Tom Butler: 0:04

This is the Cycling Over 60 podcast, season three, episode 19,. Embracing Habit Change, and I'm your host, Tom Butler, If you're new. This is where I share my journey to get and stay fit later in life by focusing on cycling. Well, the cycling season has officially started for me with the first group ride of the year last weekend. It's called the Chili Hilly and it's put on by Cascade Bicycle Club. This is the second year that I've done the Chili Hilly and only the second year that I've planned to do multiple group rides. Two years ago at this time, I was celebrating that I was able to ride 60 miles on my 60th birthday. I feel like I've come a long way since then.

Tom Butler: 0:56

Even though I didn't put in as many road miles as I would have liked to get ready for the Chili Hilly, I felt great after the ride. I think one thing that helped was that I doubled up on electrolytes. I think that really helped so I didn't have leg cramps after the ride. We actually didn't do the full ride. Somehow we ended up taking shortcut by mistake and eliminated four of the original 32 miles. But the odd part about that is that we climbed more feet than the ride with GPS route showed and we missed the biggest hill on the route. So something seems to have been off about the ride with GPS calculation.

Tom Butler: 1:34

My daughter McKenna rode with me. She definitely didn't get enough preparation for the ride, but I was really proud of her because even though she was struggling on the hills she just kept going. At one point she was feeling really discouraged and she said that she should have cut the ride short. But even with that she just kept going. I was pretty happy with my ride because I didn't step off on any of the hills. My heart rate never really got that elevated either, and then later I saw the Strava data and found that I had done better this year on 27 different segments. Last year Chilly Hilly was the first organized ride I did on my Specialized Roubaix. I'm glad to see that this year I got stronger, and it wasn't just that I was riding a new, faster bike. Some of the other rides I've done are the first time I've done it on the Roubaix, so I can't really compare it to my old times. I am very happy to see that it looks like I'm still getting stronger.

Tom Butler: 2:28

I'm now 125 weeks into this cycling journey. I started at age 59, and I see more gains in endurance and climbing strength still. That is a real testament to the ability of our bodies to stay strong later in life. The next big test I want to take on is to see if I can set a new personal best for 50 miles. My current best was set on one of the first rides I did after I got to Roubaix. I set that best with an average heart rate of 137 beats per minute. I averaged 13.8 miles per hour. I would love to be able to do 15 miles per hour over 50 miles and to stay under 140 beats per minute intensity. I feel like that would be a real step forward for me. I really would like to do the same 50 mile route that I did before, so I have a really good comparison. Unfortunately, there is a bridge out that makes that route impossible, so I'm hunting for an equivalent route.

Tom Butler: 3:21

A quick update on the Zwift Thursday group ride. I love riding with people. This week I rode with Sean. He also joined me in the Zoom chat and it was really fun getting to know him. I hope others of you can do the same thing, Even though I know it's not possible. I would love to meet each and every one of you. You do need to be a member of the Zwift Cycling Over 60 Club to join the ride, but even if you are riding another app or not riding at all, I would love to have you drop by the Zoom chat, Send me an email for a Zoom link. You can find my email in the show notes.

Tom Butler: 3:54

I feel like I have only just figured out how to do Zwift group rides. I really like the route I chose, even though I kind of chose it randomly. Now, originally Zwift set this route at 15 miles. I'm thinking that was maybe just a nice number for a ride, but it seems like you have to ride over 16 miles to actually compete the coast to coast badge. I haven't been able to figure out exactly what is going on, but I changed the group ride to 17 miles and that seems to include more than the 15 mile default. I don't know. Maybe this has to do with the lead-in segment of the group ride, but I couldn't confirm that anywhere. No matter what is going on with the route, I do think that 17 miles works for the cycling over 60 group ride. As a reminder, the ride happens on Thursdays at 3 pm pacific time. I plan to ride the route at a very easy pace so that people can join in without worrying about being able to keep up. But I would like it if someone else started coming in to do a more brisk pace for those that want to push it. So I hope to see you Thursday.

Tom Butler: 5:04

I normally have a guest on the podcast at this point, but I had a hard time finding someone to take this topic on, so I'm going to do something different and just share my perspective. I want Cycling Over 60 to be a resource for people that want to keep cycling after they hit 60. Actually, I see it benefiting people in their 50s so that they can be ready to go as soon as they hit 60. Actually, I see it benefiting people in their 50s so that they can be ready to go as soon as they hit 60. A major component that I want to offer is help adopting new healthy habits.

