This Simple Tracking Trick Fixed My Habits

All right. If you're not tracking your habits daily, this episode could really change everything and it could lead to one of the biggest inflection points in your health and fitness journey so far. And here's why. When you track your habits, you create data, and that means you're no longer flying blind. And when you have that data, you can actually start to visualize what's really happening. You can literally see your habits shaping up in real time over days and weeks. And when you can see that full picture, you gain the one thing that makes all of the difference, and that's self-awareness. Self-awareness really is the unlock. It's what allows you to make micro pivots in real time, and you can start to catch small slips before they turn into big problems. And in fact, when people get stuck in failure loops, it's usually because of a lack of self-awareness. And that's because without it, you never get the nudge to make a different decision and you end up just getting stuck. But with it, awareness leads to better decisions. Better decisions lead to action. And it's that chain reaction that completely changes how you finish each week and each month. And I've said this many times before, good weeks stack into great months.. And it's great months that stack into real transformation. Now, as always, I want to bring this to life. So let me quickly walk you through my September so far, habit by habit. And I think this is going to show you how I am making these small types of pivots for myself to ensure that I put my best foot forward each month. So to do that, let me quickly share where I'm at in September. Hopefully everybody can see that. So look, first of all, I'm having an incredibly strong start to September. In fact, this is the strongest start I've had to a month in a very, very long time. And if you listen to my August review, I kind of set out to do that. I was like, look, enough. May, June, and July been a little bit patchy. August was a bit of a train wreck because of summer holidays. I am going to come out the gate strong in September. And that's exactly what I've done. But I think as I walk you through each of these habits quickly, you'll be able to see how I'm making these kind of like little pivots. I'm able to see things, I'm able to make little pivots, and it's one of the reasons why I've ended up in a very, very strong start to September. So first of all, no alcohol. There's never really much to read into that, right? I'm sober, it's always going to be 100%, but I like to track it anyway. So we'll skip straight through that. Sleep, 7 hours. I don't think I've ever had 11 days on the row where I've been over 7 hours. There's something weird going on at the moment where I'm getting to bed very early, I'm getting up at a very good time still, and I'm just smashing it. In fact, my sleep is looking more like an average of 8 at the moment. Now, I guess it's one of those things, right? What is there to draw from that? Well, actually, I just look at it and I'm like, Well done, don't let it slip. And actually, there's a nice bit of confidence I get from that picture of 100%, uh, sleep record for 11 days into the month where I'm able to go, you know what, that is a nice early lead to have. I know I can afford 6 misses throughout the month to still hit 80% consistency. I want to get as high as I can. Maybe that's 100% for the whole month, probably unlikely, but it's incredible to see that picture so far and go, 100% well done. You built a really, really good lead, and don't screw it up. But you can afford a few misses. So I'm kind of looking to see how the rest of the days play out, and I feel like I'm in a strong place, but I'm not going to kind of count my chickens and rest on my laurels. I'm going to kind of like be pretty vigilant around it. Protein, another one. I never really struggle with protein. I have struggled a little bit previously, like in the last 2 or 3 months, because I've been dieting, and it's always a little bit harder to get protein when calories tend to get prioritized over protein. Now that I'm in the muscle building phase, I'm back onto eating more protein, 100%. Again, it's very similar to sleep. Great to see that, you know, pat myself on the back, amazing job. Um, it's an early lead to have, but also that doesn't mean I could just start to get casual about it and slip off. Like, I really want to be getting into the second— by the time I'm at the like 20th and 21st of the month, 1 or 2 misses max. I want to be like finishing protein above 90%, and this is like being Being able to see this picture is giving me some incentive to go, you know what, I've made such a strong start, keep it up. Caffeine, crazy good start. I've only missed one. I was very lax in caffeine in, in August, so this is a bit of a kind of, uh, um, an effort for me to be like, come on, get that back on track. One miss, can't even remember why I did that. Very same for sleep and protein. Amazing job so far, keep it up. And look, water is the same, uh, one miss so far. So actually, let's categorize sleep, protein, caffeine, and water in exactly the same buff, um, bucket. Crazy strong start. I should be very proud of myself for making that start, but that doesn't mean I'm going to finish the month strong. Uh, there's multiple ways in which that could go. The wheels could fall off and I could get into bad shape in these. And you know, it's going to be the difference between if I keep up and I keep vigilant, and that's one of the things I'm getting from like looking at this so far, I could easily finish all of those on like 95% plus. That said, I can afford— I know that that early win is going to allow me to probably make some mistakes later on in the month and still come in comfortably above 80%. But man, I still have to keep an eye on these things. And that's kind of the lesson I'm getting from these. And like I said before, like with that self-awareness, I don't think I would have