feels good, I know what I.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Enjoy it, and I want to know why I sabotage it.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's quite interesting because I need to fix bad habits,
and you just want to put good habits in place.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And I think that probably says a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Would it make you feel any better if I said
I do way too much mindless social media scrolling, So
that has to go. It is an absolute waste of time.
It's not giving me anything.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Just said another epiphany there about our relationship. Oh that's
so true.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I'm kicking the bad habits. You're just putting more good
ones in place. Anyway, So we thought would give ourselves
some motivational kick in the pens. As always, we do
not want you to up into your life and take
on all the ideas we're going to talk about, but
maybe you will be inspired to to have a reset
of a healthy habit or two. We're going to cover
off getting into good nutrition, exercise, sleep, and breathing habits,
and we'll cover off how to shift some of that
(03:50):
weight that you may have. Well, I know I have
a layer of it over after winter and in a
healthy way. And what is I kind of want to
talk about what the differences between motivation and discipline. But
getting rid of a bad habit and replacing it with
a good habit, it takes commitment. So along with some
healthy habit hacks. Our guest today, natural path and yoga
(04:10):
teacher Erin O'Hara, it's going to talk us through how
to create healthy habits. You can find Erin at erinohara
dot com and she joins us now.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Welcome Hi.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It is a really good time to review and reset
our health, isn't it, Because as we've mentioned, more light
in the evenings, the weather's getting warmer. Lou and I
both got onto togs in the weekend and went swimming.
We're all just kind of thinking, oh, you know, maybe
it's time just to freshen up a little bit heading
into summer. Do you find that do you find your
clients are sort of saying, oh, might I just shift
(04:40):
some of that winter wait?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I think springs for real time that people rarely reflect
on their lifestyle, And I think sometimes in winter people
get a little bit lax.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
They might eat a little.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Bit more comfort food, maybe move their body a lot
less because it's raining outside or it's a bit gray,
they just don't.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Feel like it. And it kind of heads towards spring
and there's a longer.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Days, but more light, a little bit fresher outside, where
you feel a bit more motivated and maybe thinking heading
towards summer that they want to kind of feel good
in their beach body as well. So that kind of
motivates a lot of people. But actually, when it comes
to healthy habits, I think that most of us actually
know all the basics about being healthy. I think most
(05:20):
people know a little bit around healthy eating and exercise
and all the things they should do, and it's whether
they actually do them or not that actually matters and
being healthy. And I think that's where like it can
get really complicated, especially in this modern day world, because
there's so much information, and I think people can sometimes
put together their own plan and be like, I'm going
(05:41):
to do this and this and this and this and
this and this, and their list is so long that
actually they kind of get really motivated for one week
and then they can't sustain it because they've packed too
many healthy habits to kind of bring into their life
through this springtime.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I am a little bit of a beer that, But
isn't that funny because there's still twenty four hours in
the day every day of the year, But in the winter,
there's just that Oh I got up, you know, it's
too nice in bed or I got home too late
to do it then, or whatever it is. So we
kind of need some structure around those habits.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Sometimes I think it's as simple as well.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Actually, at the moment my body's covered's gonna no one's
gonna notice, no one's going to see. So if I
just you know, if I don't go out tonight and
go for my walk or do my exercise, but I
do finish those tim tams, it's all right.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
No one or not, you know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I think in summer, when we generally are out
and about and we sort of, you know, there might
be a bit of more flesh on show because it's.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Warmer and things.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I don't know, I just sort of always want to
feel fitter, and yeah, and health theory and a thing.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
In general with the light people want to feel lighter
as well, because they're out doing a lot more things,
whether it's you know, going to the beach with their
kids or having a swim. Not necessarily doing swimming as exercise,
but actually just they're out doing a lot more and
they want to feel they can feel lighter so they
can keep up with the kids, or just even feel
(07:04):
good doing some simple daily tasks outside.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, and I'm more likely to enter an event that's
in the spring or summer yet that i'd work towards,
and I would be in the winter as well. So yeah,
so we've established it's a perfect time to start thinking
about these things.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
We can have good intentions.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think, as you say, I think most of us
all know what we should be doing, but how do
we actually motivate ourselves to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think that's where like a lot of people can
put together a list and they're like, I'm going to
do all these things, But you also can sometimes be
too broad of like putting on your healthy habits of
like drink more water, Like how are you actually going
to bring that into your day? And that's usually what
I always talk about in clinic. Okay, how are we
going to get you drinking more water? What is the
(07:48):
obstacle there? Is it that you don't like the.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Taste of water?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Is it that you don't have sort of like ostruction
to the day to kind of space out drinking water
or also common people might not have a thirst, then
they don't even think about them and they've got to
the end of the day and they'd be like, oh, actually,
I've only had one cup of water today, Why do
I feel so tired and fatigued and headachey at the
end of the day. And I think just bringing in
those habits and actually having actually structure to make sure
(08:15):
they happen and they don't have to be complicated things either.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Does no one ever say to you, Erin, I just
don't want to have to get up to the toilet
all the time, because.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
That's one of my barriers.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I think that does actually get said, probably more so
like people who have a job that they're like, I
just can't get up and go to the bathroom all day,
and then they don't want to drink too much in
the evening because then they don't want to get up
in the night. And I think that's where like having
you know, spacing it out actually means that you're not
going to be drinking you know, two leaders in one sitting,
(08:46):
but actually having little bits throughout the day and then
actually the bladder can cope with a lot better too.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
No, I'd agree with that, and we can come back
to some of those healthy hats because you've always said
to me, drink all your water before two and then
you won't need to get up and pee all night.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, that way, or.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Also like having it in between meals and making sure
like you've got a drink bottle, like I've got one
here today, and like I'll drink one of those in
the morning and then I fill it up at lunchime,
drinking the sick one like throughout the afternoon and kind
of like having little SIPs and then you're not kind
of loading in the water too much.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Okay, So we need our habit to be precise. Yes,
So we need to pick a habit, and then we
need to think fully about that habit, like, okay, that's
the habit, but actually, how am I going to put
it into play?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
So first you need to know what the habit is
that you want to create change, and whether it's changing
a bad habit that you have, maybe like stopping smoking,
or whether it's creating a new healthy habit which might
be something like you know, starting a meditation practice or
drinking more water, or is something that you're going to
change and you're eating, whether it's you know, stopping eating
(09:48):
your three o'clock chocolate bikies that you might have become
a new habit that you've created over the winter, months.
But actually you first need to know your habits, the
good and the bad, and know what habits you want
to create, and look for sort of patterns in your
behavior and what triggers the unhealthy habits. Is helpful if
you're trying to change an unhealthy habit or whether it's why.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
You're not doing the healthy habit.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So actually you can understand that behavioral change of what's
triggering it.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
And this is where it becomes a little bit deeper, really,
isn't it. And you've got to look inside yourself, maybe
a little bit more than you would hope to, because
there can be reasons why we have bad habits. You know,
we could be emotional eating, We could be eating for
stress reasons. We could be doing, you know, drinking a
couple of extra glasses of wine at not you know,
for stress reasons. If you want to really make a change,
(10:41):
you got to have a bit of an honest conversation,
don't you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You got to have an honest conversation and an honest
review of your own habits, which is also quite confronting,
especially things like that you might secretly do, like having
two chocolate bickase at three o'clock in the office because
the free and you want to get up from your desk,
or whether it's you know, you want a bit of
a fresh air break, so you actually go out and vape,
(11:05):
but you actually don't think about it why you're doing it.
But actually thinking of what those things are that you're
doing is the first step to create change. Like, if
you don't know what habits you want to change, then
you're never going to change anything. And I think that
actually having that honest review and then setting some realistic goals.
So not setting one hundred new habits because you're like
(11:28):
want to be the super healthy person, because you're just
setting yourself up for failure, but actually being realistic of Okay,
how many habits can I change at once? And what
simple things can you make change? And that's what I
always look at and kind of Okay, when someone's like
I want to get into exercise, I'm like, well, I'm
not going to send you to the gym for an
hour a day. I'll get you into marathon training if
(11:48):
you've never run before. I think that it's those little
steps of like creating a realistic goal that might be
like ten minutes walking every day, and that they do
in their lunch break, but actually something that they're actually
going to be like, oh yeah, I can actually achieve that.
And I think that's where sometimes when we set our
own goals, we actually sometimes set them something that we
(12:10):
actually can't achieve and actually fit into our crazy, busy lives.
And that's just insane that we actually do that to ourselves,
is that we think, Okay, we can do massive volumes
of extra habits and healthy you know, whether it's going
to the gym and prepping all these healthy meals, and
then we don't actually have time to do them, so
we actually can't actually achieve them.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Well, we've spoken about this, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
The one thing we've been really conscious about on the
show is not trying to get women to change everything
about their lives. But you know, there are little things
that we have been talking about, like you know, weight
resistance training, eating protein and things like that. But then
it does get to the point where you feel like
the whole wellness industry is just telling.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
You, telling you all the time what you have to
be doing. Oh yeah, and there is a fatigue that
comes with that.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It is it's like do this, do this, do this,
do this, do this, and it's like well, how far
have we come, Like from back of living on the
land and we used to just exit size would be
literally just working on the farm, to now we've got
all these things that we supposedly need to do to
be healthy, and actually what i'd call basic healthy eating
(13:11):
has become complicated, Like you can't really go wrong with
your three square meals a day, you know, a bit
of balance and like putting in more movement, whether it's
like like we did today, walk up the stairs rather
than take the lift, like simple things, And I think
that's where we don't need to make wellness being so complicated.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I mean, that could be your change for a month, right,
you could go, Okay, at my job, I'm going to
use the stairs every day and that's it, right, Yeah,
it's all you have to do.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Just something as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
And that's the one habit you're like, Okay, every time
we go to get in the lift, Nope, up the
stairs you go.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Because if we do change a habit, it does affect
our brain and how we feel, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
It does.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It makes a big change. And I think the hardest
bit about changing a habit is always the start.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Is that quite a and We've got like this.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Super motivation, especially the first few days, and then we're like, oh,
actually it's quite hard or you know, especially it's a
habit of like getting up and doing something in the morning,
like exercising, and you think too tired today, too sore
from yesterday's gym. I'll just have a sleep in today,
and then tomorrow think well, I didn't go yesterday, so
I'm just not going to go the next day. And
(14:22):
it's actually harder at the start because you're trying to
create that change and it's not habit, and it takes
time for it to become habit. And it's actually interesting.
