New You Week 4: Habit Stacking

Welcome to Week 4! If you’ve been following along, then you’ll know our journey so far looks like this:

  1. How to Create a New You in 2021
  2. Pick One Thing
  3. Start Small

At this point, it’s not unusual for a few speed bumps to have popped up on the road to better habits. In fact, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ve hit something that slowed your progress or even derailed you altogether.

Forget about it. Really. Every day is a new day. If you fell down yesterday, just pick yourself up and start fresh today. That’s the beautiful thing about personal change: you get to decide the rules. And if you’re the boss, why not be more forgiving? If you stumble, start anew.

But WHY, you ask, does it have to be soooo hard?

Excellent question. And the answer reveals a useful tool for your habit-building toolbox.

Getting “Triggered”

If you’ve read Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The Power of Habit (summary), then you’ll know that habits are reinforcing loops that have triggers. A stressful event, for example, might trigger a habitual response, like smoking, or eating something sweet.

One of the challenges with getting your new habit to stick is that it’s not linked to any triggers yet. If you’re trying to drink more water, for example, you might find you simply…forget! You might even have a bottle full of water on your desk but realize at the end of the day that you’ve hardly touched it. 

For all your good intentions, without someone or something to prod you to actually do the habit, it simply falls by the wayside. 

Habit Stacking

One way to combat this is with habit stacking. Using this technique, you “piggyback” your fresh and very fragile new habit on top of something else that has a more established routine.

Let’s take a closer look at that “drink more water” habit. What if we tried to piggyback your desired action (drinking water) with something specific that you already do? 

Here’s how that can work.

If you’re like most people, you start your day with a cup of coffee or tea. You stumble bleary-eyed into the kitchen, turn on the coffee maker, and wait patiently for that first cup. Most people do some variation of this every single morning of their adult life

Now: what if you put a glass of water beside the coffee maker?

That’s it. 

When you stumble out to the kitchen, what’s the first thing you see? The glass. You hit the button on the coffee maker, drink your glass of water, and there, just like that, you’re already ahead of the game. You’ve won the day!

That’s just one glass of water. But what if you put a glass next to the sink in the bathroom? What would happen then? 

What if you put an empty glass next to every tap in your house, and make a point of drinking a glass of water each time you enter that room? It might not work every time, but sometimes that little reminder attached to another habit is all you need.

What Existing Habits Can You Use?

To make habit-stacking work, you need to look for your existing patterns. What do you do every day no matter what? What do you do multiple times a day, every day? 

Once you’ve identified a few, look for ways to stack a new habit:

  • Take a short walk after dropping your kids at the bus stop
  • Do five pushups each time you leave the bathroom
  • Think of something you’re grateful for each time you brush your teeth
  • Stretch for five minutes each time you put your pyjamas on

How can you attach the habit you want to the habits you have?

Recommended reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear

New You Week 2: Pick One Thing

We’ve all felt the excitement of a New Year’s resolution before.

But we’ve also all felt the disappointment when our big goals didn’t come to fruition.

Often, our failure to make change is because we try to do too much at once. This is particularly true of lifestyle changes. We vow to wake up early, change our diet, exercise regularly—all starting January first. 

It’s too much. We’re setting ourselves up for failure. 

Successful change is about consistent doing

A daily exercise habit isn’t about the right workout clothes or a new watch. Those might be helpful in some way, but they don’t do the exercise for you. A new cookbook can help, but it won’t make a healthy dinner while you read.

Successful change is about doing. But doing too much isn’t helpful. Yes, some people have epiphanies and change their lives overnight. But far more often, success is the slow compounding of small sustainable changes that become regular habits. And that job is a lot easier when you don’t try to change everything at once. 

What’s your one thing?

Last week we asked you what does your future self need most?

If you’re like most people, you probably had a number of answers. 

Can you pick just one?

Pick just one area of your life to improve. Is it your diet? Your finances? Your activity level?

Just. Pick. One. 

One is something you can get your arms around.

One is something you can put a dent in.

One is enough.

Because if you can change one thing…you can change anything. 

What’s your one thing?

Recommended reading: The One Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan.

How to Create a New You in 2021

The New Year is approaching! 

Hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday we were right here, kicking off 2020.

This year was an odd one, to be sure. But every year has one thing in common: it passes. The days keep on ticking by, and before you know it, you’ll be staring at another December. The only difference is that you’ll be a year older. It’s inescapable. 

But is that the only difference? It doesn’t have to be.

It’s time to make a decision. Next year you’ll be a year older—do you also want to be a year better? Or a year happier? A year healthier?

We think you can be.

But what you can’t do is the same thing you did this year, and expect next year to be different. To get different results, something needs to change. That’s where we come in. 

We know all about how hard it can be to make change. As naturopathic doctors, we often ask people to do things differently, and it’s not easy. But over thousands of patients and almost 20 years of doing this work, we know it’s more than possible.

