Healthy Habits That Actually Stick with Vincent Hiscox

You already know what to do for your health. The hard part is doing it when you’re tired, busy, or stressed and that’s exactly where habits take over. We dig into what a habit really is: an automatic behavior built through repetition, triggered by cues in your environment, and powered by a reward your brain actually cares about.

We talk about why changing routines can feel uncomfortable, how to find the stress “sweet spot” that helps you grow without burning out, and why tiny habits beat big promises. You’ll hear realistic timelines for habit formation (weeks, not days), why daily habits are easier to lock in than weekly ones, and how simplifying your next step can remove friction fast. If your plan feels hard, the answer is surprisingly simple: dial it back until you’re a 9 or 10 out of 10 confident you can do it consistently.

From a health coaching perspective, we walk through the “five whys” to uncover real motivation, plus a concrete weight loss habit example focused on eating more fruits and vegetables. We also cover the cue → action → reward loop and why celebration is not cheesy, it is brain science. That small moment of “Well done” can spark dopamine, reinforce the behavior, and make tomorrow’s repetition more likely. The rule to keep you on track: miss one day, but don’t miss two.

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Contact Vincent

Pro Coach:  https://procoach.app/vincent-hiscox

Email: vincent.hiscox@outlook.com

LinkedIn: Vincent Hiscox                                                                                 

Newsletter: https://vincent1cd.substack.com.                                                             

IG: vincenthiscox

Habit Books 

1. Essential Zen Habits - Leo Babouta

2. Tiny Habits - BJ Fogg

3. Atomic Habits - James Clear

4. The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

5. Fat loss Habits - Ben carpenter 

Transcript

Habits As Behavior Change

Vincent Hiscox 0:00

The ability to change behavior consistently is the domain of habits. A habit is a routine behavior that is repeated regularly, often automatically, and with little to no conscious thought. It is something done almost without thinking, because the brain has memorized the action through frequent repetition. Developing good habits is key to improvement of your health and wellness. Hi,

Welcome And Big Habit Questions

Vincent Hiscox 0:40

I'm Vincent Hiscox, a health coach, podcaster and storyteller. Welcome to the Over 40 Wellness Podcast. We all have the ability to look better and feel better. Becoming healthy should not be complicated. On this podcast I talk to health and wellness professionals who share their stories and their expertise so that you can optimize your health. The conversations will inspire and empower you with simple tips that you can put into practice to transform the way you feel. Look better and feel better with the Over 40 Wellness Podcast. What is a habit? How do you build a new habit? How do you maintain a new habit? These are all good questions, and I'll try to answer these questions in the podcast. A habit

Autopilot Brain And Stress Sweet Spot

Vincent Hiscox 1:39

is an automatic behavior acquired through frequent repetition. It's a learned response to specific situational cues or triggers that allows the brain to operate on autopilot, executing actions with little or no conscious thought or effort. Sounds complex. Let's try to understand. We are creatures of habit. We gravitate towards the familiar and often follow the same routine. It is predictable and easy to manage. There's some safety in a regular habit. We can feel safe with less anxiety and less stress. So when we want to change our habits or introduce new habits, we may need to increase the level of stress, taking care of course not to be overstressed. Being overstressed can inhibit our ability to achieve our goals, and on the other side, being too relaxed, we are not able to get outside our comfort zone to make the changes we're aiming at. Yeah, you've got it. There is a sweet spot. Many of us have felt the frustration of not sticking to a new habit for long enough for it to be ingrained, for it to be an established habit. However, on the positive side, once we've established a new habit, it may assist us to be more aligned with our goals. Once the habit has become ingrained, we can, without too much thinking, undertake the habit easily. There's a little friction towards performing the habit. The activity feels and becomes automatic.