I was pulling up some some research studies on how
long does it take to change a habit, and it's
like how long is a piece of string really, because
that actual time window is very variable, Like research shows
(14:42):
it can take anything from eighteen days to two hundred
and sixty six days to change a habit, which is huge, Like,
how are you going to stay motivated for two hundred
days for that?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Because one of my one of my bug bears is
you know, all of these little catch phrases of how
quickly you know, six weeks to a healthy habit weeks
to a healthy habit, fifteen hours to healthy habit, and
then you get disillusioned because you're like, I'm still having
to debate getting up out of bed this morning and
it's been six weeks, because how stupid. It's not actually
(15:13):
about how long. It's about that discipline of getting up
and doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I think it's that discipline, but also I think it's
about creating a healthy lifestyle. And I think that's where like,
if we make it something that we're going to sustain,
and at the start it'll be a habit, but eventually
it's going to become just like brushing our teeth, like
something we don't think about. Almost people don't think about
showering every day. They don't go for six days, and
(15:39):
they're like, I might have a shower today because I
haven't had a shower for six days. Like it just
becomes part of our natural kind of life flow that
happens at some point in the day. But at the
start a new habit is not going to be like that.
It's not going to flow into the London, into the
daily life.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Because I think you're very good at starting things and
out this whole you know, throughout the little things the
seasons that we've done. Louise is very good at putting
things in play or experimenting or giving them a go.
I tend to maybe find a few more obstacles.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Do you reckon that's the case.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I'm sort of I might be a little bit slower
to get off the mark, like you're like, oh, okay,
this is what I need to make it happen.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
I'll get what I need and off I go, and
I'll do this at all.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I mean, it can go through phases, but generally speaking, yes,
And that is kind of why I wanted to do this,
to get the expense to tell me or to get
rid of that noise and go, I've got all the
evidence I need now to make that happen. That's my motivation.
It's having the evidence, not my personal evidence. I haven't like,
(16:42):
you know, become muscle bound or anything yet. But if
they've told me and they've done all the work, then
that's the easy part.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
That's the part that's done for me. Now I just
have to get on and do it. Do you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Right?
Speaker 4 (16:52):
So, okay, so what's your obstacle?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I just find little obstacles. But I mean, I've I've
worked out ways to get over them. Like when I
get up in the morning and exercise, when we meet
up and run and stuff, it's pitch black. So the
night before I'd always put my running gear in the
bathroom so that I wasn't disturbing my partner, and I'd
get up and i'd go in there. But actually then
sometimes the end of the day, I go, oh, I've
got I get my gear. I've got to get my
outfit sort of for tomorrow. I've got to find on
(17:15):
my gear. And that was just starting to become so annoying.
And I know that it's a teeny tiny thing, right
you see. To me, we've got twenty four hours in
the day, and I get to the end of the down,
I go, I just want to get too bed. I
don't want to have to find a running shoes by my hat find.
So then I went and brought really cheap set of drawers,
like a bedside table's drawers, put them underneath the bench
in the bathroom, and all my running gear is in there.
(17:36):
So now when it's when it's washed and dried, it
goes into the drawers. Everything is always there. So when
I go to bed, don't have to think about it.
When I wake up, I want to go into the bathroom,
I just pull out the clothes, put them on the
hats there, watch us there, and off I go.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
And they probably is and that the right way in
so you don't turn out.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Louise generally turns up with it clothes inside out, which
is hilarious. But I know that sounds really silly, but
I just started to know it was an obstacle.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
But it's good to know those obstacles.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And I think that's where if you've packed a new
healthy habit that you're wanting to create, is actually knowing
what is your obstacles and what things will derail you.
So like if it's a food like eating thing that
you're going to change, like knowing, okay, having sugary biscuits
in the house is going to derail you from your
(18:24):
healthy eating plan because if you have a packet of biscuits,
you're going to eat not just one, You're gonna eat
the whole packet.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
And actually knowing.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
What your obstacles are because then you're sitting yourself up
for success. And like for you with you know, having
the running gear there ready to go. It's one less
habit that you had to create of like, oh, I've
got to get ready for the running in the morning,
but instead it's already done. And the more you can
make that happen in that easy way of making the
habit happen the next day, you're actually sitting yourself up
(18:54):
for success.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
The other thing that I would.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Always suggest with people, because I've noticed a lot of
people find healthy lunch is their hardest thing in their day.
So if that is one of your healthy habits, then
one of my recommendations is always make lots of dinner.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
People make great dinners. One thing I've learned after reading.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Thousands of people's eating habits is that ninety nine percent
of people eat really well for dinner. They just tend
to eat meat, three vegs, good variety. They make a
big effort when it comes to lunch. Honestly, a lot
of people don't make big efforts for lunches. They're kind
of like on the go, whatever they can find, whatever
(19:32):
they can grab. And so if you make more dinner,
you literally just make a bigger volume. Put it in
a container. It's ready in the fridge, Grab the container
and go in the morning and you've got lunch.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I like that you were talking about, lou the difference
between motivation and discipline, And I can remember reading someone
was saying somewhere when you make a decision that you're
can do something and create a habit, don't make it
a question. So don't question yourself and go to wake
up this one.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Oh Am I going to go for that today? Or
am I not?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It's not a question. It's just a definitive thing you
are going to do. I'm going to get up and
go to the gym. I'm going to get up and
go for my run. Like you don't allow it to
become a question.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Any vagary about it.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, yeah, And I think it's just making it part
of you and the more you can make it flow
into life and being something that's non negotiable and something
that you do. At the start, you will try and
bargain with your own self of like, don't feel like
doing that today, might do it tomorrow. And that's where
(20:34):
we really fall off the bandwagon of keeping up with
our healthy habits, is that we have to just step
into the challenge of knowing what derails us, what are
our obstacles, and then actually pushing through those obstacles and
those challenges, because quite often the days that we don't
want to do our healthy habit is usually when we're
having a bad day, what we'll call a bad day,
(20:56):
and then we're not motivated to do something that's good
for us and makes it our day even worse. And
that's the most common one I see with meditation practice.
When people get into doing a meditation practice as a
healthy habit, and commonly they get to a day where
they actually just feel terrible that I don't.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Feel like doing it.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
They feel negative, and actually if they just sat down
for ten minutes into meditation, the.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Day gets easier.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
But actually, quite often they don't want to do it,
and they do one hundred and one other things for
an hour and then they sit down and meditate and
then go, oh, actually one and I just do it
in the first place. And I think that's where quite
often we are our biggest obstacle.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
We're self sabotage, like there's no tomorrow and.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
We're impatient, aren't we to get safe? For example, it's
a running goal or a resistance training goal, and I've
been trying to get up to fifty kilograms inch pressing,
and then I got so wound up because I sort
of plateaued at one point and I just wanted to
throw it away.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah you're a good starter, but you don't like pleasure.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Or if it was like I've been doing this for
a while now and those pants still don't fit, you know,
and it's just why are we so impatient? And is
it bad for us all good for us to be impatient?
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I think the plateaus are probably the most challenging thing
in health, like, especially when it comes to things like
weight loss or something that you're challenging yourself to kind
of build up and get more strength or run further.
Is actually we get to that plateau and we think, oh,
I've put in all this effort and I still haven't
achieved my goal.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
What's the point?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
And then actually, instead of continuing on, quite often that's
the end of that healthy goal and we move on
to a new healthy goal.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
And actually it doesn't actually help us through.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And I think when it comes to things like particularly
weight loss, is when you hit that plateau, instead of
being like, oh, I can't lose any more weight, instead
going okay, what else can I change?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
That's going to get me back on track? Or what
else do I need to do?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Do you need to seek more advice from somebody else
that gives you some more tips and tricks that can
help you kind of stay on track?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Why have you hit that plato? What is the obstacle there?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Rather than going okay, that's the end of that goal,
let's move on to something new. And I think naturally
that's what we tend to do. We get to our
plano and we give up. Can keeping a record somehow
help absolutely like having that ability of like tracking, And
it's something if I'm giving somebody a meditation practice, I
always give them their advice of writing a journal, because
(23:33):
then they kind of journal their journey through meditation. And
even I say, even if it's just ticking on the
page of like tick I did the meditation.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Today, doesn't have to be a long story.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Of what happened in meditation or how you feel today,
but actually just that you actually sat down and did
it and actually going through that motion of like being
like cool, I'm up to day thirteen today. And then
the further you get in and there's interesting research on
this as well, the wh that you get into a
healthy habit and the meant nune of days. The more
(24:04):
committed we are to that habit because we think, oh,
I've done this now for forty days, so I better
keep up and keep going rather than like giving up.
And it also becomes more natural the further we are
into having that new healthy habit. Is that if it's
only been three days, we're not that committed to it.
But if we've been doing the same healthy habit for
(24:26):
sixty days, we're actually like, actually, you know what, I
can do it today, and we actually know the benefit
that we get from the healthy habit too.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
What's habit stacking?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Habit stacking that's a really interesting one and it's probably
more a sort of modern sort of term, but it's
pairing habits together. So something that you already.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Associating a habit with something you already do.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yes, okay, So habit might be, for instance, pairing it
with brushing your teeth, so every morning you brush your
teeth and you might be like, I'm going to brush
my tea and then I'm going to sit down and
do ten minutes meditation. So you've paired your new habit
with an old habit that you already have and I
think that's where like trying to fit in, like whether
(25:11):
it's you know, meditation or exercise, we need to kind
of have an idea of women going to do it
in the day, and the more you can stack it
onto something else you already do, like you're going to
go to the gym and then have breakfast because you
have breakfast every day, which there's mixed views on that,
but anyway, we won't get into that. But you're pairing
(25:31):
it together that you're more likely to have be setting
yourself up for success because you've kind of have a
structure to where it's flowing into your day.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Anyway. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Maybe my running ice attached to Louise. Louise's got up
and she's waiting for me, therefore I have to go
and meet you.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
But you know what that works.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
It's good motivation, like and also it's something you get
up and you go like it's the first thing you did.
If you kind of planned that you were just going
to run, you know, for times a week, and you
didn't put any idea when you're going to do the running,
then it might not happen because you might get up
in the morning be like actually, I think I'm going
to do it at lunchtime today, and lunch time comes,
(26:11):
actually I'm going to do it after work today. And
that's where the habit stacking really works, because you've stacked
it into the where it's going in the day, and
what's it going next to with other habits that you
already do.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
You're listening to the little things and I guess on
the podcast today is Natural Path and Yogati to Erin O'Hara.
We'll be back shortly after this break. Erin, You've got
so many great little tips for how to handle a
lot of the things that we want to change, and
I'm wondering if we can just go through a few
(26:44):
with them and think about some habits that we could do.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
As you said, a lot of us know.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
What we should be eating, but if we are just
thinking in general that we want, you know, to tidy
up our nutrition and eat better, what would you suggest
would we start?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think the first thing to start when it comes
to nutrition is be truly honest to yourself of what
you think your downfall is. So whether you know that
you snack all day, or whether you know that you
tend to binge eat anything that's in the cupboard. So
actually knowing what your weakness is and actually then you
(27:21):
can create the change. The second one when it comes
to like a nutrition side, I think that quite often
because food is so accessible in this modern day and age,
is actually going back to like having the habit of
three meals a day because you're going to be a
lot more successful of like cutting back on snacks.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
No snacks.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
No snacks and no snacks are haah you Honestly, most
people eat nearly like more than half their calories and
snacks because usually when we snack, it's not usually eating
carrot sticks. Most people when they eat snacks, they eat
you know, musy bars and chocolate biscuits and you know,
glass of fizzy drink and whatever else they have glass
(28:03):
of juice, and that's actually where they're getting a lot
of their excess calories. So actually really being review your
own diet as if you're analyzing yourself and be like, okay,
where is my weakness?
