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Use Habit Stacking to Get Healthy
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.
A woman in Portland, Oregon started her daily exercise habit with one activity – walking her dog. Lindsay Kee then added movements to this daily activity. Before leaving on the walk, she did some standing stretches. On her return, she did other exercises such as jumping jacks.
Over time, Kee added more exercises around the dog walk. She said adding exercises to an existing activity took the pressure off of creating a whole new daily exercise. And now more than a year later, she consistently exercises around the dog walk.
Kee said, “I’ve found it to be really effective in helping me be consistent with things that I really do want to do.”
What Kee did is called habit stacking. Writer S.J. Scott created this term for his 2014 book of the same name. The idea behind habit stacking is to attach something you want to start doing to something you already do every day.
A common example is flossing your teeth after brushing them. However, you can use habit stacking in many areas of your daily life. Kee, for example, places her vitamins next to the coffee machine. This helps her remember to take them every morning.
Exercise experts say habit stacking is especially helpful if you are trying to increase exercise time.
Dana Santas is a movement expert who has trained more than 50 professional sports teams. She combines exercise habits with personal health care. For example, Santas does push-ups before every shower. And she does leg exercises while brushing her teeth. She says that her electric toothbrush makes a sound every 30 seconds to remind her to brush different teeth. But she uses the reminder to change her exercises. “It’s perfect,” she added.
Two minutes of exercise may not get you in shape. But, experts say every little bit helps. Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest getting 150 minutes of moderate activity, like a fast walk, every week. Or you could also get 75 minutes of very energetic activity, like jogging, every week. The health experts also suggest two days a week of strength training.
Most people find keeping new habits difficult. And while habit stacking is not a perfect solution, it does help with one barrier -- decision-making.
Gretchen Rubin is the writer of Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. She said habit stacking is one of the best ways to start and keep new habits. The technique helps to remove the barrier of deciding when or if to do something.
Rubin shared a story of her college days. To help her stay active, she would only shower if she had exercised that day.
She suggested combining the new, or what she calls “shaky,” behavior with something you have to do or deeply want to do.
“So you have to do the shaky habit before you get to the strong habit,” Rubin said. If she wants to listen to a podcast, her strong habit, she must do it while exercising on a running machine. For her, this will strengthen her shaky habit.
And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report. I’m Anna Matteo.
Albert Stumm reported this story for The Associated Press. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
habit – n. a usual manner of behavior or thinking
jumping jacks – n. a conditioning exercise performed from a standing position by jumping to a position with legs spread and arms raised and then to the original position
shower – v. a bath in which water is sprayed on a person; also – n. a device for providing such a bath
consistently – adv. being unchanging in behavior or beliefs
stack – n. an orderly pile of objects usually one on top of the other; also – v. to arrange in or form a stack
floss – v. to use dental floss on one’s teeth : dental floss – n. a thread used to clean between the teeth
vitamin – n. any of various substances that are necessary in very small amounts to the nutrition of most animals and some plants, that are important to the control of growth and development by activating and assisting in the function of enzymes, and that are present naturally in many foods or in some cases are produced within the body
push-up – n. a conditioning exercise performed in a prone position by raising and lowering the body with the straightening and bending of the arms while keeping the back straight and supporting the body on the hands and toes
moderate – adj. avoiding or lacking extremes (as in behavior or temperature)
shaky – adj. lacking in firmness (as of beliefs or principles)