Think through your day. What are the things you do at a habit? Which practices do you wish you could change? Mastering habit requires creating gentle nudges, all pre-contemplated that can help you consistently work better patterns into your day. There are two main ways to make healthy choices effortless and automatic over time. The first is by associating the desired habit with an activity you do routinely every day like brushing your teeth or getting dressed. Each time you do the activity, you can incorporate the desired practice until over time, it becomes habitual. An example would be doing a few stretches or planks before getting dress each morning. The second way to make health promoting choices routine is by planning ahead. So that when you're in a rush or stressed, the convenient option is a beneficial one. An example would be having snacks like nuts or bite-size fruit readily available at work and home, so that you can effortlessly choose them over seeking a less healthy alternative. Although initially it takes forethought and commitment, you can make subconscious choices work in your favor by following these next steps. Step one is paying attention to and doing an inventory of your current habits. What are the practices you routinely do that you consider health promoting? What are ones you consider your weaknesses or that make you frustrated? Can you tell what triggers the ones that make you feel stuck, that are holding you back from being your healthiest self? Is there a specific place, emotion, sight, smell or social context deep rooted in your mind as a prompt to these behaviors? Try putting into your awareness not only your habits, but the root causes that elicit the habits. For example, do you snack on junk food? What makes you snack? Why do you sacrifice nourishing your body with the fuel it needs to function its best? Is it convenience, stress, lack of prioritizing yourself and you health? Step two is creating a vision for what you would like to accomplish and thinking about how you could rework your day to create a path for reaching your vision. Would you like to control your portions, reduce junk food? Would you like to start your day with an energizing breakfast or avoid eating dinner close to bedtime? Step three, now that we have tuned in to the habits that you would like to change, think about and disrupt the situation or pattern that triggers them. For example, if you would like to avoid junk food when you're stressed, what are other ways you can manage stress? What are ways you can reduce the temptation for calorie pack snacks? Or if being exhausted and hungry at the end of your work day has gotten you in the habit of going through a particular fast food drive-thru on your way home, how can you change that pattern? Can you eat a more substantial lunch or afternoon snack to avoid reaching the point of starvation? Can you take a route home that avoids the temptation of the drive-thru? Disrupting your current routine will force you to breakout of automatic mode and think through alternate choices. Step four is creating and reinforcing a desired habit. For example, if you want to associate your morning cup of coffee with reaching for fruit or oatmeal, plan ahead to make those options readily available. Then each morning when you sit down for coffee, sit down with your fruit and oatmeal. Lather, rinse, repeat in the same context until your practice becomes automatic. Step five is re-engineering your environment to default to better choices. Doing so can be challenging when so many messages and convenient choices steer us towards unhealthy choices. But if you take some time to investigate and plan, you can have healthy standby options that your brain can default to when it's preoccupied, tired or stressed. For example, if you love potato chips, but end up eating the whole bag, can you buy small snack size amounts? Or parcel out a small portion of a larger bag? Better yet, can you have vegetables and hummus or other healthier snacks consistently ready and available? Or can you do some homework to find healthy, convenient lunch or dinner options, such as salad bars or restaurants that will allow you to customize your order and provide you nutritional information, so that you can have healthy go to options. Through these planned ahead defaults, you can reduce impulsive temptations and consistently make better choices over time.