Speaker 4 (28:16):
And instead of trying to eat healthy all of the time,
I think.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
You better go out, Okay, just take one thing, be like, okay,
where's my weakness here in this day of what you're eating,
and you could even.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Start by before you do that is write.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
A journal of what you've been eating for about three days,
and then look at what you've been eating and be like, okay,
what would be my weakness here?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
And actually be honest with yourself and.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Then be like, Okay, I'm going to change that one
thing and you'll be blown away. How changing just a
couple of small things. So not trying to eat perfect
all the time, because nobody's going to do that, and
that's actually going to be more like a diet that
you're actually going to fall apart and end up back
doing what you were doing before.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
But instead just make a couple of little changes. I
like that because it feels manageable. Right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Don't really snack. I'm going to have to figure out
something else.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I mean, this probably wouldn't be your choice of This
wouldn't be your healthy habit that you were picking at
the end of this podcast.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
You eat no. Yeah, except that I do think I
get caught.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'm sure we can find some other bad habits, but
I get caught up with I get caught up with
worrying about eating too much process food. So I'm just
thinking though that my habit could be you know, don't
don't worry if you're having a muffin split, but it's
full of really healthy, high protein, you know, some salmon
and an egg and some spinach. You're just packaging in
(29:40):
something that's perhaps not you know, because I really do
like my carbohydrates and I do do some weight lifting
and things, so and that's whe're doing.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Anything too excessive on that dieting kind of pathway is
not going to be very sustainable.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
So for you can be like, Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Well maybe I'm going to have half a muffin split
rather than a whole one, and I'm going to load
it full of protein and a bit of edge on
the side, and like just trying to make it that
little bit healthier but still.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Something really enjoyable and something you really love.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
And I guess it's two. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Otherwise you can you can get really wound up, can't you.
Because the other thing I'm not doing as often is
having my fermented foods. And I know from everyone we've
talked to here how good it is for you to
have for me to food. But honestly, if I'm just
getting at least a teaspoon or for men to food
in a day is better than having.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Nothing yep, yep, and just hide it into something yeah yeah,
find a way of which meal could it fit into,
and you're kind of tucking it into the main main meals.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
If you wanted to go a step further and not
just you know, make sure you were eating well in general,
but you wanted to shift a little bit of weight
heading into somemer how do we do that sensibly?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Sensibly, I think looking at your meals and structuring them
around plenty of protein, which I'm sure you've had plenty
of other people talk.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
About the protests of protein, protein, and I.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Think that you know, it's not about going over the top,
like trying to just keep a simple dinner plate. And
I think that sort of old school mentality of like
a quarter of the plate carbohydrate, quarter protein, and a
whole lot of vegetables because you're getting all your antioxidants,
your fiber for your gut, and you're.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
Gonna feel really full. There's no for some.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
People like to feel really full. What I call a
volume eter, and I personally and one of them, I.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Love volume meter. I don't even need they had a name.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I love to eat that like big plate full of food,
lots of vegetables, and people are like, oh, you're going
to eat all that. I'm like, yes, i am. I
love vegetables and I'm going to eat a lot of them.
And I think that sometimes if you're on you know,
trying to eat healthier and you are a volumeter, bump
up the veges because you're still getting a big volume
(31:49):
of food, but you're actually getting more nutrients in they're
more fiber.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Which is good for the gut. You're going to feel
full of for longer.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And if you've pet it with plenty of protein and
a bit of carp you're going to feel happy and
you're going to feel sustained with the protein.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
So just keeping that balance. And then I.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Think just knowing that if you have, you know, across
the day, if you can aim for like, you know,
getting eighty percent goodness, and if.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
You have like a square of chocolate after.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
A meal you've had a good meal, you you shouldn't
really beat yourself up and be like, oh, I had
a piece of chocolate because if you kind of bring
that into your meals across the day and still have
some sort of regal room for like a chocolate bicky here,
or a piece of chocolate there, you actually will sustain
it and it will become a new habit because if
(32:38):
you go, okay, I'm not going to eat any processed
food and I'm not going to eat anything that has sugar,
and you're actually find that you'll never sustain that at all,
and then you'll feel guilty if you eat it, and
we don't want to feel guilty of adding food.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
My sugar craving always comes immediately after a meal. Yes, immediately,
So I have heard this. If you're going to have
your piece of chocolate or whatever, have it as close
to our to make it part of the kind of
you know, at the end of the meal, and then
it's done.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
What is another option for sugar craving.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I think that sometimes when we've got sugar cravings, we
shouldn't be trying to fill the sugar cravings with a
whole lot of other things, because quite often people will
be like, oh, well, I'm going to eat a dash
and I'm going to have you know, some cacaal drink
and all this other stuff, and then at the end
of the day they still want to eat the thing
they wanted to eat, and so instead they've eaten all
(33:28):
these other things and then they've still eaten their chocolate
biky or their piece of chocolate.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
So true.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
So I think sometimes you've actually just got to be like,
you know what, I really like that food and I
really feel like it. But instead of eating five chocolate bickies,
I'm going to have just one and actually eat it
in a controlled, regulated way without feeling any I do that.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I'm always going, okay, what's that sweet thing? So you
get your yogurt and your chees seeds out and you
put a little few berries in. You got okay, this
is my substitute sweet thing.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
And then it's still at the end of the day
going geez, I still quite like that, Tom Tamp.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I think that that's massive of like being like I
do get a sugar craving after having a meal. So
I'm gonna actually just put something there that sets yourself
up for success.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
We were talking about hydrating earlier as well, and you're
talking about water and if people aren't very good at
drinking water, maybe that's something that you attach you have
it stack with.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
If you're in a.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Job and you I don't know, you get up and
you go and get your coffee, or you get up
and you do this every time you get up and
go to the loop. Maybe on the way back you
go past the kitchen and you have a glass of water.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Maybe that's a waiter. That's one way of doing it. Otherwise,
like some people are good drink little people. People love
buying drink bottles online. By the way, Yeah, so whatever
kind of fancy drink littles they like, if that helps
them drink more water, awesome. The other thing is some
people actually don't like water, I've learned, and it might
be that they have it as herbal tea. So I
count herple tea as the water box as well, so
(34:56):
you get the eight cups of herbal tea is eight
cups of water.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Not if you're having coffee.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You can't have a cups of coffee instead of water
that you can have herbal tea. But it might be
that you get up in first thing, first habit, you
have as a glass of water soon as you wake up.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
I love a glass of water the fist the first
thing in the morning, and I think it's so.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Good and so easy and it becomes natural, and whether
you put lemon in it or not, honestly doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Just get the water in and then.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Maybe morning tea be like, Okay, I'm going to have
my coffee, but I'm going to have a glass or
two glasses of water, and then the same at lunch,
get your lunch out, have another.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Little glass of water. And I think just having structure
through the day helps you make sure that you actually
hit that water goal. Structure.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
I've created a myth around that in the morning, like
I just have to have it. My day cannot start.
My body will not function without that glass of water.
It absolutely can. I'm sure it'll be given. It into
a little myths.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
But the body adapts to how much water you give it.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So if you're used to not having much water, then
you actually don't recognize the first queue, so you can't
really rely on it and you'll go through the day
and your body's used to being quite dehydrated.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
So it actually adapts.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
The amazing thing about the body is it adapts to
good things, but it also adapts to bad habits that
we have. That actually means that our system runs kind
of in a more sluggish sort of way. And so
I think just knowing, like if you if you have
water drinking water as an obstacle, just find ways you
can do it. And even tucking in some lemon or
(36:24):
some cucumber slices or even theories is good, or you know,
even a bit of orange juice, like even if you
have to dilute you know, one part orange juice and
nine parts water just to get more like hydration.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
You know what, it still gives you.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
More water is bubbly water, the same if you carbonated it.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Well, there's mixed use on that one.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
But you know what, if you do a little bit
some bubbly water and some normal water, it's still going
to be helpful.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
My partner can only drink bubbly water, I think he's
created a myth around it as well.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I think, do what feels good for you and know
that there's no actual set rules around, like even diet
as such, like what works for one person doesn't work
for another.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
Mess around and find out for yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, and I think if you know, drinking a carbonated
water helps you feel like you've satisfied some other box,
whether it's having a special drink, then you know what,
it's better than having a big glass.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Of wine exactly what that's what I'm trying to avoid, right, Yeah, exercise,
I'm fairly good. Things interrupt all the time, getting sick,
somebody else getting sick, half injury injuries, knee injuries. Yeah,
we've had it all this, ye haven't we. I did
used to have a habit. If I'd get an injury,
I'd stop altogether. But now I've realized I have a
(37:45):
calf injury at the moment, actually there's no excuse at all,
and I actually really enjoying that that I can't get
up and run because it means I can do more
days of you know, lifting my weights and things.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I think that's where, like, we do have a lot
of obstacles towards exercise, and whether it's getting an injury
and that kind of stops that habit formation, or maybe
you don't even have a habit formation for around exercise
at all, or maybe you feel like you're too overweight
and you want to lose some weight before you get
into exercise. I think that we can bargain in our
minds so many things of why or what we can't
(38:19):
do when it comes to exercise, and I think it's
about creating that adapting to making sure it works for
your body. So if you've got an injury, doing a
type of another type of exercise, like I suggested to
your Francisca around you know, aqua jogging. Whenever it suggests
that to anyone, they think that I'm giving them something
that only like olderly people do in like some sort
(38:41):
of unitards. But actually, like it actually is a really
good exercise and if you've got an injury good.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Anious smiles with glee every time she mentions it, like,
you know, go and do it, and like she's going
to come in and watch and just laugh from the sign.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
I've done plenty of open jogging my time. All right,
jogging here I come.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
But I think it's like fighting an exercise that you
enjoy that doesn't feel like that's key to creating too
much of it. Have it.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Like if you hate running, don't run. Yeah, Like I
see this.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
All the time, people like I've been trying to get
into running, but I really don't enjoy.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
So I'm like, pack a different exercise.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Then. If you love walking, go for a walk. If
you love doing weight training, do weight training. If you
hate weight training, don't do weight training. Do something that
you love to do, whether it's a dance class, whatever
it is that really ticks your vibe.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
And makes you feel good and makes you feel your best.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
So what I would like to remind people is that
you don't always love what you're doing, but you might
love how you feel afterwards.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
That's generally.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I don't necessarily love shoulder presses, but I do love
when I'm finished. You know, I've done five different exercises
twelve times or whatever it is, and I feel good.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
But I think the more you do exercise as a habit,
the better you get that feeling. So when you're starting
out and you don't have the fitness for exercise, it
really does feel like a chore. And that's why you
don't want to go from doing no exercise to suddenly
be doing an hour a day at the gym, because
(40:14):
you'll you'll not be able to sustain that, and you'll
be so sore that that will then be your excuse
for not going to the gym because your muscles are
so sore. So I think actually just bringing in a
structure of starting small, if it's a exercise habit, something achievable,
something you love to do, and something that can become
a habit and become part of your daily flow, whether
(40:37):
it's walking to work instead of taking the car.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Yeah, and find a mate to do it with. Two.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
If you know that you're going to struggle to stick
with it initially and you just need to get through
those first couple of months of it's sort of becoming
a habit and you're seeing to enjoy it and feeling
the effects of it. Do it with a mate. You
can't even mate standing out in the rain at six
in the morning, can you.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Hey erin?