Tom Butler: 5:32

I've been interested in health habit change for a long time. In 1982, I began studying health habit change as a part of my undergraduate degree in health psychology. I remained interested in how people change through both my master degree programs. On March 21st of last year, I did an episode called Behavior Change for Good. I interviewed Sean Ellis from the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. I believe the work at the initiative is helping to shed light on how we can adopt new habits. This episode is building on that information. I want to share what I think are important scientific insights and practical strategies for adopting healthy habits. These are things that I'm learning and applying in my own life. For those of you who regularly listen to the podcast, you've heard some of this information along the way.

Tom Butler: 6:18

The first point, and something that I think is absolutely vital to understand, is that when we talk about habit change, we're talking about something that happens at the core of brain function. I have recommended the book the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg before, and I'm doing it here again. There's so much in that book that helps the reader understand what is going on in our brains when we change a habit. Here's a key concept Our brains want to do as much as possible on autopilot, so our brain is always looking to take things out of the thinking realm and make them happen from less energy expending parts of our brain.

Tom Butler: 6:53

Our bodies just simply haven't gotten the message that energy is abundant, so our bodies still function as if we are on the edge of starving all the time. That causes many problems in an environment where calories are abundant. Despite being only 2% of our body weight, our brain uses 20% of the energy we consume. The brain uses glucose primarily. However, there's some interesting aspects of how the brain uses ketones that I won't go into. Having the default perspective that we need to buffer against starvation, the brain works to keep fuel consumption to a minimum. When we are doing a lot of cognitive processing, that takes a lot of energy. An important part of energy use in cognition is the development of new neural pathways. It is amazing that neuroplasticity is a feature of our brains, but it is a high energy activity and, again, our body's default to wanting to conserve energy whenever possible. So we have another system of our brain that happens without having to cognitively process information.

Tom Butler: 7:52

To illustrate, I have gone to the same grocery store for close to 30 years. There are many aspects of driving to the store that are on autopilot for me. In fact, sometimes I even lose track of where I am because I've made the trip so many times. I don't need to cognitively analyze everything that I'm doing. There is something called the quote default mode network in quote that gets activated and even allows me to daydream while I am driving. Now, unfortunately, I am also on autopilot when I park my car. This usually isn't a problem at the grocery store, because I always park in the same area, but if if I go to a mall, I have to be very deliberate to force myself to make a mental note about where I've parked. Several times I've finished shopping at a mall and I don't have a clue where I parked. I don't even remember which entrance I came in. My wife, Kelly, on the other hand, has an automatic parking location retention feature and she can't understand why I can so easily forget where I parked.

Tom Butler: 8:47

The autopilot aspect of our brain can keep us locked into bad habits, but, as Power of Habit explains, we can also use this function to make good habit change stick, and by implementing habit change in certain ways, we can leverage that to our advantage. Another foundational principle is the fact that habits have three components. There is the cue, the routine and the reward. The cue is some form of sensory stimulation, the routine is what happens in response to that stimulation, and the reward is something perceived as beneficial that follows the routine. Let's look at this in real life.

Tom Butler: 9:24

For 55 years I had a certain habit when I went on a road trip. I ate high-fat, high-sugar, low-fiber foods, and a lot of it. In other words, I was a processed food junkie. On the road, Traveling to me was a time to splurge on food. We can imagine numerous cues that are present on a road trip. Being in the car is a cue. Being with Kelly is a cue. Having a bag of chips looking at me from the backseat is a cue. Driving into a new town is a cue. Lots and lots of cues. So my routine would be to find a restaurant at the end of the day and have a rich, very stimulating meal. I don't want to put down enjoying new foods when traveling. However, for me now, my habit of having a lot of sugar on road trips is damaging to my health. But it has become a habit. It has worked its way into that unconscious part of my brain. So I have to work hard to not give into cravings for sugary treats when I'm on the road.

Tom Butler: 10:20

The reward component is obvious in this case. After driving all day on a road trip and then stopping for something rich and flavorful and satiating, my brain is happy. Let's expand the aspect of reward a bit. When you look at food as a reward, it is a complex picture. Food is rewarding because it brings in energy and remember, our brain thinks that we need to protect from starvation. So energy is a really good thing to our brain and again, our brains haven't learned that too much energy is a big problem for most people.

