In this episode of the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast, host Cheryl McColgan introduces the concept of habit stacking as the Day 22 challenge of her 30‑day healthy habits program. She explains that habit stacking means pairing a new, small habit with an already‑automatic daily behavior to reduce decision fatigue and increase adherence. Cheryl shares a personal case study: despite buying a hair‑serum months ago, she struggled to use it consistently until she placed it next to her nightly skincare and tooth‑brushing routine, turning the existing habit into a cue for the new one. She discusses how cue strength, perceived importance, and motivation affect habit formation, and provides a simple “After I ___, I will ___” formula with examples (e.g., after brushing teeth, stretch for two minutes). Cheryl also encourages listeners to verify health claims by searching PubMed for peer‑reviewed literature, noting that many online articles are opinion‑based. The episode concludes with a call‑to‑action to join the 30‑day challenge, links to research, optional journal prompts, and standard disclaimer about medical advice.
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Hey everyone. I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and welcome to day 22 of the 30 Days Healthy Habits Challenge. Today is, uh, something that we've talked about a little bit throughout the challenge, but I haven't really dedicated an episode to it yet, and I haven't challenged you to actually do it as part of the habit challenge. And that is to habit stack. So habit stacking is really simple. It can sometimes be hard to find ones that put together that make sense, but when you can find those ones that go together that make sense, it just really makes this such an easier thing. So today's challenge is to attach a small habit to something you already do every single day. So I think I just even mentioned this, this in the last recording for day 21 in the reflection thing is about if you missed habits, you know, habit stacking is a great way to do those. Cuz if you're finding them challenging to fit in your day, sticking them to something that you already do is gonna be one of the easiest way that that you can make that stick. And so I'll give you an example of the one— since I started making this challenge, I've been thinking about this a lot for myself, and here's the one that I'm working on right now. So I have had this hair trauma for the last 3 years. It's a really long story that you don't need to hear about in this episode, which I have actually done a podcast episode on it before. But at any rate, it's, uh, you know, I've had a lot of trauma to my hair. I've had a lot, a lot of hair falling out. I've had some scalp irritation, things like that. And so I've been very focused on that. And one of the things I purchased to help me deal with this is this OS1 supplement. I've been using their skincare for a while now. Absolutely love it. I have an article over at the website all about it. It uses peptide science. It's really cool technology and it actually works and there's some good clinical data behind it all. But anyway, oh, and just because I mentioned that, if you read about it, you do get a little extra discount with, with my link or something. But anyway, the point of none of that is the point here. The point is that I find it difficult. I bought this hair serum and I bought like, I, I can't remember if I bought a 3-month supply or 6-month supply because you definitely get a bigger discount if you buy more. And plus if you're doing anything with your hair, it's going to take you a little bit longer to actually notice results, right? So anyway, I'm getting to the point, I promise, is that I bought that serum probably a good 6 months ago now, or maybe even longer, and I've only used it maybe a total of 5 times. And I'll start to think, okay, I'm gonna use it today and then I'll, I'll get on the new habit of doing this every day cuz you gotta to do it every day for it to really be effective. So I haven't been able to do that up to this point. I don't know why. It's such a simple thing. It's not difficult. You literally, you split your hair, you put the serum on the scalp, you rub it in, you go to bed. Easy peasy, right? Can't seem to make myself do it. But the one thing I do every single night is wash my face, brush my teeth, and put on my skincare. I put on the same skincare by the same brand that I put on my face every single night without fail. Doesn't matter how late I'm out, doesn't matter what else I've done. I will not go to bed without washing my face, putting my skincare on, and brushing my teeth. That is a solid set-in habit that does not fail. So for the last few days, or since this challenge, when I was talking about habit stacking several times, I'm like, this is just ridiculous. I have this perfect habit that this pairs with, which is like I mentioned, my teeth and skincare routine in the evening. I just need to put that hair serum, like literally where I cannot miss it. And so I had it on the counter next to my toothbrush. I don't know why, but that wasn't quite working cuz the, the flow, but what I found was I put the