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Something that we hear a lot about these days when
we're talking about lot is the quality of our sleep.
And there are a lot of things that we can
be doing now, Lots of great little sleep hacks to
give us a good night sleep, aren't there.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
Yeah, we call it sleep hygiene.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
So like having those habits that actually set yourself up
for a good, healthy sleep. And I think that it's easy.
Like with modern technology is that we can be glued
onto devices super late, especially teenagers, but actually having like
a set sort of routine that you do as you
go to bed. And the interesting thing is that most
(41:34):
parents will do it with their babies and their young
children is that they kind of have a structure of
we have dinner, and then we have a little playtime,
and then we have a bath or we have a shower,
and then we lay bed story and then we sing
a little song that's the bedtime song, and then we
go to sleep. And I think that as we become adults,
(41:56):
we kind of get you put it like that obvious, Yeah,
and it works and most parents do it naturally. But
when it becomes adults, it's like, wow, we don't have
any routine. We kind of go to bed whenever we want.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Half the time you go, oh, look at the time,
I've got to go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Now, go to bed now, or you fall asleep on
the cab culture or some people try and work until
like twelve o'clock and then they go for their computer
to try.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
And lay in bed and they lay there wide and
they wonder why they can't get to sleep. But actually
having that routine of what you do leading into bed
of like it might be like usually might sleep. Hygiene
recommendations is like, you know, having devices off at nine
or nine point thirty, having a shower, having maybe a
(42:41):
cup of herbal tea, read a book or listen to
some relaxing music, or maybe do a meditation practice, and
you pack the things that really relate to you of
what you know really fits into your little routine that
you create for yourself, and then you know, having those
devices off and then you can actually wind down for
a good night's sleep, and it makes a massive difference
(43:02):
for sleep quality. The other big one is alcohol. We
cut back the alcohol. It's huge for sleep quality.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
And I'm so tough that we've got this far through
the podcast before we've mentioned alcohol.
Speaker 5 (43:15):
It was always going to come on here.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
But one thing I learned from Michael when we spoke
to him about sleep was also not beating myself up
if I wake up, because I might have done all
of those things erin and still two o'clock wake up,
but I have learned to just do some breathing.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Which is super common especially for women through hormone changes
and it might be either pre menstrual or through that
sort of menopause transition. Is having those wake ups and
not getting kind of stressing yourself out and like, oh,
why can't I sleep? But actually, you know, going back
to having some sort of sleep rituals that you do
in the night, like you do with the breathing, and
(43:56):
just be like, you know, what it's Okay, I'm awake,
but hopefully I'll fall back asleep.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Yeah, and let's just finish with talking about breathing and
meditation a little bit, because more people I talk to
it tell me that you know that they've started focusing
on their breathing and doing a little bit of meditation.
They might have never done an in the past, and
it's not quite quite what they expected, but.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
It can add real quality to a life, can't it. Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
And I think with meditation is that finding a type
of meditation that works for you, and it can be
simple breathing techniques or like I'm a huge fan of chanting,
which is not for everyone, but that's where meditation can
come in lots of different forms, and it's there's so
many amazing apps out there, and a lot of them
(44:41):
are itatily free that you can download. And sometimes if
you're new to meditation, it might be just starting that
habit of like doing a five minute meditation, so not
an hour, but a five minute meditation. And if you're
new to meditation, I'd always suggest trying a few different ones.
Maybe it's tr trying a breathing technique, trying a visualization
(45:03):
kind of guided meditation, trying a chanting one, which you
might think is you know, enjoyable or maybe we'd depending
on how much you.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Vibe with it.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
But actually try a few different things because they can
give you different experiences. And you might do one meditation
practice and be like, wow, that was amazing. I didn't think,
you know, a thousand thoughts a second while I was
doing the meditation, and I actually feel calm in my
body in my mind. One thing I do find is
an obstacle around meditation is when people have a lot
(45:34):
of anxiety, is that the last thing they want to
hear is someone say.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
You need to jug couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, quite often they actually need some other tools before
they get to the meditation part of their journey. And
that might be whether it's medication or using some supplements
and having or maybe their meditations, going for a walk,
but actually doing seated meditation. There's quite often a journey
before you get to that point.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
After having a daughter with severe anxiety, if somebody suggested
that she breathes, honestly, I just go, oh, she's going
to pick up the nearest thing to throw it at
that person's head.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
It just was not helpful.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
But you know, if we are in good mental health,
I suppose it can be a great thing to do
on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
I wasn't in great I wasn't in great shape when
I started meditation, but also I as an adult, and
I think that makes a difference. I just think I
did a chanty one the other day actually while we
were away, and I was a bit shocked when.
Speaker 5 (46:33):
She did it.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
At the end, it was a normal meditation, then she
went a chanty chanty or that's like she says, say.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
It with me. I was out in my head. But
if she quite liked it, I might try another one.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
And I think that's where like I think with meditation,
just being open minded around it and also having that
commitment to the habit because it will never be habit
at the start. And I always say, the time with
you need meditation and the most is the day you
don't want to do it, and that's the day where
you actually just sit and go through the process of
(47:06):
the meditation. And it might be more challenging on those days.
Because the thing is that I think people will have
this misconception around meditation is sitting there and being totally
at peace and the mind is empty. But actually, for
most people in the meditation is processing everything that's going
on in the mind, which can be for some days
(47:28):
very busy in that processing, and other days you'll have
this day that you'll be like, that was magic, and
I want another practice like that. And I think you've
got to go through the flows of knowing that every
meditation practice you'll do is different, and always start small
because it gives you that time to start to build
it up and let it be a habit, which means
(47:50):
that usually you need to have a time of the
day that you do it, so you will either be like, Okay,
I'm going to get up into it first in the morning,
or it's something I'm going to do as part of
my bedtime routine. And the more you do that, then
it will be a more healthy habit that becomes part
of you every day. I know I'm not the average
person because I've done meditations actually since I was a teenager.
(48:12):
I've taught yoga since I was about twenty, so not
the common thing. But if it's new to you, just
give it a go because you never know. It might
be something you love and it might be also something
that you're not quite ready for, and you want to
come back to maybe in a couple.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Of years time, and tell everybody you're about to do it,
because they will mum in the middle of your meditation.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Thanks not very nice, Thank you so much. Erin as
always so appreciate your time. You can find Erin at
Erinohara dot co dot NZD.
Speaker 5 (48:49):
We such creatures of habit, but we.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
Can't keep it to habits. We can't with such creatures
of habits. We get into our little routines and then
it seems just be so hard to do. Do you
know what really struck me though listening to Aaron talk
was actually we shouldn't underestimate a habit and how difficult
it can be to put into place. But she's right,
(49:12):
you've actually got a kind of go Okay, what is
it you want to do?
Speaker 4 (49:15):
Great? Now? Why an't you doing it? Is there a reason?
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Or is there an obstacle in your way? But I
really like the way she said. I think that I'm
probably a habit stacker. You know that I don't exercise
if I don't exercise in the morning. I've been saying
that for years. I just it will not happen. It
has to happen before breakfast. So I know that's how
habits work for me. So for me to put new
habits in place, I think I need a habit stack
(49:39):
if it needs to be associated with something else. But
I like the idea of just being precise about it.
Be precise about it, know exactly what you're going to do,
don't think about it, then just do it.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
Yeah, And I think to do what's right for you,
because I've tried the Sunday afternoon prep meal, prep for
lunches for the week, and baking for the week or whatever.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
God it's not me.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Good on you if you do it, totally rate it,
but I don't. I don't want to be that predictable.
Why do you know then I might be stuck with
the meal and we say that I don't want to
eat on me Wednesday, and that's just not me. I mean,
you know, that's the real point of this is that
what Errand's given us is a structure that we can
all use in our own way. So there's not there's
(50:23):
definitely not one way of doing it that's for everybody.
Let you see, you're a habit stacker. I'm if I
don't exercise in the morning, I'll have to do it
at night because it's the exercise that I want to do.
It doesn't I might not want to do it at night,
but I will make myself do it.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
So I think that's my takeaway.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Is that and the fact that you're a volume meter. Oh,
you're thrilled to heaven a name. I am thrilled to
have a name for that.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Actually, you can say to people, because I'll have some
more I'm a volumeter if you have to stroke that
one around now. Thank you so much for joining us
on a new Zealand here podcast series, Little Things. We
hope you share this podcast with the women in your
life so we all know that we can do habits
our own way exactly.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
And you can follow this podcast on iHeartRadio or if
you get your podcasts and for more on this and
other topics here to INZD Herald dot co dot INZT.
Speaker 4 (51:16):
We'll catch you next time on the Little Things
Hi, I'm Francesca Rudkin and I'm Louise Area and this
is season three of our New Zealand Herald podcast The
Little Things. It's a podcast where we talk to experts
and find out all the little things you need to
know to improve all areas of your life and cut
through the confusion and overload of information out there. So
in the weekend, we had a few days at Wahiki Island,
(00:29):
didn't we low lovely Yes, you, me and our mate Tony,
And it was just heaven. And we walked and swam
and read and did the mother of all foot peels
and took a breath and had a moment and it
was just divine.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It was a long overdue, simple little mini break, perfectly
time to reset before launching into you know, this time
of year, which can be quite busy. I can't even
believe I'm saying the sea word Christmas Daylight Savings is here.
The days are longer, It's time to reset some healthy habits.
But look, I honest I struggle with daylight saving change.
I think I've said this to you before. It's supposed
(01:04):
to be a spring forward, but I always feel ge
lagged and I go backwards for a couple of weeks,
especially on my morning routine. So this conversation is perfectly time.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The key to start that saving is you just ignore it.
You just go the time is the time, it is
what it is. You just ignore it and then it's
not a problem. Don't let it become a thing.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
But I've just gotten used to it being nice and
light to get up and do my whatever.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, and then it's.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But just say to yourself, oh but I remember when
I got up and it was dark. I've done this before.