Good Vs Bad Habits For Health

Vincent Hiscox 3:22

Based on the number of books that there are discussing habits, it's safe to say that establishing or building a habit is something we are interested in. And on the other side, it's not always easy. Here are a few examples of books discussing habits. There are many more. I'll put this list in the show notes. 1 Essential Zen Habits by Leo Babouta. Number three Atomic Habits by James Clear. Number four The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. five Fat loss Habits by Ben Carpenter. As Leo Babouta says, the hardest thing for most people when it comes to building habits is sticking to it long enough for it to become ingrained. When a habit is ingrained, our brain undergoes a profound shift designed to save mental energy. Control is moved from our conscious thinking centers to automatic processing structures. The habit becomes automatic. This applies equally to good habits and bad habits. I define a good health habit as an action that leads to an improved health, and a bad health habit is an action that leads to reduced health. So an example of a good habit can be getting regular exercise, like moving more, and the outcome will be my health improves. An example of a bad habit may be not getting enough sleep, and the outcome will be that my health suffers. As a health coach, I see good health being supported by six pillars of health. Pillars that generally support better health. And here they are in no particular order. Number one, breathing efficiently. Establishing habits that improve these pillars of health, I would say are good habits. Also, in all stable dynamic systems, there has to be a balance. If we develop new habits to improve one pillar, let's say physical health, at the detriment of, let's say, mental health, then overall health suffers. It's a complex situation. All pillars interact with each other. When they work together, they support our overall health. Maintaining our health may be complex, and anything we can do to build positive health habits helps to improve our overall health. H

How Long Habits Take To Form

Vincent Hiscox 6:23

Habits can take the thinking out of regular activities. Habits are a way of lightening the mental load. To develop a new habit takes time. After one or two weeks, the behavior becomes easier, but the habit's not fully automatic. After three to six weeks, the effort will be reduced and the habit becomes more automatic. And it can take longer than eight to twelve weeks before a habit is more ingrained. The time required may sometimes be longer for complex routines. There's no definitive answer. However, it's safe to say that consistency over time leads to stronger habits. Keeping the habits simple can also help. Daily habits are easier to build than weekly habits. Just because the trigger is daily, more repetitive, step by step. Start simple and easy and hopefully with a positive experience, developing habits may be easier. Start with simple and easy actions to build a habit. You may want to develop a habit of moving more. For example, climbing the stairs rather than taking the lift or elevator at work. Start easy. For example, take the stairs from the ground floor to the first floor before taking the lift. As a principle, make the activity so easy that you're confident at a 9 out of 10 or even a 10 out of 10 that you can do it. If it's not that easy, then just dial it back. Dial it back until the activity is so easy that you are confident that you can do it and get your 9 or 10 out of 10.

The Five Whys For Motivation

Vincent Hiscox 8:13

As a health coach, I work with clients that want to improve their health, assisting them to build and strengthen their healthy habits step by step. Working with them to understand their reasons why will help to build positive momentum. Clients come to me for various reasons and we work together to clarify their reasons by asking why. Asking why several times can usually uncover their motivation and it helps us work together to define their goal or goals. And it may go something like this. I want to improve my health. Oh, why do you want to improve your health? Well, I've gained too much weight over the last few years and I want to be slimmer. Why do you want to be slimmer? If I'm slimmer, I can be healthier. Why do you want to be healthier? If I'm healthier, I can live a longer life. Why do you want to live a longer life? If I live longer, I can be around longer. For my children and maybe grandchildren. Usually after four or five why questions, a strong motivation can be uncovered that can give a powerful reason or reasons to start developing new habits. The above exercise is not just a one-off, it can be repeated as and when. It can help clarify and motivate why we want to develop and maintain new habits. Once a habit has been identified, as in the above example, I want to be slimmer, and the motivation is to live longer. Now the work of developing positive habits can start. Focusing back on habits and habit generation, it's good to look at how we can develop a new habit. In our above example, let's look at a client wanting to be slimmer. This can open the door for being healthier, reducing their blood pressure, reducing blood sugar and lipids, and improving their metabolism. But just to be clear, I'm not a doctor and I don't want to play at being a doctor. For a client who comes to me to lose weight, one of my first requests is that they visit their doctor and they organise a checkup and a comprehensive blood test. And I further request that if it's okay for them to share it with me, the results and the doctor's recommendation. As a health coach working in partnership with my client and their doctor, with their permission of course, it's a win-win. I assist the client with the support of their doctor. I am able to spend time with them to guide them on their health journey. Any coaching I undertake will be at the client's request. I am their guide, advising them where they want to go, bearing in mind the extra information provided by the doctor. Getting back to habits.

Weight Loss Habit Example

Vincent Hiscox 11:22

For a client that wants to be slimmer and lose weight, weight loss is the number one request I get from my clients. To assist them to do this, I work with them so that they can build good habits. I work as a coach, as their guide. They have to overcome the obstacles, and I'm there to assist them, to work with them, to guide them to their goal or goals. To illustrate, let's concentrate on one habit the client wants to undertake. As an example, I use the habit eat more fruit and vegetables. This is habit number two in Ben Carpenter's book Fat Loss Habits, a book I mentioned earlier. So what is the associated habit? It could be for dinner I will eat three different vegetables, and for dessert, if I'm still hungry, I will eat fruit. This will come out of a discussion together where my client has defined what goal they want to work towards. Now what is a habit?