Tom Butler: 10:50

Another rewarding thing is all the sensations created when eating. There are five basic tastes sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Unfortunately, Richard Johnson points out in his book Nature Wants Us to Be Fat. Unfortunately, Richard Johnson points out in his book Nature Wants Us to Be Fat that those flavors are perceived as tasty because they stimulate us to get fat and our brains want us to be fat. Another form of sensation is the feel of food in our mouths. I love crunchy things. In fact, as my wife would testify, I can be somewhat socially inappropriate when I'm eating something crunchy because I'm trying to maximize the crunch. Finally, there are social aspects of food that make it rewarding. My mother used to make German chocolate cake for both my dad and me for our birthdays. It is for me the only true birthday cake choice, so eating German chocolate cake to me triggers a rewarding feeling that is more about love than about flavor. It is true that my mom made awesome tasting cakes, but the social connection adds to experience, as I'm sure you all know. So there's a lot of rewarding things happening when you're eating something.

Tom Butler: 11:54

And let's add another extremely important component to reward. Now we can't really understand habit change without understanding the role of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. If you want a very sobering look at dopamine, read Dopamine Nation by Ann Lemke. Here is the important part. Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter that leads us to learn how to survive. It motivates us to seek reward. Dopamine serves an absolutely essential function in helping to strengthen neural pathways, shape our behavior to seek rewards. In this way, reward-seeking behavior becomes more automatic. It is important to realize that the dopamine system can be hijacked by addictive substances, and sometimes it's beneficial to see habits as addictive in order to have a better strategy to disrupt the dopamine system that pushes the habit.

Tom Butler: 12:43

For me, and maybe for you as well, there is an addictive element to sugar. So if we revisit the above example of reward eating on a trip and include sugar addiction, it adds another layer to how difficult it is for me to eat well when traveling. When dopamine is triggered. It creates a feeling of well-being From driving all day on a trip, especially if traffic has been stressful. Eating something high in sugar triggers a dopamine release and in turn that helps me feel better. And, to stress this once again, my brain believes that a pretty much unlimited amount of sugar intake is a good thing. So the dopamine system is pushing me to keep consuming sugar.

Tom Butler: 13:23

To me, there's a sinister aspect to dopamine it adjusts with stimulation. If I eat sugar all the time and I constantly stimulate dopamine release, I become less sensitive to its effects. This can lead to a quote dopamine deficit state end quote. That means that unless I'm constantly doing the behavior that stimulates dopamine, I can have a genuine feeling of unease because my dopamine levels have adjusted and then dropped below normal. The scary thing is that Dopamine Nation lays out a pretty convincing argument that our digital environment is creating a constant overstimulation of the dopamine system. If that is the case, then we are all chasing after ways to keep dopamine levels from dropping. That can lead to conditions that make habit change really difficult.

Tom Butler: 14:09

Before we switch gears, let's review what we've talked about so far. First, it's important to realize that our brains want to shift behaviors into autopilot so that less energy is used for cognitive processing. Secondly, a helpful way of conceptualizing a habit is to break it down into three steps. The first is a cue, followed by a routine and then a reward, and a third important element is the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine that functions as a motivation for us to continue doing rewarding behaviors. Reward perception is based on our biology that didn't develop in our current reality of energy abundance and that impacts habits that have to do with eating and also habits that have to do with activity. The point of everything that we are learning about habit change is that a big reason that it's so hard to change is that our habits function outside of cognitive thought Areas of the brain that don't require thought. Keep habits going Takes more than just knowing what is right. To develop better habits Takes leveraging the natural system for habit generation to our benefit.

Tom Butler: 15:12

Now I want you to think about a habit that you would like to change. My experience is that most people have something that they want to do to improve their health. Put it in terms of something that you would like to do more of, For example, instead of saying I want like to do more of, For example, instead of saying I want to eat less ice cream after every dinner. Think of something to do to replace the ice cream. Now, eating ice cream every night might seem like a lot to some of you, but for others, it could be a reality. Maybe, instead of ice cream, you want to go for a walk after dinner instead, or maybe you want to replace the ice cream with an apple. It's important to look for a habit to add that can be enjoyable, because the enjoyment is the reward. Now, if you think that your habit change goal is impossible, it might be worthwhile to evaluate your mindset. When you thought about the new habit, did you question your ability to make the change? If you doubted it, where does that doubt come from?