This is fine, This is fine my body, it doesn't
pick it up.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Ignore it.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Isn't that terrible.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I have definitely picked up some bad habits though this winter,
and it's because I've been so inconsistent with my exercise
and things because of my bad knees.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Is everyone's sick of hearing about my bad knees? My mysterious?
Can I say bad neegs? No one seems to know
what's going on with knees? I definitely and craving more
of a sugar hit these days. I'm probably having a
glass of wine or two more than I know I should,
and I haven't. I have you use the knees as
an excuse to not do other forms of exercise, which
(02:05):
is and I know that there's stuff I can still do.
I know there's exercise I can still do and I
can keep moving, but it got really comfy not doing that.
I'm sort of keen to shake my body awake again,
letting it totally.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And look, I don't think a week or two of
a break is something to beat yourself up about.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's been like a couple of weeks of every month.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
You know, I love moving, I need to move.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I love the resistance training, but something, you know, if
you're filling your days with something, something else does tend
to give. And I loved meditation.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It really helped with my post cancer recovery and I
really miss it. So that's something I need to try
and fit back in somewhere without dropping something else. I
was also stretching fifteen minutes a night just in front
of the telly. It was really easy, and I've dropped
it again. What the hell I don't know, And so
I know what it feels good, I know what I.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Enjoy it, and I want to know why I sabotage it.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's quite interesting because I need to fix bad habits,
and you just want to put good habits in place.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And I think that probably says a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Would it make you feel any better if I said
I do way too much mindless social media scrolling, So
that has to go. It is an absolute waste of time.
It's not giving me anything.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Just said another epiphany there about our relationship. Oh that's
so true.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I'm kicking the bad habits. You're just putting more good
ones in place. Anyway, So we thought would give ourselves
some motivational kick in the pens. As always, we do
not want you to up into your life and take
on all the ideas we're going to talk about, but
maybe you will be inspired to to have a reset
of a healthy habit or two. We're going to cover
off getting into good nutrition, exercise, sleep, and breathing habits,
and we'll cover off how to shift some of that
(03:50):
weight that you may have. Well, I know I have
a layer of it over after winter and in a
healthy way. And what is I kind of want to
talk about what the differences between motivation and discipline. But
getting rid of a bad habit and replacing it with
a good habit, it takes commitment. So along with some
healthy habit hacks. Our guest today, natural path and yoga
(04:10):
teacher Erin O'Hara, it's going to talk us through how
to create healthy habits. You can find Erin at erinohara
dot com and she joins us now.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Welcome Hi.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It is a really good time to review and reset
our health, isn't it, Because as we've mentioned, more light
in the evenings, the weather's getting warmer. Lou and I
both got onto togs in the weekend and went swimming.
We're all just kind of thinking, oh, you know, maybe
it's time just to freshen up a little bit heading
into summer. Do you find that do you find your
clients are sort of saying, oh, might I just shift
(04:40):
some of that winter wait?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I think springs for real time that people rarely reflect
on their lifestyle, And I think sometimes in winter people
get a little bit lax.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
They might eat a little.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Bit more comfort food, maybe move their body a lot
less because it's raining outside or it's a bit gray,
they just don't.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Feel like it. And it kind of heads towards spring
and there's a longer.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Days, but more light, a little bit fresher outside, where
you feel a bit more motivated and maybe thinking heading
towards summer that they want to kind of feel good
in their beach body as well. So that kind of
motivates a lot of people. But actually, when it comes
to healthy habits, I think that most of us actually
know all the basics about being healthy. I think most
(05:20):
people know a little bit around healthy eating and exercise
and all the things they should do, and it's whether
they actually do them or not that actually matters and
being healthy. And I think that's where like it can
get really complicated, especially in this modern day world, because
there's so much information, and I think people can sometimes
put together their own plan and be like, I'm going
(05:41):
to do this and this and this and this and
this and this, and their list is so long that
actually they kind of get really motivated for one week
and then they can't sustain it because they've packed too
many healthy habits to kind of bring into their life
through this springtime.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I am a little bit of a beer that, But
isn't that funny because there's still twenty four hours in
the day every day of the year, But in the winter,
there's just that Oh I got up, you know, it's
too nice in bed or I got home too late
to do it then, or whatever it is. So we
kind of need some structure around those habits.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Sometimes I think it's as simple as well.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Actually, at the moment my body's covered's gonna no one's
gonna notice, no one's going to see. So if I
just you know, if I don't go out tonight and
go for my walk or do my exercise, but I
do finish those tim tams, it's all right.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
No one or not, you know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I think in summer, when we generally are out
and about and we sort of, you know, there might
be a bit of more flesh on show because it's.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Warmer and things.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I don't know, I just sort of always want to
feel fitter, and yeah, and health theory and a thing.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
In general with the light people want to feel lighter
as well, because they're out doing a lot more things,
whether it's you know, going to the beach with their
kids or having a swim. Not necessarily doing swimming as exercise,
but actually just they're out doing a lot more and
they want to feel they can feel lighter so they
can keep up with the kids, or just even feel
(07:04):
good doing some simple daily tasks outside.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, and I'm more likely to enter an event that's
in the spring or summer yet that i'd work towards,
and I would be in the winter as well. So yeah,
so we've established it's a perfect time to start thinking
about these things.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
We can have good intentions.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I think, as you say, I think most of us
all know what we should be doing, but how do
we actually motivate ourselves to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think that's where like a lot of people can
put together a list and they're like, I'm going to
do all these things, But you also can sometimes be
too broad of like putting on your healthy habits of
like drink more water, Like how are you actually going
to bring that into your day? And that's usually what
I always talk about in clinic. Okay, how are we
going to get you drinking more water? What is the
(07:48):
obstacle there? Is it that you don't like the.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Taste of water?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Is it that you don't have sort of like ostruction
to the day to kind of space out drinking water
or also common people might not have a thirst, then
they don't even think about them and they've got to
the end of the day and they'd be like, oh, actually,
I've only had one cup of water today, Why do
I feel so tired and fatigued and headachey at the
end of the day. And I think just bringing in
those habits and actually having actually structure to make sure
(08:15):
they happen and they don't have to be complicated things either.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Does no one ever say to you, Erin, I just
don't want to have to get up to the toilet
all the time, because.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
That's one of my barriers.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I think that does actually get said, probably more so
like people who have a job that they're like, I
just can't get up and go to the bathroom all day,
and then they don't want to drink too much in
the evening because then they don't want to get up
in the night. And I think that's where like having
you know, spacing it out actually means that you're not
going to be drinking you know, two leaders in one sitting,
(08:46):
but actually having little bits throughout the day and then
actually the bladder can cope with a lot better too.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
No, I'd agree with that, and we can come back
to some of those healthy hats because you've always said
to me, drink all your water before two and then
you won't need to get up and pee all night.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, that way, or.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Also like having it in between meals and making sure
like you've got a drink bottle, like I've got one
here today, and like I'll drink one of those in
the morning and then I fill it up at lunchime,
drinking the sick one like throughout the afternoon and kind
of like having little SIPs and then you're not kind
of loading in the water too much.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Okay, So we need our habit to be precise. Yes,
So we need to pick a habit, and then we
need to think fully about that habit, like, okay, that's
the habit, but actually, how am I going to put
it into play?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
So first you need to know what the habit is
that you want to create change, and whether it's changing
a bad habit that you have, maybe like stopping smoking,
or whether it's creating a new healthy habit which might
be something like you know, starting a meditation practice or
drinking more water, or is something that you're going to
change and you're eating, whether it's you know, stopping eating
(09:48):
your three o'clock chocolate bikies that you might have become
a new habit that you've created over the winter, months.
But actually you first need to know your habits, the
good and the bad, and know what habits you want
to create, and look for sort of patterns in your
behavior and what triggers the unhealthy habits. Is helpful if
you're trying to change an unhealthy habit or whether it's why.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
You're not doing the healthy habit.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So actually you can understand that behavioral change of what's
triggering it.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
And this is where it becomes a little bit deeper, really,
isn't it. And you've got to look inside yourself, maybe
a little bit more than you would hope to, because
there can be reasons why we have bad habits. You know,
we could be emotional eating, We could be eating for
stress reasons. We could be doing, you know, drinking a
couple of extra glasses of wine at not you know,
for stress reasons. If you want to really make a change,
(10:41):
you got to have a bit of an honest conversation,
don't you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You got to have an honest conversation and an honest
review of your own habits, which is also quite confronting,
especially things like that you might secretly do, like having
two chocolate bickase at three o'clock in the office because
the free and you want to get up from your desk,
or whether it's you know, you want a bit of
a fresh air break, so you actually go out and vape,
(11:05):
but you actually don't think about it why you're doing it.
But actually thinking of what those things are that you're
doing is the first step to create change. Like, if
you don't know what habits you want to change, then
you're never going to change anything. And I think that
actually having that honest review and then setting some realistic goals.
So not setting one hundred new habits because you're like
(11:28):
want to be the super healthy person, because you're just
setting yourself up for failure, but actually being realistic of Okay,
how many habits can I change at once? And what
simple things can you make change? And that's what I
always look at and kind of Okay, when someone's like
I want to get into exercise, I'm like, well, I'm
not going to send you to the gym for an
hour a day. I'll get you into marathon training if
(11:48):
you've never run before. I think that it's those little
steps of like creating a realistic goal that might be
like ten minutes walking every day, and that they do
in their lunch break, but actually something that they're actually
going to be like, oh yeah, I can actually achieve that.
And I think that's where sometimes when we set our
own goals, we actually sometimes set them something that we
(12:10):
actually can't achieve and actually fit into our crazy, busy lives.
And that's just insane that we actually do that to ourselves,
is that we think, Okay, we can do massive volumes
of extra habits and healthy you know, whether it's going
to the gym and prepping all these healthy meals, and
then we don't actually have time to do them, so
we actually can't actually achieve them.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Well, we've spoken about this, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
The one thing we've been really conscious about on the
show is not trying to get women to change everything
about their lives. But you know, there are little things
that we have been talking about, like you know, weight
resistance training, eating protein and things like that. But then
it does get to the point where you feel like
the whole wellness industry is just telling.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
You, telling you all the time what you have to
be doing. Oh yeah, and there is a fatigue that
comes with that.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It is it's like do this, do this, do this,
do this, do this, and it's like well, how far
have we come, Like from back of living on the
land and we used to just exit size would be
literally just working on the farm, to now we've got
all these things that we supposedly need to do to
be healthy, and actually what i'd call basic healthy eating
(13:11):
has become complicated, Like you can't really go wrong with
your three square meals a day, you know, a bit
of balance and like putting in more movement, whether it's
like like we did today, walk up the stairs rather
than take the lift, like simple things, And I think
that's where we don't need to make wellness being so complicated.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I mean, that could be your change for a month, right,
you could go, Okay, at my job, I'm going to
use the stairs every day and that's it, right, Yeah,
it's all you have to do.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Just something as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
And that's the one habit you're like, Okay, every time
we go to get in the lift, Nope, up the
stairs you go.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Because if we do change a habit, it does affect
our brain and how we feel, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
It does.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It makes a big change. And I think the hardest
bit about changing a habit is always the start.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Is that quite a and We've got like this.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Super motivation, especially the first few days, and then we're like, oh,
actually it's quite hard or you know, especially it's a
habit of like getting up and doing something in the morning,
like exercising, and you think too tired today, too sore
from yesterday's gym. I'll just have a sleep in today,
and then tomorrow think well, I didn't go yesterday, so
I'm just not going to go the next day. And
(14:22):
it's actually harder at the start because you're trying to
create that change and it's not habit, and it takes
time for it to become habit. And it's actually interesting.