patted myself on the back so much. I don't think I would have appreciated perhaps That's the early lead I have on the month. And I don't think I would have had that conversation with myself to say, you know what, that's amazing, but don't screw it up, stay on the ball. Whole Foods, this is a different one, right? So I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, you know, I'm running at about 40%. And really, I want to be over 50%. So, you know, there's a little bit of work to be done here. And I had 4 crosses on the row, which I always hate to see more than a couple of crosses on the row because it starts to kind of show a trend line of like really slipping off. Now luckily I managed to kind of get my Whole Foods in on Wednesday. I slipped again yesterday. So like this is a mental note for me to say, look, it's not the worst thing in the world. Whole Foods being a 40%, you know, um, end of the day, this is one of the habits, which is my new, one of my newer habits that I'm building. It's one of the hardest habits that is, that I have. It's the one I struggle with the most, uh, because I have this kind of binging sweet tooth mentality, but it goes to show I can't continue like this for another third of the month and hope to come in over 50%. Like it will just be impossible. So this second third of the month, I need to start tightening that up and I need a good strong weekend this weekend and I need some really good strong, um, days next week to start to pull that back into over 50% territory. And you know, over 50% is fine for September. I'd like to get more like 60 or 70. I've got some hell of a lot of work to do to get to 70. That's probably out of the picture. But you know, high 50s, early 60s is still very, very possible, but not without some changes. And that's the key. That's what this self-awareness is giving me. And you know, concrete decisions. Well, it basically means I'm going to think much more sharply about this weekend. And I am going to make sure that I have some really clean weekdays next week to get back on track. And of course, when I get to planning those days, that's going to lead to even smaller decisions for how I set up my days with that kind of more macro, like, knowledge of, like, I've got to make the next 10 days count. So that's Whole Foods. Steps. I am loving this. Steps are something I've struggled with for most of this year, actually.. And as you can see here, I've only dropped, I've only missed it 3 times in the first 10 days. Now that still puts me on course to be under 80% consistency. Now, given the fact that the last, like most months this year have been hanging around 60, 70%, that's still pretty good. But what this self-awareness picture is giving me is that I've got a real shot here of coming in 80%., which would be incredible to come in on the green on steps for September. Like, it's totally possible. But if I screw up this weekend, probably not. So what that means is that— oh, and here's the other thing as well. What I've been, you know, what I've been doing so far this month to get better steps is I've been doing lots of smaller steps. So rather than kind of getting to the end of the day and be like, oh Jesus, I'm now completely screwed. I'm 3,000 steps. I'm never going to get my 10,000 in. And I know that light, it's just impossible. I've been trying to build my step count throughout the day and not rely on just like one long walk, which is always like a more risky thing to do. So I've been going out and just getting 2,000 steps in between like jobs. And if I've got like a couple of hours worth of work to do, I will do 50 minutes. I'll go for a 10-minute walk and I'll come back and do the other hour. And clearly that's working, right? This, this picture and the self-awareness I'm giving myself is like, I can see I've made a change of September. And it's leading to a good result, and I need to continue that. So after recording this podcast, before even publishing, I'm going to get out and get 2,000 steps in the bank, and I probably need to get another 2,000 steps in early afternoon to give myself a good shot of hitting 10,000. If I don't do that, it's not going to happen. So, you know, it's great to be able to see this picture of steps building. I can pat myself on the back for being in better shape versus most of the months this year. But also, there's some work to do today, Saturday, and Sunday to make sure that as I approach halfway through the month, I don't get another cross, and I give myself myself the true possibility of coming in at 80%. And it's a nice reminder that some of the changes I've made to steps, like getting a smaller lot, like more frequent smaller walks in rather than relying on a big one, is actually working. Now we get to fasting. Fasting's okay. It's a new habit I brought in, uh, this month, uh, as I talked about in the last episode. It is fundamental— actually, the episode before— is fundamental to me making sure that I hit my calories. And the biological benefits that you get from fasting and the, the sleep benefits you get from it, from capping my eating at 8 o'clock, are one of the reasons why I brought fasting back in as a foundational health habit. And given that, like, I'm used to eating just before bed, I knew that the 8 PM cutoff was going to be very hard. The 12 PM start is super, super easy because I'm used to delaying my first bite to like 1 or 2 or 3. It's the 8 PM cutoff that's going to be the biggest, and being pretty strict about that. 12 is the earliest I can eat, but 8 is the absolute latest. I'm doing great so far. Um, you know, only 3 misses. I know I can afford 6 in a month to hit 80%. It's the first month I've tracked it. I knew that the 8 PM was going to be hard, so like, that's a really, really strong start. But just like steps, I can't take anything for granted, and I need a strong second third of the month. Otherwise, I could easily get into 50 to 60% territory, which is not good enough, because already this month