Why is it so hard to build healthy habits that stick? There are three important things you must do to change your behaviors for good. Here’s how to get started.

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It’s 5:15 a.m. and my FitBit alarm has jogged me awake.

The sun isn’t even up yet, but I am.

I can still see some stars and the moon peeking about in the dark morning.

I’m tossing on my shoes, sweats and jacket that I laid at my bedside before my head hit the pillow for last night’s slumber.

I’m not even fully awake just yet. The temperature reads butt cold. But, my clothes are here so there’s no excuse.

Time to go do the thing.

For 30 minutes I’m walking in the cold ass wintery weather around my Brooklyn neighborhood.

The City is starting to buzz with the early shift workers making their way to their jobs. In some restaurants, I can see overnight workers finally cleaning up and wrapping up their long workday as I’m just beginning mine.

I’ll occasionally listen to a podcast or maybe an audiobook during this walk … or not.

Sometimes, I just skip the technology, let my mind wander and just spend time with my thoughts.

This walk at zero dark thirty is how I’ve started my day, just about every single day, for almost a year now. It’s my daily habit.

And it’s a big change in my approach to a successful morning routine.

I used to dive right into my work and “eat the frog” first thing in the morning. It was all about max productivity output and being a high performer and tackling my biggest tasks first thing.

That high energy lifestyle no longer suits me.

I’m enjoying a more meaningful and mindful start to my day instead. I call it a slow morning ritual.

So instead of the hustle, I start my day with a walk and then ease into my big tasks.

And to bake this habit in, I had to do a few things to make sure the morning walk went from an initial goal of mine, to an actual practice, to eventually becoming my morning ritual.

It’s what many people miss about behavior change towards good habits.

You don’t just decide on a new habit and then 21 days later some magical thing happens that bakes it in for you.

Developing healthy habits requires patience, lots of reps, and a plan. A plan that allows you to build an unstoppable system.

Today, you’re going to learn the three important levers you must pull in order to build healthy habits that stick for good.

Let’s get into it.

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No. 1: Get really clear on what your goal is … and why you want to accomplish it

I get a flood of direct messages to my social media accounts and a bunch of them are people looking for extreme results in unrealistic times.

“Can I lose 25 pounds for a wedding I’m going to next month?”

Or something like that.

The answer is not only a resounding “No.”

But there’s also the question of why you’re looking for such a short term solution to begin with.

Unsustainable goals promote unsustainable practices which yield unsustainable results.

This is why so many people cannot break free from the yo-yo dieting cycle.

And it’s why my coaching programs are designed around behavioral habit creation, not unsustainable practices.

When you focus on the process, and not the result, you are far more likely to succeed.

So what is your goal? I disagree with the gurus who’ve recently shitted all over goal-setting. There’s nothing wrong with having a goal. In fact, I believe we should all have goals we are striving to achieve.

But, once you set that goal, it’s not enough.

You must then take the next step to break things down to how you’ll get there.

If fat loss is the goal, what are the behaviors you must focus on over the next 12+ weeks (or even the next year) to actualize that goal?

• We know from experience and evidence that yes, developing a walking habit can help.
• Adding more protein to your diets to encourage better satiation and muscle retention.
• Committing to some kind of regular strength training regime will also improve your chances of seeing the desired results (even a minimalist routine like this works wonders).

Even this is not enough. To bake in a habit, you must go another step: implement a plan by scheduling these habits.

• Whip out your calendar app and schedule your strength training sessions for the week.
• Add a note about adding more protein sources to your grocery shopping list.
• Carve out time in your day or week for a walk or two.

You’ve now bolstered your objective with a bit of an action plan to execute.

But even the best laid plans can go to hell in a hand basket real quick if you are not careful. Life happens. And when it does, you must have additional tools in your arsenal to avoid falling off the plan and regressing back to your old ways.

No. 2: Make it so small that it’s embarrassing to miss

My student Casey came to me completely overwhelmed and frustrated.

She tried just about every workout plan and diet program known to man. But she couldn’t stay consistent with it, especially when it came to her workouts.

As a busy single mom of two kids, it’s pretty challenging to prioritize your own health and keep a full-time job all while trying to make sure some little humans are alive and well-fed.

Typical workouts would be too long. Or they’d be too exhaustive and high impact for her needs.

This is a common thread with any routine you find online from an influencer. They load up the workout with a bunch of high-impact movement patterns (like burpees).

They do this to get you feeling like you did a ton of work because the narrative has always been that the more you felt like you worked, and the harder the workout routine was, the more calories you think you’ve burned. Therefore, you keep coming back for more.

In reality, those exhaustive and punishing workouts are simply variations of just cardio routines. They don’t do much to build any muscle. And building muscle is the best partner to a calorie deficit you can have as it ensures you preserve muscle and lose fat instead.

But I digress.

In short, Casey needed more simplicity in her routine. She needed something that would get her started and then allow for the build up of consistency along the way.

Simplifying your process is the key to building habits that stick.

In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear breaks down the four laws to building healthy habits that stick:

1. Make it obvious
2. Make it attractive
3. Make it easy
4. Make it satisfying

This is exactly the approach we took to develop a new exercise habit for Casey.

She needed something simple but effective.

“Keeping changes small and expectations low is how you design around fair-weather friends like motivation and willpower. When something is tiny, it’s easy to do—which means you don’t need to rely on the unreliable nature of motivation.”
– BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits

We started with just one single exercise that married all four laws of behavior change: the bodyweight squat.