I was pulling up some some research studies on how
long does it take to change a habit, and it's
like how long is a piece of string really, because
that actual time window is very variable, Like research shows
(14:42):
it can take anything from eighteen days to two hundred
and sixty six days to change a habit, which is huge, Like,
how are you going to stay motivated for two hundred
days for that?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Because one of my one of my bug bears is
you know, all of these little catch phrases of how
quickly you know, six weeks to a healthy habit weeks
to a healthy habit, fifteen hours to healthy habit, and
then you get disillusioned because you're like, I'm still having
to debate getting up out of bed this morning and
it's been six weeks, because how stupid. It's not actually
(15:13):
about how long. It's about that discipline of getting up
and doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I think it's that discipline, but also I think it's
about creating a healthy lifestyle. And I think that's where like,
if we make it something that we're going to sustain,
and at the start it'll be a habit, but eventually
it's going to become just like brushing our teeth, like
something we don't think about. Almost people don't think about
showering every day. They don't go for six days, and
(15:39):
they're like, I might have a shower today because I
haven't had a shower for six days. Like it just
becomes part of our natural kind of life flow that
happens at some point in the day. But at the
start a new habit is not going to be like that.
It's not going to flow into the London, into the
daily life.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Because I think you're very good at starting things and
out this whole you know, throughout the little things the
seasons that we've done. Louise is very good at putting
things in play or experimenting or giving them a go.
I tend to maybe find a few more obstacles.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Do you reckon that's the case.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I'm sort of I might be a little bit slower
to get off the mark, like you're like, oh, okay,
this is what I need to make it happen.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
I'll get what I need and off I go, and
I'll do this at all.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I mean, it can go through phases, but generally speaking, yes,
And that is kind of why I wanted to do this,
to get the expense to tell me or to get
rid of that noise and go, I've got all the
evidence I need now to make that happen. That's my motivation.
It's having the evidence, not my personal evidence. I haven't like,
(16:42):
you know, become muscle bound or anything yet. But if
they've told me and they've done all the work, then
that's the easy part.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
That's the part that's done for me. Now I just
have to get on and do it. Do you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Right?
Speaker 4 (16:52):
So, okay, so what's your obstacle?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I just find little obstacles. But I mean, I've I've
worked out ways to get over them. Like when I
get up in the morning and exercise, when we meet
up and run and stuff, it's pitch black. So the
night before I'd always put my running gear in the
bathroom so that I wasn't disturbing my partner, and I'd
get up and i'd go in there. But actually then
sometimes the end of the day, I go, oh, I've
got I get my gear. I've got to get my
outfit sort of for tomorrow. I've got to find on
(17:15):
my gear. And that was just starting to become so annoying.
And I know that it's a teeny tiny thing, right
you see. To me, we've got twenty four hours in
the day, and I get to the end of the down,
I go, I just want to get too bed. I
don't want to have to find a running shoes by my hat find.
So then I went and brought really cheap set of drawers,
like a bedside table's drawers, put them underneath the bench
in the bathroom, and all my running gear is in there.
(17:36):
So now when it's when it's washed and dried, it
goes into the drawers. Everything is always there. So when
I go to bed, don't have to think about it.
When I wake up, I want to go into the bathroom,
I just pull out the clothes, put them on the
hats there, watch us there, and off I go.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
And they probably is and that the right way in
so you don't turn out.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Louise generally turns up with it clothes inside out, which
is hilarious. But I know that sounds really silly, but
I just started to know it was an obstacle.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
But it's good to know those obstacles.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And I think that's where if you've packed a new
healthy habit that you're wanting to create, is actually knowing
what is your obstacles and what things will derail you.
So like if it's a food like eating thing that
you're going to change, like knowing, okay, having sugary biscuits
in the house is going to derail you from your
(18:24):
healthy eating plan because if you have a packet of biscuits,
you're going to eat not just one, You're gonna eat
the whole packet.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
And actually knowing.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
What your obstacles are because then you're sitting yourself up
for success. And like for you with you know, having
the running gear there ready to go. It's one less
habit that you had to create of like, oh, I've
got to get ready for the running in the morning,
but instead it's already done. And the more you can
make that happen in that easy way of making the
habit happen the next day, you're actually sitting yourself up
(18:54):
for success.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
The other thing that I would.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Always suggest with people, because I've noticed a lot of
people find healthy lunch is their hardest thing in their day.
So if that is one of your healthy habits, then
one of my recommendations is always make lots of dinner.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
People make great dinners. One thing I've learned after reading.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Thousands of people's eating habits is that ninety nine percent
of people eat really well for dinner. They just tend
to eat meat, three vegs, good variety. They make a
big effort when it comes to lunch. Honestly, a lot
of people don't make big efforts for lunches. They're kind
of like on the go, whatever they can find, whatever
(19:32):
they can grab. And so if you make more dinner,
you literally just make a bigger volume. Put it in
a container. It's ready in the fridge, Grab the container
and go in the morning and you've got lunch.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I like that you were talking about, lou the difference
between motivation and discipline, And I can remember reading someone
was saying somewhere when you make a decision that you're
can do something and create a habit, don't make it
a question. So don't question yourself and go to wake
up this one.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Oh Am I going to go for that today? Or
am I not?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It's not a question. It's just a definitive thing you
are going to do. I'm going to get up and
go to the gym. I'm going to get up and
go for my run. Like you don't allow it to
become a question.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Any vagary about it.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, yeah, And I think it's just making it part
of you and the more you can make it flow
into life and being something that's non negotiable and something
that you do. At the start, you will try and
bargain with your own self of like, don't feel like
doing that today, might do it tomorrow. And that's where
(20:34):
we really fall off the bandwagon of keeping up with
our healthy habits, is that we have to just step
into the challenge of knowing what derails us, what are
our obstacles, and then actually pushing through those obstacles and
those challenges, because quite often the days that we don't
want to do our healthy habit is usually when we're
having a bad day, what we'll call a bad day,
(20:56):
and then we're not motivated to do something that's good
for us and makes it our day even worse. And
that's the most common one I see with meditation practice.
When people get into doing a meditation practice as a
healthy habit, and commonly they get to a day where
they actually just feel terrible that I don't.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Feel like doing it.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
They feel negative, and actually if they just sat down
for ten minutes into meditation, the.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Day gets easier.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
But actually, quite often they don't want to do it,
and they do one hundred and one other things for
an hour and then they sit down and meditate and
then go, oh, actually one and I just do it
in the first place. And I think that's where quite
often we are our biggest obstacle.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
We're self sabotage, like there's no tomorrow and.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
We're impatient, aren't we to get safe? For example, it's
a running goal or a resistance training goal, and I've
been trying to get up to fifty kilograms inch pressing,
and then I got so wound up because I sort
of plateaued at one point and I just wanted to
throw it away.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yeah you're a good starter, but you don't like pleasure.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Or if it was like I've been doing this for
a while now and those pants still don't fit, you know,
and it's just why are we so impatient? And is
it bad for us all good for us to be impatient?
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I think the plateaus are probably the most challenging thing
in health, like, especially when it comes to things like
weight loss or something that you're challenging yourself to kind
of build up and get more strength or run further.
Is actually we get to that plateau and we think, oh,
I've put in all this effort and I still haven't
achieved my goal.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
What's the point?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
And then actually, instead of continuing on, quite often that's
the end of that healthy goal and we move on
to a new healthy goal.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
And actually it doesn't actually help us through.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And I think when it comes to things like particularly
weight loss, is when you hit that plateau, instead of
being like, oh, I can't lose any more weight, instead
going okay, what else can I change?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
That's going to get me back on track? Or what
else do I need to do?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Do you need to seek more advice from somebody else
that gives you some more tips and tricks that can
help you kind of stay on track?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Why have you hit that plato? What is the obstacle there?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Rather than going okay, that's the end of that goal,
let's move on to something new. And I think naturally
that's what we tend to do. We get to our
plano and we give up. Can keeping a record somehow
help absolutely like having that ability of like tracking, And
it's something if I'm giving somebody a meditation practice, I
always give them their advice of writing a journal, because
(23:33):
then they kind of journal their journey through meditation. And
even I say, even if it's just ticking on the
page of like tick I did the meditation.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Today, doesn't have to be a long story.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Of what happened in meditation or how you feel today,
but actually just that you actually sat down and did
it and actually going through that motion of like being
like cool, I'm up to day thirteen today. And then
the further you get in and there's interesting research on
this as well, the wh that you get into a
healthy habit and the meant nune of days. The more
(24:04):
committed we are to that habit because we think, oh,
I've done this now for forty days, so I better
keep up and keep going rather than like giving up.
And it also becomes more natural the further we are
into having that new healthy habit. Is that if it's
only been three days, we're not that committed to it.
But if we've been doing the same healthy habit for
(24:26):
sixty days, we're actually like, actually, you know what, I
can do it today, and we actually know the benefit
that we get from the healthy habit too.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
What's habit stacking?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Habit stacking that's a really interesting one and it's probably
more a sort of modern sort of term, but it's
pairing habits together. So something that you already.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Associating a habit with something you already do.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yes, okay, So habit might be, for instance, pairing it
with brushing your teeth, so every morning you brush your
teeth and you might be like, I'm going to brush
my tea and then I'm going to sit down and
do ten minutes meditation. So you've paired your new habit
with an old habit that you already have and I
think that's where like trying to fit in, like whether
(25:11):
it's you know, meditation or exercise, we need to kind
of have an idea of women going to do it
in the day, and the more you can stack it
onto something else you already do, like you're going to
go to the gym and then have breakfast because you
have breakfast every day, which there's mixed views on that,
but anyway, we won't get into that. But you're pairing
(25:31):
it together that you're more likely to have be setting
yourself up for success because you've kind of have a
structure to where it's flowing into your day.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Anyway. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Maybe my running ice attached to Louise. Louise's got up
and she's waiting for me, therefore I have to go
and meet you.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
But you know what that works.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
It's good motivation, like and also it's something you get
up and you go like it's the first thing you did.