Tom Butler: 16:31

One of the more powerful concepts that Kelly and I adopted as parents was to try and promote a growth mindset. There's a lot of work that has been done around growth mindset and if you haven't heard of it before, take some time to find information about it. There are two aspects of a growth mindset that I believe are crucial to habit change. One is that we should embrace challenges. We should see difficult challenges as opportunities to learn and improve. The second principle is that we need to persevere in the face of setbacks. Think about how you've handled difficult changes in the past. Almost every meaningful change comes with the risk of setbacks. A growth mindset helps us to learn from problems and not get stopped on the way to change. Look again at the change that you identified above In Atomic Habits.

Tom Butler: 17:19

James Clear emphasizes that small habits add up to significant results over time. See if the change that you want to make can be broken down into smaller chunks that are manageable. It is a myth that change has to be big. For example, instead of choosing to avoid ice cream every night, maybe start out with just a night or two a week to find a healthy after-meal alternative. Maybe choose specific nights and have a plan in place for a different routine on just those nights. Then, once you establish a pattern with those nights, then add in more nights. Once you've identified a small habit change, do an analysis of cues, routine and reward.

Tom Butler: 17:59

Charles Duhigg suggests that to change a habit. Charles Duhigg suggests that to change a habit, keep the cue and reward in place, but change the routine. With our ice cream habit example, we could imagine that clearing the table of dishes is a cue that is then followed by getting the ice cream out and dishing it up, and here the reward is the rush of sugar, fat and flavor that triggers a pleasurable response. Therefore, to make a change, the cue remains the same. Clearing away disses needs to be a cue for a different routine, a routine other than dishing up ice cream, and that behavior has to end up being stimulating. It has to produce a pleasant physical sensation in order for the reward to be the same. Now this illustrates another very important aspect of habit change. It is highly individual. For some, a walk after dinner can be as pleasurable as having ice cream, but others would find a walk to be negative. So you might need to do some experiments to find out for you specifically what is rewarding, and a growth mindset is valuable here to get through the process of learning what is and what isn't rewarding, Because changing a habit is actually a difficult change of neural processing.

Tom Butler: 19:14

We can expect in advance that there will be mistakes and corresponding opportunities to learn. In some cases you can do what James Clear calls habit stacking. You can connect a new habit with an old one. Let's say that in addition to scooping up ice cream every night after dinner, you watch television. It can be helpful to stack some form of exercise with the television watching. I specifically have my stationary trainer set up in front of the television and that means when I'm watching football it is a trigger for me to also do time on the trainer. The more times I use the trainer while I'm watching football then the more that will get linked in my brain.

Tom Butler: 19:55

Another part of creating new neural pathways is that consistency is important. We want to repeat habits over and over again to get them to the point where we don't have to think about it. Doing habits over and over again lays down new neural pathways, and this is what Duhigg means when he talks about the power of habit. If we make healthy behaviors habits, then it takes less work to maintain them because in our brains they go on autopilot. I want to add to this discussion five barriers that Katie Melkman emphasizes in the book how we Change. They are procrastination, impulsivity, forgetfulness, laziness and lack of confidence. Now I can relate to every one of these barriers, and it's a worthwhile exercise to do some reading on what Melkman says about these barriers. So how about a real-life application of these concepts?

Tom Butler: 20:51

I failed to do upper body workouts last season. The more I learn, the more I see upper body strength as vital for longevity. I wanted to turn that failure around and make upper body workouts a new habit, and I want that habit to be on autopilot by the end of this season. So first of all, I applied another Katie Milkman concept. I used the power of quote fresh start. Like many of us, I chose the beginning of the year as a fresh start to try to develop the habit of upper body workouts. I wanted to start with a small step. I figured that upper body workouts twice a week was something that I could easily do. Eventually I want to expand it to three times a week, but I'm going to give it a long time and make sure that I've got two times a week really etched in my brain, really made a new habit, before I expand to three times a week.