Today, we’re kicking off a five-week series on habit change to prepare you for the upcoming year. Whether you want to change your diet or move your body more, or whether take control of your finances or perhaps finally write that book, the next few weeks will offer you the best advice we know for making changes that stick.

We’re going to tackle one specific strategy for habit change each week for the next four. But to kick things off, here are three things to embrace as you head into 2021.

1. Decide that your success this coming year is going to be about consistency, not quantity. Whether it’s eating better or saving more or exercising, the habit is what matters. Want to exercise more? We’d rather you reach the end of next year in love with your consistent, daily, never-miss, 15-minute walk than looking back at the handful of times you did 30 minutes before deciding you were just too busy. 

Better to save $100 a month every month than $500 once. Better to write 250 words a day all year (and finish that book!) than 2500 words one weekend. Sustainable, incremental change is the game, and the YOU of one year from now can win that game.

2. Become a student of change. We’re going to distill some great habit change research and resources for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build on that. Remember that what you focus on tends to change. So why not put your focus on some of our favourite habit change books? Each week we’ll recommend one of our faves. You don’t have to read them all, and you don’t have to read them all right away, but each one will help you learn. And each can help you stick to your new habits, or return to them if you stumble.

3. Ask yourself a big question. What does your future self need the most? Imagine yourself a year from now—what one new habit would you be most grateful for?

Happy New Year! Let’s make 2021 your best ever.

Yours in good health,

The StoneTree Team

Recommended reading: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

UPDATE: We’ve finished the habit series. Here are the rest of the weeks!

How To Support the 4 Parts of Your Immune System

The immune system is a wonderful, complicated thing. It keeps us safe from infection, helps deal with toxins, cleans up aberrant cells that could lead to cancer, and helps us heal.

Not surprisingly, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions in the past week or two about how to strengthen and maintain this bodily wonder.

Here’s a little crash course in how the immune system protects you and how you can strengthen it. To simplify things, we’ve broken the system into four parts, with recommendations for supporting each one.

Defense 1: Physical Barriers
Your skin and mucous membranes are the first line of defense against potential invaders. If this barrier is strong and intact, bacteria and viruses have a far tougher time getting through.

How to support it: Wash your hands, get outside and breathe fresh, clean air to help keep the mucosa of your respiratory tract clean.

Defense 2: Chemical Barriers
Many of our physical barriers are coupled with chemical barriers. An excellent example is the hydrochloric acid of the stomach, which can kill many pathogens before they even have a chance to make it to the mucosa of your digestive tract.

How to support it: Eat a diet high in whole, plant-based foods. This will keep stomach acid levels well-balanced, and avoid the need for antacids that suppress this important barrier.

Defense 3: Your Innate Immune System
This part of the immune system is made of cells called monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer cells. These cells circulated constantly in the body, always on patrol for signs of trouble. When they find it, they initiate a process called phagocytosis, in which they envelop a pathogen and destroy it. If the invader is too much to deal with these patrol cells sound the alarm and engage the “big guns”.

How to support it: These cells move around in your blood and lymph, so moving your blood and lymph help them do their job! Daily exercise that gets these fluids moving is your best course of action.

Defense 4: Your Specific / Adaptive Immune System
This part of the immune system isn’t on patrol like the innate system, but instead is a highly specialized part that hangs out in your lymph nodes, always ready to respond when it is called upon.

The adaptive immune system is made up of T-cells and B-cells. Through a complicated process, these remarkable cells make antibodies to an invader that are always remembered; if you are exposed to the same infection again they can respond rapidly and get on top of things before the pathogen has a chance to make you sick. This is the part of the immune system that is stimulated by vaccines.

How to support it: Eat a diet rich in foods with high levels of antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin A, Vitamin E, zinc and selenium. These nutrients are all critical for T-cell and B-cell function. Think fruits and veggies with lots of colour, and nuts and seeds.

Learning More
If you want to dig into this further, this video is much more detailed, but still easy to understand.

There are many supplements and herbal medicines that are also valuable in helping to support or boost your immune function, or to help it deal with a current infection. Talk to your naturopathic doctor to find out which ones might be right for you.

Sex Drive: How to “Feel the Love” More Often

This is a common reason for visits to the clinic, but not one that people find easy to talk about. Part of our job is to make the conversation easier by helping patients understand that there are a lot of potential reasons for low libido. 

For men, the most common issues are: 

  • Low testosterone
  • Prescription medicines like anti-depressants
  • Too little or too much exercise
  • Alcohol and drug use
  • Smoking
  • Psychological issues like depression, stress, relationships problems

About 4 out of 10 men over age 45 have low testosterone. While testosterone replacement therapy remains somewhat controversial, it is a common solution to the problem. We prefer a different approach.

