Most of us lead busy lives, cramming cycling alongside work, family commitments, etc., and a quick win can be very tempting. But do they work? In our weekly series, we talk to cyclists of all kinds, find out the changes they’ve made to become better bike riders, and ask if it’s worked for you.
Orla Chenaoui is a television sports presenter and journalist whose work includes cycling, rugby, MotoGP and the Olympics. Away from the camera, Chennawi hosts a podcast and writes a regular column. In 2023, the 44-year-old launched her own private business. 10x bravera community that provides support and tips on how to overcome the fears that hold you back.
Chennawi is a strong advocate of protecting people’s mental health, helping people overcome hardship, and challenging everyone to live their best life.She was asked for small tips for staying motivated when everything feels difficult. She is a mother of two and her advice was to develop healthy habits. in front Things will get tougher.
One small change: Start the habit when you’re awake.
Explaining why it is important to develop these habits, Chennawi says: “Understand that life is cyclical, with ups and downs, and that those ‘good’ times are when you should prioritize your mental and physical health.”
“When life is going well, it’s important not to rely on motivation for your mental and physical health, but rather to turn practice into a habit.
“This removes thinking and leaves less room for excuses and desires.”
Chennawi strongly believes that maintaining mental health is just as important as physical health.
“Meditation is a mental exercise, and it can be anything from traditional introspection, a daily walk, a favorite hobby, or simply sitting still without looking at a screen,” she says.
Chennaoui is adamant that the best way to develop habits is when they are easy, rather than difficult. “If you have a healthy routine, whether it’s exercise or meditation, you’ll be able to fall back on it when life gets tough.
“At this time, you’ll be grateful for all the blessings it brings, and you’ll also be grateful for the fact that you don’t have to think about it. It’s only in dark times that you realize the resilience you’ve built by taking care of yourself. Notice all the layers of “You were fine.” ”
Chennaoui makes a strong case for creating structure and routines that help take care of your health, but working hard to create these healthy habits when you’re in a positive mood can be difficult when you’re in a negative mood. How does it help when you do? And how do you know if it’s become a habit in the first place?
Expert opinion
(Image credit: Dr Pippa Lally)
To find out some answers, I spoke to Dr Pippa Lally, a senior lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Surrey and co-director of, among other things, the Habit Applications and Theory Group.
Larry specializes in habits, behavior change, and health psychology, living with and beyond cancer, and has contributed to groundbreaking research.
My first question was the most obvious one. First of all, how do you know if you have a habit?
“To form a habit, we need to repeat the same situation and behavior over and over again, and unless something stops the situation, we are more likely to perform the behavior.
“Of course, this applies to any behavior. That’s why it’s so hard to break behaviors that aren’t necessarily desirable because we’ve made cognitive connections between them.”
I asked Larry more about creating this cognitive link, and she told me that it makes our brains a kind of “hardwire.”
We can override existing habits or form new ones, but consciously repeating new desired behaviors requires a relatively level head.
“A colleague of mine says that if someone gives you £1 million for not doing something all day long, you can achieve it, but it takes a lot of effort to think, ‘I’m not going to do this, I’m not going to do that.’ I joked that I had to.’
“This is obviously going to take up a lot of space in your head. So in real life, if you don’t have a million pounds to focus on, you’re distracted, you’re busy, you’re stressed, and your brain goes back to normal. Go back to your old “habits.” ”
How long does it take to form a habit?
(Image source: Getty Images)
According to Dr. Lally, “There is no exact science to this answer.”
But there are some hard numbers on how long it takes for it to form. “In my own research, when participants self-reported how automatic their behavior became, I found that on average he said it was 66 days. But that was over a year.” From just 18 days he has a very large range of 254 days.
“Ultimately, all you need to do is stay motivated to repeat the behavior long enough for a healthy habit to form,” she says.
As Chennaoui suggests, working on forming a new habit, or changing a habit that no longer serves you, when you’re under less mental strain means it’s much more likely to succeed as a habit. To do.
“The less pressure you have in your life, the more likely you are to change or create new behaviors that you want to maintain because your cognitive load is lower,” Larry admits, adding, “When life is easy and stress-free, you’re more likely to change or create new behaviors that you want to maintain.” , “Habits are important,” he added, “and they’re very easy to form.”
“The important thing to remember is that the easier and simpler it is to create a habit, the more likely you are to stick with it.”
This seems like an important part of the habit of forming a jigsaw.
“We have habits and intentions,” Larry tells me, “When we think about creating a habit, like riding our bikes more, we think about how much speed, time, and distance we want to build up. there is no.
“I just want to get into the habit of leaving the house on time, so eventually my wake-up alarm becomes an automatic cue to get on my bike and cycle.
“This is what my colleague Ben Gardner calls incitement versus execution. Incitement is a signal to perform an action, and it’s much more likely to lead to habit formation.”
This goes to show why, for example, I find it much easier to stand up and do mobility stretches than to do them later in the day when I can’t find the time (or don’t want to do them).
“That’s why it’s so important not to skip days when you have time to ride to the end of the road and back,” Larry advises. It pays dividends when it comes to helping form habits.
“If you only get motivated when you’re going over a certain distance or for a certain amount of time, you’re missing out on all the opportunities to build a habit.
“And you may find that just 10 minutes of riding your bike outdoors can improve your mental health more than you think.”
Larry’s research on habit formation reveals that this cue association is just as important as how it influences the actual behavior we are trying to embed.
“One of the reasons it’s so hard to adopt ‘healthy’ habits is because it takes time for your body and mind to feel the reward,” Larry reveals. “For example, if you want to develop a new habit of eating chocolate cake, you will immediately get the taste of chocolate cake, which most people find delicious, and your brain will release dopamine, making you feel happy. This will help you establish the habit quickly.
“But a new habit of doing sit-ups every night won’t give you the same dopamine release as eating chocolate, so it will take much longer and be more difficult to form a habit,” says Larry. said and then added one way to do it. The trick to a habit is to make it as enjoyable as possible.
“Writer Katie Milkman calls this ‘bondage of temptation,'” she says. “It’s about creating your own ‘rules’ that connect what you really enjoy and what requires a delayed reward.
“For example, you can say, ‘I only listen to audiobooks when I’m in the car.'”
So does commitment to a habit always depend on this additional reward motive? Apparently not.
“Once a habit is formed, it’s more likely to function outside of our awareness. So think of washing your hands after using the toilet. It’s something you do without much thought.
“Obviously, the whole ride isn’t going to be unconscious, but it’s much more likely to be because getting out the door is less conscious.
“Once that cue is clear to your brain, you pay less attention to extraneous issues, and the decision-making elements become less distracting.
“It may take a long time to form a habit, but once it becomes a habit, even if it doesn’t come for a day or two, the cognitive link is still there and once you’ve decided on a routine, It will be much easier to go back. It will happen again,” Larry concluded.
our view
I found the science behind habit formation interesting. I often make the mistake of trying to start a new habit and waiting until I need the head space, a movement routine, and then wonder why I can’t stay motivated to keep participating. Ta.
Since I just decided to purchase a cold water plunge pod, I’m especially focused on how to make this a daily ritual to reap the health rewards long after the exciting motivation of the new toy wears off.
It’s really positive to know that if you start in a good space, find your daily cues, and combine that with the free dopamine that brings rewards, your new routine is much more likely to become a habit.
In my case, I start now using my wake-up alarm as a cue. Simply aiming to arrive, rather than a set time, can be effective. And just knowing that you can look forward to a hot cup of coffee as soon as you step out seems to be enough to make you want to take the plunge. All you have to do is stick with it long enough to form a habit.