If you kind of planned that you were just going
to run, you know, for times a week, and you
didn't put any idea when you're going to do the running,
then it might not happen because you might get up
in the morning be like actually, I think I'm going
to do it at lunchtime today, and lunch time comes,
(26:11):
actually I'm going to do it after work today. And
that's where the habit stacking really works, because you've stacked
it into the where it's going in the day, and
what's it going next to with other habits that you
already do.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
You're listening to the little things and I guess on
the podcast today is Natural Path and Yogati to Erin O'Hara.
We'll be back shortly after this break. Erin, You've got
so many great little tips for how to handle a
lot of the things that we want to change, and
I'm wondering if we can just go through a few
(26:44):
with them and think about some habits that we could do.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
As you said, a lot of us know.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
What we should be eating, but if we are just
thinking in general that we want, you know, to tidy
up our nutrition and eat better, what would you suggest
would we start?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think the first thing to start when it comes
to nutrition is be truly honest to yourself of what
you think your downfall is. So whether you know that
you snack all day, or whether you know that you
tend to binge eat anything that's in the cupboard. So
actually knowing what your weakness is and actually then you
(27:21):
can create the change. The second one when it comes
to like a nutrition side, I think that quite often
because food is so accessible in this modern day and age,
is actually going back to like having the habit of
three meals a day because you're going to be a
lot more successful of like cutting back on snacks.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
No snacks.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
No snacks and no snacks are haah you Honestly, most
people eat nearly like more than half their calories and
snacks because usually when we snack, it's not usually eating
carrot sticks. Most people when they eat snacks, they eat
you know, musy bars and chocolate biscuits and you know,
glass of fizzy drink and whatever else they have glass
(28:03):
of juice, and that's actually where they're getting a lot
of their excess calories. So actually really being review your
own diet as if you're analyzing yourself and be like, okay,
where is my weakness?
Speaker 4 (28:16):
And instead of trying to eat healthy all of the time,
I think.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
You better go out, Okay, just take one thing, be like, okay,
where's my weakness here in this day of what you're eating,
and you could even.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Start by before you do that is write.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
A journal of what you've been eating for about three days,
and then look at what you've been eating and be like, okay,
what would be my weakness here?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
And actually be honest with yourself and.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Then be like, Okay, I'm going to change that one
thing and you'll be blown away. How changing just a
couple of small things. So not trying to eat perfect
all the time, because nobody's going to do that, and
that's actually going to be more like a diet that
you're actually going to fall apart and end up back
doing what you were doing before.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
But instead just make a couple of little changes. I
like that because it feels manageable. Right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Don't really snack. I'm going to have to figure out
something else.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I mean, this probably wouldn't be your choice of This
wouldn't be your healthy habit that you were picking at
the end of this podcast.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
You eat no. Yeah, except that I do think I
get caught.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'm sure we can find some other bad habits, but
I get caught up with I get caught up with
worrying about eating too much process food. So I'm just
thinking though that my habit could be you know, don't
don't worry if you're having a muffin split, but it's
full of really healthy, high protein, you know, some salmon
and an egg and some spinach. You're just packaging in
(29:40):
something that's perhaps not you know, because I really do
like my carbohydrates and I do do some weight lifting
and things, so and that's whe're doing.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Anything too excessive on that dieting kind of pathway is
not going to be very sustainable.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
So for you can be like, Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Well maybe I'm going to have half a muffin split
rather than a whole one, and I'm going to load
it full of protein and a bit of edge on
the side, and like just trying to make it that
little bit healthier but still.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Something really enjoyable and something you really love.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
And I guess it's two. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Otherwise you can you can get really wound up, can't you.
Because the other thing I'm not doing as often is
having my fermented foods. And I know from everyone we've
talked to here how good it is for you to
have for me to food. But honestly, if I'm just
getting at least a teaspoon or for men to food
in a day is better than having.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Nothing yep, yep, and just hide it into something yeah yeah,
find a way of which meal could it fit into,
and you're kind of tucking it into the main main meals.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
If you wanted to go a step further and not
just you know, make sure you were eating well in general,
but you wanted to shift a little bit of weight
heading into somemer how do we do that sensibly?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Sensibly, I think looking at your meals and structuring them
around plenty of protein, which I'm sure you've had plenty
of other people talk.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
About the protests of protein, protein, and I.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Think that you know, it's not about going over the top,
like trying to just keep a simple dinner plate. And
I think that sort of old school mentality of like
a quarter of the plate carbohydrate, quarter protein, and a
whole lot of vegetables because you're getting all your antioxidants,
your fiber for your gut, and you're.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
Gonna feel really full. There's no for some.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
People like to feel really full. What I call a
volume eter, and I personally and one of them, I.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Love volume meter. I don't even need they had a name.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I love to eat that like big plate full of food,
lots of vegetables, and people are like, oh, you're going
to eat all that. I'm like, yes, i am. I
love vegetables and I'm going to eat a lot of them.
And I think that sometimes if you're on you know,
trying to eat healthier and you are a volumeter, bump
up the veges because you're still getting a big volume
(31:49):
of food, but you're actually getting more nutrients in they're
more fiber.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Which is good for the gut. You're going to feel
full of for longer.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And if you've pet it with plenty of protein and
a bit of carp you're going to feel happy and
you're going to feel sustained with the protein.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
So just keeping that balance. And then I.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Think just knowing that if you have, you know, across
the day, if you can aim for like, you know,
getting eighty percent goodness, and if.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
You have like a square of chocolate after.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
A meal you've had a good meal, you you shouldn't
really beat yourself up and be like, oh, I had
a piece of chocolate because if you kind of bring
that into your meals across the day and still have
some sort of regal room for like a chocolate bicky here,
or a piece of chocolate there, you actually will sustain
it and it will become a new habit because if
(32:38):
you go, okay, I'm not going to eat any processed
food and I'm not going to eat anything that has sugar,
and you're actually find that you'll never sustain that at all,
and then you'll feel guilty if you eat it, and
we don't want to feel guilty of adding food.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
My sugar craving always comes immediately after a meal. Yes, immediately,
So I have heard this. If you're going to have
your piece of chocolate or whatever, have it as close
to our to make it part of the kind of
you know, at the end of the meal, and then
it's done.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
What is another option for sugar craving.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I think that sometimes when we've got sugar cravings, we
shouldn't be trying to fill the sugar cravings with a
whole lot of other things, because quite often people will
be like, oh, well, I'm going to eat a dash
and I'm going to have you know, some cacaal drink
and all this other stuff, and then at the end
of the day they still want to eat the thing
they wanted to eat, and so instead they've eaten all
(33:28):
these other things and then they've still eaten their chocolate
biky or their piece of chocolate.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
So true.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
So I think sometimes you've actually just got to be like,
you know what, I really like that food and I
really feel like it. But instead of eating five chocolate bickies,
I'm going to have just one and actually eat it
in a controlled, regulated way without feeling any I do that.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I'm always going, okay, what's that sweet thing? So you
get your yogurt and your chees seeds out and you
put a little few berries in. You got okay, this
is my substitute sweet thing.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
And then it's still at the end of the day
going geez, I still quite like that, Tom Tamp.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I think that that's massive of like being like I
do get a sugar craving after having a meal. So
I'm gonna actually just put something there that sets yourself
up for success.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
We were talking about hydrating earlier as well, and you're
talking about water and if people aren't very good at
drinking water, maybe that's something that you attach you have
it stack with.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
If you're in a.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Job and you I don't know, you get up and
you go and get your coffee, or you get up
and you do this every time you get up and
go to the loop. Maybe on the way back you
go past the kitchen and you have a glass of water.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Maybe that's a waiter. That's one way of doing it. Otherwise,
like some people are good drink little people. People love
buying drink bottles online. By the way, Yeah, so whatever
kind of fancy drink littles they like, if that helps
them drink more water, awesome. The other thing is some
people actually don't like water, I've learned, and it might
be that they have it as herbal tea. So I
count herple tea as the water box as well, so
(34:56):
you get the eight cups of herbal tea is eight
cups of water.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Not if you're having coffee.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You can't have a cups of coffee instead of water
that you can have herbal tea. But it might be
that you get up in first thing, first habit, you
have as a glass of water soon as you wake up.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
I love a glass of water the fist the first
thing in the morning, and I think it's so.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Good and so easy and it becomes natural, and whether
you put lemon in it or not, honestly doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Just get the water in and then.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Maybe morning tea be like, Okay, I'm going to have
my coffee, but I'm going to have a glass or
two glasses of water, and then the same at lunch,
get your lunch out, have another.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Little glass of water. And I think just having structure
through the day helps you make sure that you actually
hit that water goal. Structure.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
I've created a myth around that in the morning, like
I just have to have it. My day cannot start.
My body will not function without that glass of water.