Tom Butler: 21:46

Another concept from Atomic Habits is that the process needs to be simple. There needs to be as little friction as possible to do the new behavior. Last season I was relying on going to the local gym. I like the fact that the gym has quality machines that I can do in a circuit, meaning that I can move from one machine to another machine and eventually get a full workout, I would walk into the gym and do the circuit three times and walk out quick and easy. But, like I said, that didn't work out for me last season, so I decided to eliminate some obstacles. I identified three of them. First and this might seem minor to some, but changing to get to the gym was an obstacle. The second was having to pick a time when no one was at the gym, because otherwise the machines would be busy and it would take forever. And the third was the fact that the machines need to be wiped down after every use.

Tom Butler: 22:39

Here's an important concept. Wiping down machines is not a huge problem, but it was a negative for working out at the gym, so I wanted to eliminate it in order to give me a better chance to develop a new habit. Every muscle group I was working with the machines at the gym could be stressed with free weights at home. Working out at home with free weights, eliminated all the barriers associated with working out at the gym, Sounds good, right. However, it was even easier than that. We working out at the gym Sounds good, right. However, it was even easier than that. We actually have a home gym. There are two reasons why I haven't used the home gym in the past. I will get to one of those reasons later. But another reason is that the machines at the gym are easier to use than the home setup, and the gym equipment is better because it is designed to promote proper body mechanics and therefore reduces the risk of injury. But, as I have said, I wasn't going to the gym, so it doesn't matter how much better the equipment is. Ultimately, I decided to eliminate friction by using the home gym, but I could have done the same thing with free weights at home. It isn't that important for me right now that the workouts are ideal. The important thing is that I can be consistent. I want to have as much repetition as possible, because that is what will move upper body workouts from being something I have to think about to something that is an unconscious habit. That's the goal Again.

Tom Butler: 24:00

The power of habit is that we move things into a different realm in our brains. To create a plan, I applied cue routine and reward analysis For a few years now. Finishing lunch has been a cue. That cue leads to physical activity that usually comes in the form of a bike ride. In addition, starting to prepare lunch is a cue. That cue leads to me getting dressed for physical activity. I have learned that the sooner I begin exercise after I eat, the better. So to remove friction, I change to cycling gear before I eat. To create the habit of upper body workouts, my strategy is that twice a week I respond to the lunch cues by modifying my routine Again. That keeps the cue the same.

Tom Butler: 24:44

Instead of going for a ride as a routine, my routine is using the home gym. As I've said, a key is to keep the reward part of the equation in place as well. Let's talk about reward in this case. I don't like lifting weights. I find the physical strain of lifting to be very uncomfortable. So using a home gym is very different than going for a bike ride, which I inherently enjoy. There are questions going on in my head when I'm lifting. They are things like do I really need this? Or maybe two rounds is enough instead of three, or I'm just too tired to do it today. This might sound a little strange, but I think of this self-talk as not really my thoughts. I think of these as my survival brain talking to me, Keeping in mind that our brains still don't understand that we have access to excess amounts of energy.

Tom Butler: 25:34

Our brains function from a survival perspective and that means our brains think it's better for us to conserve energy. The survival brain prefers a sedentary lifestyle. So I will actually talk to my brain and say that I'm going to be okay, even though I'm putting out a lot of energy when I'm lifting. I have to do the same thing when I'm climbing hills on a training day. I literally talk to my survival brain and calm it down like I would to a child. After all, our survival brain is not really a grown-up.

Tom Butler: 26:02

Another really important aspect of our brain is that we are wired to prioritize immediate gratification. Lifting weights, for me, is pretty much the opposite of immediate gratification. My survival brain is constantly telling me to do something with instant stimulation, like entertainment or social media or eating processed foods. My survival brain thinks those things are amazing and lifting weights is stupid. In response, I tell my brain over and over that it is important that I develop my upper body. What I do find rewarding from lifting is the feeling I get when I am done. The feeling of muscles that have been stressed makes me very happy, because I associate this feeling with better health down the road. That same feeling comes from seeing the amount of weight that I'm lifting increase. Seeing the weight increase isn't something that will last forever. As time goes on, I will see fewer and fewer gains in the amount I can lift.

Tom Butler: 26:56

From a cue routine reward perspective, the reward from lifting weights is very similar to the reward I get from cycling. From the cue routine reward perspective, in some ways the reward I get from lifting is similar to the reward I get from cycling. With cycling I get feedback from Strava that lets me see progress. That progress is really important as a reward for pushing myself to be active. In this way I'm doing what Atomic Habits recommends. I'm keeping the cue and the reward in place and I just change the routine.

Tom Butler: 27:27

And now we come to something that for me is actually the most important thing for new habit promotion. That is, the social aspect of habit change. It's interesting that with the social aspect, I'm not fighting against my brain, Unlike with eating and activity. What my brain wants is in line with what I need. My survival brain wants me to create strong social bonds. Therefore, I make sure to have social accountability baked into my habit change efforts. With cycling, I have the whole Cycling Over 60 community cheering me on and that is extremely powerful With upper body workouts.

Tom Butler: 28:01

I changed it up a bit. I set a goal of doing two upper body workouts a week. Then I made everyone around me aware that this was my goal, and the most powerful incentive is that I promised to take some friends to the remodeled Seattle Aquarium if I exceed. In doing 25 weeks in a row of upper body workouts, the family includes two young kids who really, really want to go to the aquarium and I don't want to let them down. In effect, that gives me my own cheer squad.

Tom Butler: 28:30

As you know, the social aspect can be a two-way street. Sometimes our social circle can hinder our habit change. I love donuts. You wouldn't be surprised to hear that my love for donuts isn't anchored in their nutritional value. I have no plans of eating another donut in the future. I just can't handle it. But if my main group of friends made meeting at a donut shop a primary activity of the group, it would make it harder for me to make good donut choices. So I might need to take the lead in finding other ways, in addition to donut meetings, to gather as a group.

Tom Butler: 29:02

Habits that are ingrained in social networks can be very hard to change. Sometimes alternative social networks need to be formed. For example, because of cycling, I am meeting an incredible group of people who like to ride. That social network is a real benefit for keeping me going.

Tom Butler: 29:16

Even harder than habits that are part of a social network are habits that are part of family traditions. Take the presence of cakes, pies and candy at family gatherings. Until the last couple of hundred years, sweets were rare, and that meant that they were only for the most important celebrations. As sugar production began to get cheaper, this once rare treat became commonplace. Sweet pies and cakes have become synonymous with people gathering together. No one ever says that something is like baseball and a green salad. What's cool is that I recently had a birthday and no one thought about making me a birthday cake. I do think that's still rare, but it shows that it's possible to change family traditions. Keep in mind that it will take a bit of creativity and a lot of understanding to change family traditions. For my birthday, we did go out and have ice cream. Mine was sweetened with dates and a shout out to Frankie and Joe's, by the way, Expensive ice cream, but amazing.

Tom Butler: 30:15

One of the reasons that I wanted to go to the gym instead of working out at home last season was that I planned on the gym being a date night with Kelly. I felt like that would be a perfect idea because we could create a family tradition of spending time together and, at the same time, keeping strong. In the end, it turned out to be a negative. First, it was difficult to carve out time in the evening to go to the gym, but maybe a bigger negative is that we didn't actually work out together. She has her way of lifting and I have mine, so it really didn't feel like we were actually on a date. We were just going to the same place and that didn't create the motivation that I had hoped it would. And again, this is where mindset comes in. It's easy for me to get discouraged when things don't work out. I failed to meet my goal last season for upper body workouts and part of that was that my strategy for going to the gym failed. But a growth mindset looks at that as a beneficial experience because ultimately, I learned more about what will work.

Tom Butler: 31:18

If you are looking for a social situation to get more help staying motivated, consider dropping in the Thursday Cycling Over 60, Zoom, chat and group ride. Even if you aren't riding, drop in and share how your journey is going and talk about any struggles you're having. My goal is to make the Zoom calls more of a resource for people. The call happens at 3 pm Pacific time on Thursdays. Send me an email for the Zoom link. It's just starting, so don't expect a lot of people yet, but I would love to have you help make it grow.

Tom Butler: 31:48

Considering the habits of your social networks and family is part of the social environment that influences habit change. It is also important to consider the physical environment. One of the functions of dopamine is that it imprints on our neural network the environmental cues around a perceived positive event. The association with environmental cues with reward is amazing. For example, alcoholics can experience a form of neurological relapse from simply driving past a place where they did a lot of drinking a place where they did a lot of drinking. Looking at the after-dinner ice cream example, if you have particular bowls that are used for ice cream, it might be a good idea to put them in storage. And of course, there's a strong cue of the ice cream itself.