I've been able to see that the days I've fasted, I've been able to hit my calories. The days that I haven't, I always struggle. And that's really important for me to hit my calories. It's fundamental to my goal of being able to build, uh, muscle but not get fat. And actually, like, I'll give you a really, like, proper daily concrete example of how this is affecting my decisions. Like, today— yesterday I did not fast and I got into trouble, and I hit like 2,700 calories, and I should be on 2,200 as an average for the week. And as it stands, my average is like 2,500 calories Monday to Thursday, which is not good enough. Like, I am running into problems here, and there's a good chance I won't hit my average. And this morning I so badly wanted to just have some eggs and sourdough to start with, and that would've probably led to some yogurt, a bit of fiber, and bang, I would be 1,000 calories already. And I'd probably be back into like 2,500 today, and that's not gonna correct course on where I'm at with my calories. And I knew I had a miss yesterday. I knew I had a miss the day before, um, that, not the day before that, but the day, day before that. And I'm like, No, no, I can't not fast today for two reasons. I don't want to post a second cross in the row, and that would actually be 3 misses in 4 days, which is a pretty kind of crappy place to find myself because that can— that's one of those trends that can easily spiral into a mess for the rest of the month. But the other thing I know as well is that I've got an opportunity today. If I can fast almost like the entire day and do a one meal a day strategy, I think I'm going to hit Nando's later on, and, um, my typical Nando's meal is about 1,200 calories. If I can post 1,200 calories today, I will finish Friday bang on average 2,200. Like, that's the course correct. But if I don't fast, I am screwed, and I will never do that, and I will lose that opportunity, and then I will lose the opportunity to bring my average calories down, because there's no way it's getting done over the weekend. To give myself half a chance at it, I've got to at least come in on the average. If I ever come in over the average on a weekend, I'm screwed because the weekends is where it gets a bit wild. So again, looking at this picture is giving me the self-awareness, and I'm having that internal dialogue to say, don't not fast today because you're only going to give yourself 3 misses in 4 days, which is a bad trend to be in. And you're only going to screw up the possibility of your one meal a day strategy today that's going to be so fundamental to getting your calories back on track, which at the end of this week, you are gonna regret that move because you're gonna find yourself having to tell Jamie, your personal trainer, you hit 2,400 this, this week. And I don't wanna do that. So I haven't eaten anything today. I've had 2 strong coffees and a liter of water, and I am not gonna do anything. I'm not gonna eat. I'm gonna go for a swim later. I'm gonna hit a sauna later, and I'm gonna enjoy my one meal a day at Nando's, and I'm gonna finish strong where I've posted a tick. And also I know that I would have reset my calories going into the weekend. So look, I hope you can see that being able to kind of like tracking daily is allowing me to see this picture of how the week and the weeks are building and actually how the month is building. And I'm having all of this inner dialogue and conversation with myself as a result of seeing this picture. And it's leading to a bunch of different things. It's leading to me congratulating myself when I've just had an amazing result. It's also, um, causing me to say, whilst that's great, you could still screw it up, so you have to stay vigilant. And it's meaning that the next 2 or 3 or 4 days, I'm going to be extra sharper. And then for things like whole foods and steps and fasting, where things are on the edge a little bit, It's reminding me of the effort I have to pull out over the next 10 days to give myself a shot of coming in in a really strong place of these. And if I wasn't creating that data, if I wasn't creating that self-awareness and I wasn't having this conversation, I could easily screw up some of those habits that I'm 100% on. And certainly I would put myself out of the picture of getting to 80% on some of the habits where I'm kind of halfway, you know, doing okay with. So yeah, that's what's at that, that's, that's how I'm building my data. That's how I'm building my self-awareness and that's how I'm making decisions and that is changing my action. And I hope that you can see that it means that by the time I get to September, I would have finished at a much stronger place versus where I would have been ordinarily if I did not track this and I was not seeing that picture and I was not making those, uh, kind of pivots and decisions throughout the month. So let me stop sharing that because that's enough about my daily habits. Cool. So look, that is really it. That's my September so far. And I think this is the takeaway. If you're— well, I know this is a takeaway. If you're not tracking daily, you're completely flying blind. And it's for the reasons I said at the beginning of this podcast, tracking creates awareness. And it's only that awareness that drives better decisions. And those better decisions drive action and give you much stronger results. And as you can see from my own month, I've been able to spot small slips really early. And that's already reshaping my priorities so they don't become bigger problems. And it's literally going to be the difference between an average September and me posting a really, really strong September, which I know I'm going to do. So look, here's my challenge to you. Start tracking your habits. Just build a simple sheet and start tomorrow and start to watch that picture come to life. And I promise you, it's going to make a really big difference to your results. All right, hope that was useful and see you next week.