It was obvious that a squat would help improve:

• Strength
• Mobility
• Work capacity

The bodyweight squat is also incredibly accessible. Casey could knock out a round of squats any time of day and just about anywhere.

Rather than load up Casey with a ton of squats to challenge her and make her sore enough to curse my name, I made this new habit as easy as possible.

Aim for 25 reps per day, in as few sets as possible to start.

Casey would go for her morning walk and then come home and knock out her squats. In the beginning of our initial phase, she’d need 2-3 sets to get to 25 squats.

Eventually she got stronger and not only crushed all 25 in one set, but increased the reps as high as 40-50 per set.

The habit was formed.

After several weeks of keeping up this momentum, we stacked a new habit on top of the squats. I had Casey add in a few elevated push-ups with her hands on the back of the couch, countertop or chair.

Over time, this practice developed into a full-on workout routine that hit the entire body.

But it all started with making the habit so simple that it was almost embarrassing to miss. Just a round of bodyweight squats. That’s it.

No. 3: Understand that you will make mistakes, plan for the days you miss your habit

If you eat like an asshole today, nothing happens. You didn’t ruin everything.

But if that one day turns into a weekly, then nightly situation, that’s how it can sneak up on you.

This works in the inverse, too.

One salad doesn’t lead to six pack abs. But eating a salad per day for a year might lead to dramatic weight loss results.

Your success is a result of your daily decisions, systems and habits.

One day will never make or break your transformation.

Remember, you are not some algorithm-trained robot. You are human. And as a human, it’s important to understand that you will make mistakes.

I’ve lost over 50 pounds and it took years to understand that perfection was never the actual goal.

The harder I’d strive for perfection with my diet and my workouts, the harder it would be to stick to my plan.

There was a period where I was obsessed with being “clean” with my diet.

• No added sugars
• Always hitting my macros within about five percent
• Eating tons of added protein
• Hitting every single workout and establishing as many personal records (PRs) as possible

It was unsustainable.

I’d be awesome for about two to three weeks, burn out, get bored and dive face-first into a pizza.

The pizza led to what I call, The “Ah fuck it” Mindset:

I’d already screwed up my diet and housed half a New York style pepperoni pie so, “Ah fuck it. Might as well chase that down with some ice cream and chocolate.”

Of course the next morning, I’d wake up feeling totally ashamed of myself. Guilty for enjoying one of life’s absolute pleasures.

This led to a path of punishing myself with extra cardio in the gym and a little extra restriction in my diet.

And the cycle continued.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been there before, too.

It wasn’t until I understood that perfection is never the goal. Instead, we’re looking for good enough and being ruggedly consistent with that.

When I finally embraced that principle, I finally started seeing consistent results and I’ve been able to keep the weight off for good.

Some days, my schedule is crazy (because, ya know … kids and stuff) and my workout has to be shorter than I’d like.

Other days, I want to let loose and enjoy some ice cream with my family.

This is all okay. I am human. And I am enjoying the process instead of being so fixated on the end goal.

This is what you must understand if you’d like to finally build healthy habits that stick for the long-term.

Life will happen … whether that is intentional or not.

You’ll get sick and can’t train.

You’ll go on vacation and let loose with your diet.

You’ll get a little bored for a week and maybe be more like 70-percent on point instead of 90-percent.

All good.

The goal is to then have a plan for how you’ll get back on track.

Miss a few workouts? No biggie.

But, what is your plan and system for getting your momentum back?

Even if it’s just a five minute workout that builds back momentum, that works.

Went out with your boys for some beers and wings and that led to a weekend of mukbanging? Hey, it happens.

But, what is your system for balancing your diet afterwards?

The Calendar exercise to stay consistent with your health habits

I do this exercise with all of my Lean4Life program students. Whip out a desk calendar right now.

For every day that you hit your new habit, I want you to mark that day with an “X.” Whatever color you’d prefer (I like using red … seems like a power color).

We are looking for momentum, not perfection.

So if your daily workout habit looks like 40 minutes on Tuesday, but you could only muster five minutes on Wednesday, that’s fine. You kept up the habit.

On days you do not hit that new habit, you’ll leave that day blank.

Over the course of the next month, you want to achieve at least 80-percent consistency with that healthy habit.

That breaks down to 24 out of 30 days with an “X.”

Only way you’ll get to that level of consistency is applying this one simple rule:

Never miss twice.

If you’ve skipped a day of your new reading habit, do not skip the next day. Even if it is just one page.

Over time, you start to make that important shift in your mentality and even your own identity.

You get away from being the person who is out of shape and can’t find the motivation to exercise to the person that always finds a way to prioritize daily movement.

Avoid the urge to go big or go home. In almost all scenarios, you’ll end up packing up and going home.

Instead, let this be your permission to slow way down. Check in with yourself daily. What are you feeling like today?

Do you have the full motivation, energy and time to go all in on that reading, writing, exercise or learning habit? Awesome. Let ‘er rip.

Are you slammed today with extra stress, work, kids and everything in between and too crazed to even think about shit? No worries.

What can you do today?

What is the very minimum you can do to keep your momentum? Focus on that and take action.

Do this for one year.

In 12 months, you’ll be a completely different person who’s finally learned how to build the healthy habit for good.

Now it’s your turn to build healthy habits that stick; if you need help … I’m here for you.

If you’re interested in working with me to get a complete body transformation program that couples minimalist training with a personalized approach to nutrition (no calorie counting here), then you should check out my Lean4Life Coaching Program.

Not ready for all that yet? No worries.

Take what you’ve learned here and slowly apply it over the next month or two and let me know how it works out for you.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “build healthy habits” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete