Have you ever gone back to eating food that didn’t support your goal because you felt like you were missing out?
Have you wondered why your healthy, filling, and delicious food just didn’t do the trick for you?
If you have experienced anything like this, you are already familiar with “habit gap”- the void left when you eliminate rather than replace the ritual associated with your unhealthy eating habit.
The bottom line is sometimes the *ritual* that you have created around your food indulgences is more important and satisfying than the actual food. When you replace the food with a healthier option, and neglect to replace the ritual, you are not setting yourself up for long-term satisfaction and success.
For instance if you have a habit of driving to get fast food at lunch time and you have started bringing a healthy lunch to work, you may be physically, but not emotionally, satisfied by the new habit. Rather than toughing it out for short-term success, acknowledge and fill the void that your new habit has created.
Here are the three steps to closing the habit gap.
#1: Identify the ritual that surrounded the food.
#2: Create a ritual that mimics the previous one (minus the food of course).
#3: Test the new ritual and tweak until it is just as satisfying as the previous one.
In our lunch time fast food example, here are a few potential replacement rituals to close the habit gap.
Potential Ritual #1: Drive to a park and eat lunch there.
Potential Ritual #2: Drive to a local store and eat your lunch there. Go in and buy a cold (unsweetened) beverage when you are done.
Potential Ritual #3: Eat your healthy lunch at work then go for a walk outside.
All of the potential rituals may work and it is up to you to identify which one is most emotionally satisfying. It is likely that you would find the second option the most fulfilling because it more closely mimics the old habit. It includes a drive, eating in the car, and scoring a tasty food item from the store while the other options mimic only part of the previous ritual.
When you create an emotionally satisfying ritual around your new eating habits, you don’t need to harness willpower and consciously try to stick to your new plan. You will have created an alluring ritual that pulls on you without needing to exert conscious effort.
When you find that you automatically make the healthy choice much like you brush your teeth each morning, you have successfully set yourself up for long-term success!
What do you think about the concept of closing the “habit gap”?
Do you think it can be helpful or do you believe that you should just suck it up and get used to living without the missing ritual?
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