What is “ooching”?

To “ooch” into something is to take very small (think micro) steps toward your goal instead of jumping into it head first. For example, one individual—we’ll call him Bob—wanted to start exercising more and lose weight. To do so, when he got home from work he changed into his gym clothes, went to the gym, and walked on the treadmill for five minutes, and then he left. Bob continued to do this every day until it became a habit for him to get to the gym after work. Making it to the gym no longer took will power, it was an automatic habit. Thereafter, Bob thought, “Well, I’m already here so I might as well stay a little longer.” A few years later, the weight was gone. This is ooching.

Why ooch?

Your life is essentially the sum of your habits. How in shape or out of shape are you? How happy or unhappy are you? How successful or unsuccessful are you? All a result of your habits. Many people, myself included, have multiple areas of life they would like to improve. For example, I aspire to read more books, exercise daily, and wake up earlier. All of these start by building better habits. The problem is that even if we’re committed to working hard on our goals, our natural tendency is to revert back to old habits.

Research has found that “implementation intentions” (a fancy way of saying starting new habits) don’t work if you try to improve multiple habits at the same time. This is because when you begin practicing a new habit, it requires a lot of conscious effort to remember to do it. After a while, however, the pattern of behavior becomes easier. Eventually, your new habit becomes a normal routine and the process is more or less mindless and automatic. Researchers have another fancy term for this process called “automaticity.” Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which allows the pattern to become automatic and habitual. Therefore, our New Year’s resolutions must start by mastering the habit of showing up. Instead of trying to engineer the perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a consistent basis.

Change your life by changing one thing at a time

You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down to a five-minute version:

• “Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page”
• “Do 30 minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat”
• “Study for class” becomes “Open my notes”
• “Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks”
• “Run three miles” becomes “Put on my running shoes”

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can read one page, meditate for one minute, or put one item of clothing away. And this is a powerful strategy, because once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it. A new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first five minutes should be easy. What you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.

How to ooch

Focus on one thing at a time. Focus on one specific habit, work on it, master it, and make it an automatic part of your daily life. Then, repeat the process for the next habit. Not sure where to start? Schedule a free one-on-one coaching session with your store’s Nutritional Health Coach (NHC). You’ll be amazed at their wealth of knowledge and how much more successful you can be with their individualized support.

Ooching is a beautiful tool because when you make a change to one behavior, it will activate a chain reaction and cause a shift in related behaviors as well. A 2012 study from researchers at Northwestern University found that when people decreased their amount of sedentary leisure time each day, they also ate less calories from processed fats. The participants were never told to eat less processed fats, but their nutrition habits improved as a natural side effect (side benefit?) because they spent less time on the couch watching television and mindlessly eating. One habit led to another, one domino knocked down the rest.

The most powerful insight from all of this research is that the best way to change your entire life, is by not changing your entire life. Sprinkling little habits throughout your day holds the potential to steamroll into a lifestyle of health and happiness.