Cue Action Reward And Celebration

Vincent Hiscox 12:28

A habit is made up of three steps. Number one, a cue or trigger. Number two, an action, performing the habit. And number three, a reward. Important, and I mentioned this many times during the podcast, I always encourage my clients to keep the habit as simple as possible. As an example, my client may decide every evening meal, that's a cue, I will eat three different vegetables. That's their habit action. Number three, and when I finish my meal, I will celebrate by saying to myself, Well done, good job. That's their reward. The celebration is super important. It's that that reprograms the brain. Celebrating a completed habit helps to rewire your brain. Your brain understands the habit is good. It's a rewarding experience. It triggers an immediate release of dopamine. The brain's feel-good neurotransmitter. This positive emotion helps prompt the brain to crave and to repeat that behavior in the future. In his book Tiny Habits, B.J. Fogg gives you many different celebrations. Choose one or two that you're comfortable with, ones that you feel for you are a true celebration. And I keep coming back to this.

Miss One Day Not Two

Vincent Hiscox 13:58

Make the habit as easy as you can make it. If you find in reality it's too difficult, no problem. Just make it easier. So easy that you know you can do it consistently. If you had to score it for ease of completion, it would be a 9 or a 10. Then, whilst you're building your habit, inevitably you're going to miss doing it one day. And that's okay. Missing it one day and not two days makes the habit building more sustainable. Let's say you pick one new easy habit to be done once a day. As I've stressed, and I keep on stressing, the habit should be something easy. Make a promise to yourself to sustain the habits. Go through the five whys I spoke about earlier. So if you have a habit you want to develop, this step is important. Be clear with yourself. What is your cue, your trigger? For example, every evening meal. What is your habit? For example, every evening I will eat three vegetables with my evening meal. Remember to make it easy and keep making it easier until you are sure you can do it. What is your reward? When I finished eating my three vegetables, I will say to myself, well done. And I will smile and I could say I did it. And I could do a fist pump. Yay! This is important. Don't forget the reward. Remember, start small and feel good about your accomplishment. Think positive. Be grateful for doing the habit each day. To keep yourself on the straight and narrow, remember to make your habit so easy you're confident in your ability to maintain it. Build new habits one habit at a time. And if there are too many things going on, it is always okay to start and restart the habit when life is less hectic. Remember, it's all step by step. In the show notes you can find some references to books written on habits. Have fun. If you have any questions or comments, my email and social media links are included in the show notes. Remember, a habit is the bridge to get from knowing to doing. Knowing what you should be doing is important, and then you have to do it. You have to cross the bridge, and when you cross the bridge, this is where the magic happens. Generally we all know many things we should be doing. We have the knowing. However, we need to cross the bridge and don't forget to celebrate. Where to start? Think of a super easy habit. Remember make it so easy you can't fail. It could be one presser. It could be eating a piece of fruit each day. Just do it. Follow the above advice. Your future self will thank you. This gives you a framework to build your new habit. My takeaways from this podcast are just one habit at a time. Make the habit tiny and manageable. Decide your cue or trigger. Do the habit, making it so easy you can't fail. Celebrate when you have completed the habit. You can miss one day, but don't miss two. If it's too hard, then just make the habit easier. A ninja move is to tell a supportive friend and they can hold you accountable. Just do it. Decide what habit you want to build and start. Thank you. I trust you enjoyed the podcast and here are my takeaways. Number one, develop your habits just one habit at a time. Number two, make the habit tiny so it is easy for you to do. Number three. Decide your cue or trigger. Number four. Decide what habit you want to develop. Making it so easy you can't fail. Number five. Celebrate when you've completed the habit. Number six. You can miss one day, but don't miss two. Seven. If the habit is too hard to do consistently, then just make it easier. Number eight. Test the form from your friends and family. They can hold you accountable. Number nine. Just do it. Decide what habit you want to build and start.

Subscribe Newsletter And Coaching

Vincent Hiscox 19:00

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Please share with your family and friends. You're welcome to email me with feedback, comments and questions. At vincent.hiscox at outlook.com Would you enjoy getting a short weekly email from me where I share simple tips that you can put into practice to improve your health? Subscribe to Vincent's Wellness Newsletter at vincent1cd.substack.com If you are looking to get into the best shape of your life, to look and feel your best, visit my coaching website . All of the references to the websites will be in the show notes. And don't forget to share the episode with a friend.