For women, the most common issues are:  

  • Hormonal changes, especially during menopause, pregnancy & breastfeeding 
  • Prescription medicines like anti-depressants 
  • Too little or too much exercise
  • Alcohol and drug use. 
  • Fatigue/exhaustion from caring for young children or aging parents
  • Mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression
  • Stress, such as financial stress or work stress
  • Poor body image and low self-esteem
  • History of physical or sexual abuse, or previous negative sexual experiences
  • Relationship issues like lack of connection, unresolved conflict, or trust issues
  • Poor communication of sexual needs and preferences

As with men, our approach is multi-faceted and involves getting to the root of the problem.  

There are, however, some general recommendations that are helpful for everyone: 

  1. Become an “oxytocin farmer.” You can increase your “love hormone” by connecting to your sweetie in particular, but also by connecting to others, too. We wrote about it here.
  2. Get more sleep. Turn off the TV and go to bed earlier – just do it!  Feel more rested, and you’ll little feel more in the mood, too.
  3. Get outside and exercise every day. It only takes 30 minutes and it will change EVERYTHING to do with your health, including sex drive.
  4. Talk to a health professional who understands hormones and bio-identical hormone replacement therapyThese docs are really good at assessing how your hormones are out of balance and what to do about it!

How to Get More of the “Love Hormone”

Oxytocin is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter, best known for its role in childbirth where it causes the uterus to contract in labour and promotes the movement of milk for breastfeeding.

But oxytocin’s role goes much further, and across genders. It also works in our nervous system to play an important role in bonding and relationships.

Here on Valentine’s Day, you might be getting a little extra dose–oxytocin is released by both men and women when we are in love!

But that’s not all. The little love hormone also helps:

  • Reduce stress and anxiety
  • Increase feelings of calmness and security.
  • Increase feelings of contentment
  • Reduce the release of cortisol, your body’s main stress hormone
  • Reduce inflammation
  • Accelerate healing
  • Increase pain tolerance 
  • Reduce withdrawal symptoms 
  • Increase creativity 
  • Increase social enjoyment. 
  • Increase positive personality traits such as empathy, warmth, trust, and openness 

With such a great list of benefits, how do we get more of it? The best way to get more is to spread the love! Try some of these:

  • Hug someone (but ask first)
  • Tell someone you love and appreciate them
  • Give a gift, surprise someone for no reason
  • Share a meal
  • Meditate while focusing on others
  • Pet a dog
  • Sing with others
  • Consider supplements that affect oxytocin levels, like:  
    • Vitamin D. Oxytocin is directly activated by Vitamin D.  Deficiency of vitamin D is so common.  Another good reason to get tested and supplement accordingly. 
    • Vitamin C. Oxytocin synthesis is directly dependant on vitamin C. 
    • Magnesium. Critical for the function of the oxytocin receptor. This is the part of our cells that actually allow the hormone to work. 
    • The probiotic strain lactobacillus reuteri. Increases oxytocin levels in the brain. Another reason why an imbalance in your gut flora affects mood.  

Other hormones like estrogen and melatonin can affect oxytocin levels, too.  Working with a doctor that is skilled in bioidentical hormone therapy can help! For more information on hormones–and love–contact us anytime. 🙂

Have you seen our latest clinic chalkboard? It’s all about oxytocin–drop by and check it out!

Start Right to Sustain Your Exercise Habit

The new year brings with it many resolutions to do better and one of the most common is to “exercise more”. 

Despite the thousands of people that set this intention, and then even go so far as to show up at the gym for the month of January, the success rate is remarkably low. The majority of people soon ditch the gym and go back to their old ways.

We recently recommended James Clear’s book Atomic Habits as a great tool for creating and sustaining lifestyle change. Well worth a read. And a new month is right around the corner–it’s a perfect time to reboot a fading habit, or start a new one!

Here are some or our favourite techniques for kickstarting change that lasts.

1. Start with Redefining Exercise

Let’s be real: exercise sounds kinda awful. It seems hard. Sweaty. Difficult. It sounds like expensive gear and weird clothes and machines that you don’t understand.

What if you think of it differently? What if your goal isn’t exercise, but simply to move more? Does that open your mind to different possibilities? To things that you like or don’t feel intimidated by?

2.  Start With Why

People don’t actually want to exercise more–at least at first. They want the effects of having exercised more. They want:

  • A slimmer body 
  • More energy 
  • Better sleep 
  • Better concentration 
  • More calm and less stress
  • Increased health

What are your reasons for wanting to exercise more? When you’re beginning to make change, this list can often be far more compelling than the exercise itself. Put this reason somewhere you can see it to remind yourself of the why.  

3. Start Small and Grow

How often have you said to yourself, I’m going to the gym for an hour a day, or, I’m going to walk 10,000 steps.