It absolutely can. I'm sure it'll be given. It into
a little myths.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
But the body adapts to how much water you give it.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So if you're used to not having much water, then
you actually don't recognize the first queue, so you can't
really rely on it and you'll go through the day
and your body's used to being quite dehydrated.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
So it actually adapts.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
The amazing thing about the body is it adapts to
good things, but it also adapts to bad habits that
we have. That actually means that our system runs kind
of in a more sluggish sort of way. And so
I think just knowing, like if you if you have
water drinking water as an obstacle, just find ways you
can do it. And even tucking in some lemon or
(36:24):
some cucumber slices or even theories is good, or you know,
even a bit of orange juice, like even if you
have to dilute you know, one part orange juice and
nine parts water just to get more like hydration.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
You know what, it still gives you.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
More water is bubbly water, the same if you carbonated it.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Well, there's mixed use on that one.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
But you know what, if you do a little bit
some bubbly water and some normal water, it's still going
to be helpful.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
My partner can only drink bubbly water, I think he's
created a myth around it as well.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I think, do what feels good for you and know
that there's no actual set rules around, like even diet
as such, like what works for one person doesn't work
for another.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
Mess around and find out for yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, and I think if you know, drinking a carbonated
water helps you feel like you've satisfied some other box,
whether it's having a special drink, then you know what,
it's better than having a big glass.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Of wine exactly what that's what I'm trying to avoid, right, Yeah, exercise,
I'm fairly good. Things interrupt all the time, getting sick,
somebody else getting sick, half injury injuries, knee injuries. Yeah,
we've had it all this, ye haven't we. I did
used to have a habit. If I'd get an injury,
I'd stop altogether. But now I've realized I have a
(37:45):
calf injury at the moment, actually there's no excuse at all,
and I actually really enjoying that that I can't get
up and run because it means I can do more
days of you know, lifting my weights and things.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I think that's where, like, we do have a lot
of obstacles towards exercise, and whether it's getting an injury
and that kind of stops that habit formation, or maybe
you don't even have a habit formation for around exercise
at all, or maybe you feel like you're too overweight
and you want to lose some weight before you get
into exercise. I think that we can bargain in our
minds so many things of why or what we can't
(38:19):
do when it comes to exercise, and I think it's
about creating that adapting to making sure it works for
your body. So if you've got an injury, doing a
type of another type of exercise, like I suggested to
your Francisca around you know, aqua jogging. Whenever it suggests
that to anyone, they think that I'm giving them something
that only like olderly people do in like some sort
(38:41):
of unitards. But actually, like it actually is a really
good exercise and if you've got an injury good.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Anious smiles with glee every time she mentions it, like,
you know, go and do it, and like she's going
to come in and watch and just laugh from the sign.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
I've done plenty of open jogging my time. All right,
jogging here I come.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
But I think it's like fighting an exercise that you
enjoy that doesn't feel like that's key to creating too
much of it. Have it.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Like if you hate running, don't run. Yeah, Like I
see this.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
All the time, people like I've been trying to get
into running, but I really don't enjoy.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
So I'm like, pack a different exercise.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Then. If you love walking, go for a walk. If
you love doing weight training, do weight training. If you
hate weight training, don't do weight training. Do something that
you love to do, whether it's a dance class, whatever
it is that really ticks your vibe.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
And makes you feel good and makes you feel your best.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
So what I would like to remind people is that
you don't always love what you're doing, but you might
love how you feel afterwards.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
That's generally.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I don't necessarily love shoulder presses, but I do love
when I'm finished. You know, I've done five different exercises
twelve times or whatever it is, and I feel good.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
But I think the more you do exercise as a habit,
the better you get that feeling. So when you're starting
out and you don't have the fitness for exercise, it
really does feel like a chore. And that's why you
don't want to go from doing no exercise to suddenly
be doing an hour a day at the gym, because
(40:14):
you'll you'll not be able to sustain that, and you'll
be so sore that that will then be your excuse
for not going to the gym because your muscles are
so sore. So I think actually just bringing in a
structure of starting small, if it's a exercise habit, something achievable,
something you love to do, and something that can become
a habit and become part of your daily flow, whether
(40:37):
it's walking to work instead of taking the car.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Yeah, and find a mate to do it with. Two.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
If you know that you're going to struggle to stick
with it initially and you just need to get through
those first couple of months of it's sort of becoming
a habit and you're seeing to enjoy it and feeling
the effects of it. Do it with a mate. You
can't even mate standing out in the rain at six
in the morning, can you.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Hey erin?
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Something that we hear a lot about these days when
we're talking about lot is the quality of our sleep.
And there are a lot of things that we can
be doing now, Lots of great little sleep hacks to
give us a good night sleep, aren't there.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
Yeah, we call it sleep hygiene.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
So like having those habits that actually set yourself up
for a good, healthy sleep. And I think that it's easy.
Like with modern technology is that we can be glued
onto devices super late, especially teenagers, but actually having like
a set sort of routine that you do as you
go to bed. And the interesting thing is that most
(41:34):
parents will do it with their babies and their young
children is that they kind of have a structure of
we have dinner, and then we have a little playtime,
and then we have a bath or we have a shower,
and then we lay bed story and then we sing
a little song that's the bedtime song, and then we
go to sleep. And I think that as we become adults,
(41:56):
we kind of get you put it like that obvious, Yeah,
and it works and most parents do it naturally. But
when it becomes adults, it's like, wow, we don't have
any routine. We kind of go to bed whenever we want.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Half the time you go, oh, look at the time,
I've got to go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Now, go to bed now, or you fall asleep on
the cab culture or some people try and work until
like twelve o'clock and then they go for their computer
to try.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
And lay in bed and they lay there wide and
they wonder why they can't get to sleep. But actually
having that routine of what you do leading into bed
of like it might be like usually might sleep. Hygiene
recommendations is like, you know, having devices off at nine
or nine point thirty, having a shower, having maybe a
(42:41):
cup of herbal tea, read a book or listen to
some relaxing music, or maybe do a meditation practice, and
you pack the things that really relate to you of
what you know really fits into your little routine that
you create for yourself, and then you know, having those
devices off and then you can actually wind down for
a good night's sleep, and it makes a massive difference
(43:02):
for sleep quality. The other big one is alcohol. We
cut back the alcohol. It's huge for sleep quality.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
And I'm so tough that we've got this far through
the podcast before we've mentioned alcohol.
Speaker 5 (43:15):
It was always going to come on here.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
But one thing I learned from Michael when we spoke
to him about sleep was also not beating myself up
if I wake up, because I might have done all
of those things erin and still two o'clock wake up,
but I have learned to just do some breathing.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Which is super common especially for women through hormone changes
and it might be either pre menstrual or through that
sort of menopause transition. Is having those wake ups and
not getting kind of stressing yourself out and like, oh,
why can't I sleep? But actually, you know, going back
to having some sort of sleep rituals that you do
in the night, like you do with the breathing, and
(43:56):
just be like, you know, what it's Okay, I'm awake,
but hopefully I'll fall back asleep.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Yeah, and let's just finish with talking about breathing and
meditation a little bit, because more people I talk to
it tell me that you know that they've started focusing
on their breathing and doing a little bit of meditation.
They might have never done an in the past, and
it's not quite quite what they expected, but.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
It can add real quality to a life, can't it. Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
And I think with meditation is that finding a type
of meditation that works for you, and it can be
simple breathing techniques or like I'm a huge fan of chanting,
which is not for everyone, but that's where meditation can
come in lots of different forms, and it's there's so
many amazing apps out there, and a lot of them
(44:41):
are itatily free that you can download. And sometimes if
you're new to meditation, it might be just starting that
habit of like doing a five minute meditation, so not
an hour, but a five minute meditation. And if you're
new to meditation, I'd always suggest trying a few different ones.
Maybe it's tr trying a breathing technique, trying a visualization
(45:03):
kind of guided meditation, trying a chanting one, which you
might think is you know, enjoyable or maybe we'd depending
on how much you.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Vibe with it.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
But actually try a few different things because they can
give you different experiences. And you might do one meditation
practice and be like, wow, that was amazing. I didn't think,
you know, a thousand thoughts a second while I was
doing the meditation, and I actually feel calm in my
body in my mind. One thing I do find is
an obstacle around meditation is when people have a lot
(45:34):
of anxiety, is that the last thing they want to
hear is someone say.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
You need to jug couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, quite often they actually need some other tools before
they get to the meditation part of their journey. And
that might be whether it's medication or using some supplements
and having or maybe their meditations, going for a walk,
but actually doing seated meditation. There's quite often a journey
before you get to that point.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
After having a daughter with severe anxiety, if somebody suggested
that she breathes, honestly, I just go, oh, she's going
to pick up the nearest thing to throw it at
that person's head.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
It just was not helpful.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
But you know, if we are in good mental health,
I suppose it can be a great thing to do
on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
I wasn't in great I wasn't in great shape when
I started meditation, but also I as an adult, and
I think that makes a difference. I just think I
did a chanty one the other day actually while we
were away, and I was a bit shocked when.
Speaker 5 (46:33):
She did it.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
At the end, it was a normal meditation, then she
went a chanty chanty or that's like she says, say.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
It with me. I was out in my head. But
if she quite liked it, I might try another one.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
And I think that's where like I think with meditation,
just being open minded around it and also having that
commitment to the habit because it will never be habit
at the start. And I always say, the time with
you need meditation and the most is the day you
don't want to do it, and that's the day where
you actually just sit and go through the process of
(47:06):
the meditation. And it might be more challenging on those days.
Because the thing is that I think people will have
this misconception around meditation is sitting there and being totally
at peace and the mind is empty. But actually, for
most people in the meditation is processing everything that's going
on in the mind, which can be for some days
(47:28):
very busy in that processing, and other days you'll have
this day that you'll be like, that was magic, and
I want another practice like that. And I think you've
got to go through the flows of knowing that every
meditation practice you'll do is different, and always start small
because it gives you that time to start to build
it up and let it be a habit, which means
(47:50):
that usually you need to have a time of the
day that you do it, so you will either be like, Okay,
I'm going to get up into it first in the morning,
or it's something I'm going to do as part of
my bedtime routine. And the more you do that, then
it will be a more healthy habit that becomes part
of you every day. I know I'm not the average
person because I've done meditations actually since I was a teenager.
(48:12):
I've taught yoga since I was about twenty, so not
the common thing. But if it's new to you, just
give it a go because you never know. It might
be something you love and it might be also something
that you're not quite ready for, and you want to
come back to maybe in a couple.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Of years time, and tell everybody you're about to do it,
because they will mum in the middle of your meditation.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Thanks not very nice, Thank you so much. Erin as
always so appreciate your time. You can find Erin at
Erinohara dot co dot NZD.
Speaker 5 (48:49):
We such creatures of habit, but we.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
Can't keep it to habits. We can't with such creatures
of habits. We get into our little routines and then
it seems just be so hard to do. Do you
know what really struck me though listening to Aaron talk
was actually we shouldn't underestimate a habit and how difficult
it can be to put into place. But she's right,
(49:12):
you've actually got a kind of go Okay, what is
it you want to do?
Speaker 4 (49:15):
Great? Now? Why an't you doing it? Is there a reason?
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Or is there an obstacle in your way? But I
really like the way she said. I think that I'm
probably a habit stacker. You know that I don't exercise
if I don't exercise in the morning. I've been saying
that for years. I just it will not happen. It
has to happen before breakfast. So I know that's how
habits work for me. So for me to put new
habits in place, I think I need a habit stack
(49:39):
if it needs to be associated with something else. But
I like the idea of just being precise about it.
Be precise about it, know exactly what you're going to do,
don't think about it, then just do it.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
Yeah, And I think to do what's right for you,
because I've tried the Sunday afternoon prep meal, prep for
lunches for the week, and baking for the week or whatever.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
God it's not me.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Good on you if you do it, totally rate it,
but I don't. I don't want to be that predictable.
Why do you know then I might be stuck with
the meal and we say that I don't want to
eat on me Wednesday, and that's just not me. I mean,
you know, that's the real point of this is that
what Errand's given us is a structure that we can
all use in our own way. So there's not there's
(50:23):
definitely not one way of doing it that's for everybody.
Let you see, you're a habit stacker. I'm if I
don't exercise in the morning, I'll have to do it
at night because it's the exercise that I want to do.
It doesn't I might not want to do it at night,
but I will make myself do it.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
So I think that's my takeaway.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Is that and the fact that you're a volume meter. Oh,
you're thrilled to heaven a name. I am thrilled to
have a name for that.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Actually, you can say to people, because I'll have some
more I'm a volumeter if you have to stroke that
one around now. Thank you so much for joining us
on a new Zealand here podcast series, Little Things. We
hope you share this podcast with the women in your
life so we all know that we can do habits
our own way exactly.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
And you can follow this podcast on iHeartRadio or if
you get your podcasts and for more on this and
other topics here to INZD Herald dot co dot INZT.
Speaker 4 (51:16):
We'll catch you next time on the Little Things
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