Tom Butler: 32:34

A strategy to eliminate a big cue for ice cream consumption is by just not having it in the house. It might take a bit of negotiation with your ice cream consuming family members, but it can really help, especially to make an initial change. One serious note if you eliminate ice cream from your house and you find yourself going to extraordinary steps to procure ice cream, you might consider that there is an element of sugar addiction involved. If you are driving all over trying to find an open store at midnight to get ice cream, you should look into resources for sugar addicts. If there is an addiction element to your ice cream consumption, don't be ashamed. It's not a moral failure, it's not stupidity. As I have said, your brain thinks you need the sugar to survive and there are a bunch of chemicals that are pushing you to pursue the ice cream. Just bravely take on your brain. There are others who have done it and can help you in that journey.

Tom Butler: 33:31

Another thing that has had a huge impact on my ability to change my habits is that I have taken on a new identity. I want everyone around me to understand that I am a cyclist. This happens pretty much automatically when I tell somebody that I occasionally do 100 mile rides. Even a 30 mile ride seems like a long ride to people who don't spend time on a bike. Now, obviously, the fact that I do a podcast around cycling also helps brand me as a cyclist. That does a lot to establish my identity as someone who rides, and people aren't surprised if I don't show up to an event because I'm out for a long ride, because that's what cyclists do. My identity helps how I see myself and how others see me, and that makes it easier for me to adopt certain health habits. It is just a fact that our society is oriented away from healthy choices. There's very little that promotes taking the time to prepare nutritious food or doing less work so that you have time for physical activity. However, if your identity is clear, it is easier to choose better habits. Telling people that I'm a diabetic immediately changes their expectation of what I'll eat, and I also want to live up to my identity, and that also motivates me to make good choices. I have come to see identity as one of the most important things to sustain habit change.

Tom Butler: 34:56

The final component that I believe is really valuable is to take into account your personality. An aspect of successful habit change that comes up again and again is that it is an individual process. That comes up again and again is that it is an individual process by tying your habit change strategy to your personality, you have a better chance of sustaining change. You might be someone that is motivated by seeing lots of data. If that is the case, make sure you are using Strava or something similar to track activities, or find a good food intake tracking program to get data on your food choices. You might find that you want a very social element to your change program, or maybe you prefer to have a more solitary experience. It might be helpful to determine if you are more task-oriented or more people-oriented. There are almost endless ways to customize a program to your personality, so it can be beneficial to take a personality test and speak with a consultant for ideas about customizing your habit change efforts.

Tom Butler: 35:47

So let's wrap up with a summary. It's vital to see habits as something that happens as part of our brain strategy to limit the energy it takes to do repeated tasks. We can harvest that function by developing good habits. By developing good habits, when we understand the relationship between cue, routine and reward, we can leverage that connection by maintaining the cue and the reward and modifying the routine. The easiest change is the change that can be consistent. Consistency is vital to create new neural pathways that translate into a new habit. So small habit change that grows over time is shown to be the best strategy. Habit stacking, where we link a new habit to an old habit, is also a powerful strategy. And find ways to eliminate as much friction as possible. Make the change easy. Search the physical environment and eliminate cues to old behaviors. And communicate with family and friends so that they know how to be supportive. Keep a close eye on your attitude. Are you being kind to yourself and working to have a growth mindset? Finally, start embracing a new identity that aligns with your new habits and proclaim that identity to those around you.

Tom Butler: 36:59

Habit change is seldom a perfect process, but with a plan and perseverance you, like me, can reap the rewards of new choices. That is a good look at what I'm learning about habit change, but I am continually looking for new information on the topic. If you know of something in this area that's helpful, please let me know. For me, there is always something that I would like to improve on, so understanding how to build better habits is a real plus for me. I hope to recruit more people to cycling over 60. That desire comes from what I've seen cycling do for me. I want to see others have the same benefits that I'm getting from a cycling habit. Of course, I also adopted some better dietary habits as well, but the desire to make those changes really came from seeing my fitness improve on the bike. I hope you are seeing all the benefits of riding as well and I hope you are inspiring others to jump on a bike. Remember, age is just a gear change.