Invariably, life happens and your well-meaning but overly-ambitious goal is not met. You feel like a failure and your fears are confirmed: I’m just not the person who can get exercise into my life.  

What if you start small? What if you start ridiculously small?

What if you walked 100 extra steps? What if you did one push-up? What if you ate one vegetable?

It may not seem like much, but the consistency matters more than the quantity.

After all, at the end of the month, would you rather be the person who walked a little every day, or the person who set big goals but didn’t walk at all?

4. Start with Commitment

It you have to meet a friend at the gym, or you have made a plan with someone to go for a walk, there’s a much greater likelihood of things happening. Plus, you get to meet another basic need for health–connecting with others!

Commitment really works. What form works best for you?

  • Social commitment: Tell a friend you’ll meet them.
  • Scheduling commitment: Put your new habit in your calendar before anything else.
  • Financial commitment: Pay in advance for a class, membership or trainer.
Dr. Tara, cold but happy in January!

Is This the Secret to a Happy Winter?

This little article made me think.

As someone who has often longed for the end of winter, I was intrigued. Could the secret to enjoying winter really be about mindset?

I now think the answer is yes. When you can change your mind, and decide that winter is something you get to do as opposed to something you endure, something changes.

And why not? In winter, after all, you get to:

  • Hang fairy lights in your house
  • Enjoy the beauty of snow on trees
  • Get rosy cheeks
  • Wear big sweaters 
  • Sit in front of a fire and read a book 
  • Go to bed early and not feel guilty about it

What do you get to do in winter that you don’t get to do in any other season? Focus on that, and enjoy!

P.S. Without winter, how would we get stories like this?

The Best Diet?

The most common question that Naturopathic Doctors are asked is, “What is the best diet?” 

It’s no surprise. The choice of diets can seem overwhelming. Should they be keto? Should they be vegan? Should they eat whole grains or avoid them? Should they eat raw food or cooked?  

The answer? It depends.

Not every diet is right for every person. The diet you need to eat for best health is different from that of your neighbour, or your cousin, or your best friend. And it’s almost certainly different from the formula in the latest cookbook.

There are, however, a few good rules of thumb that seem to work for a large number of people. Our favourite? Eat foods that nature makes, mostly plants, not too much. 

This is adapted from Micheal Pollen’s book In Defense of Food, and it’s simplest dietary advice that we can consistently recommend.

  • If nature made it, eat it. 
  • If it is a plant, not made in a plant, eat it.
  • If you are satisfied, stop eating.

It’s simple, and in our experience, it works. Unlike fads that come and go, eating a moderate amount of non-industrial food seems to serve the vast majority of our patients well, and has for years.

Lately, our obsession has shifted from what to eat to when. Eat six small meals a day. Fast for 16 hours each day. Don’t eat after 6. Don’t eat before 11. 

Let it go. If you are eating healthy, whole foods in moderation as outlined above, the timing probably makes little difference.

What’s the best diet for you? We don’t know–but experiences tells us that your body does. There are many people who eat raw food and feel great. Others eat raw food and they feel awful. Some go vegetarian and feel amazing, others feel completely wrung out. Some people can eat eggs and fill energized, others feel bloated and inflamed. 

Eat real food, and trust your body. In our experience, that’s the best diet plan of all.

What Would the Healthy You Do?

As we kick off a new year and a new decade, many of our patients have set goals for better health outcomes–things like a lower body weight, more energy, a better mood, or better sleep.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the road to changing outcomes always requires changing habits. After all, the behaviour that got you to your current health won’t get you to a different place.

In the case of our health, we often know what the new habits are. They’re things like:

  • Eating better 
  • Turning the TV off at night
  • Getting more exercise
  • Spending less time on social media 
  • Quitting smoking
  • Drinking more water 

But although we know what the habits are, changing them can be a difficult thing to do. In some cases, it can feel impossible. 

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, suggests that at the deepest level, change is about your identity; that is, until you see yourself as the kind of person who thinks and behaves differently, you’ll struggle to make sustainable change.

His recipe?

  1. Decide the type of person you want to be.
  2. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

“What would the healthy you do?” is the entry point to this process. It’s a touchstone–a way to discover, and then remind yourself, what a healthier you looks like. It’s an identity question. For example:

  • When you’re choosing what to have for lunch you can ask the question, What would the healthy me do? 
  • When you’re wondering if you should work late instead of taking that walk, ask yourself, What would the healthy me do? 
  • When you sit down in front of the TV at night with a snack, ask yourself, What would the healthy me do? 

The question works best in moments when we have a choice to make–I was going to go to the gym, but maybe I’ll…

Those moments, as it turns out, happen many times in a day, and they offer you a chance to envision your best self, the one you’re striving to be, and ask yourself, “What would that person do?”

PS: Have you seen our latest chalkboard? You can add your own word for the upcoming year, too–just drop by the clinic!