hair serum, so I have a drawer that has the skincare. I took the hair serum out of the cabinet, off the counter, put it in the drawer, like literally right next to the moisture. And this is so dumb, right? You sit there like, why can't you just put that in your hair every night? I don't know why. This is why anybody has trouble with habits, right? This is why we're doing this whole challenge. But put it right next to my skincare so that it's literally right in a row. I take them both out, I do the skincare part, I put that back, and then I take the hair stuff and then I put it and rub it and put it right back next to the moisturizer. So that seems to be working. So that is a habit stack. So that was a very long-winded way of telling you, but I also think it speaks to the fact that, you know, obviously none of us are perfect, even those of us that are very good at discipline, very good at habits. And also there's something about the perceived importance of the habit, I think. So this particular thing, like if I put this stuff in my hair or not, it really doesn't matter. It doesn't affect anything. I'm not even sure 100% that it will help or that it will work. So it's not a high-value habit, right? There, there's not a whole lot of motivation, for example, for me to continue that habit. Whereas something like changing your nutrition or changing your diet, if you're, say, your goal is to lose weight, there's a lot higher of motivation or, or importance. I wouldn't wanna say motivation cuz motivation, like we talked about, that comes and goes. But the importance of that to your health or to your future goals, looking a certain way or having a certain body composition, the importance of that is a lot greater than certain something like, you know, putting this stuff in your hair that may or may not work. You know, if you change your nutrition behavior, change your eating behavior, that, that will have a positive outcome. So I think you also have to look at the importance of any particular habit in relation to how hard that's going to be to maintain or how hard it's going to be to force yourself to do. So the whole reason this works is pretty obvious. The habit stacking, the first habit, the existing habit is the cue, and there's no motivation there. The second habit just comes right after it because that's where you're sticking it now. And so again, it's like creates less decision fatigue. It just makes it easier for you to just go ahead and do it. So here's an example. I made like this little formula that I wrote out so that we are all on the same page with this. It's so ridiculously simple, but just for clarity, it's after I blank, I will blank. So for example, after coffee, I will drink water, but I would put that in reverse because as we talked about, it's stacked like that can still be stacked even though we're supposed to drink the water before the coffee, because, well, the coffee is still the cue. We'll go to the thing to get the coffee and you'll be like, oh yes, I'm Annie and I'm gonna drink this water first. And the other thing is after brushing teeth, I will stretch 2 minutes. So you're picking a cue that happens every single day because we want this new habit. We want it to be a habit that's like an everyday habit. We just stick it with there. Um, so that is really it for today. If you keep forgetting, then you might need a stronger cue. The more automatic the cue is, the easier it's gonna be to get this new habit to stick. So look for those things. Like I said, like brushing my teeth or things that you never miss. Those are the ones you wanna stick it to. And as always, the links for the research, the links for the research this week aren't exactly tied to, or for today, aren't exactly tied to habit stacking, but they're just kind of the way that goal setting interacts with habits and things. So I think those are pretty interesting, but those are in your email and in the tracker. As always, the optional journal prompt is there if you wanna do that. And the research is always optional to read, but hopefully it's, you know, Mostly if you just skim the abstract or skip down to the results, that would be a super quick read for you, less than a minute. So also that could become a new habit, just like looking at, you know, looking at the research source, especially if they— I don't know, this one's turning into a longer little episode here, but just, this is a totally random unrelated thing, but to encourage you, whenever you hear certain things online, before I repeat them or before I invest a whole lot of time in belief or disbelief or whatever. I'll go search the topic in the PubMed and just see if there's any existing literature or research on the topic and see if it's even in the direction of what the person is claiming online. Because, you know, there's a lot of bad information out there nowadays. I'm sure you already know this, but it's always nice to just, you know, consider the source number one, and then go check, do a little research on your own and see. And the reason I like to go to PubMed first is because too many articles on the internet are all full of opinion, right? So just looking at the existing literature is a pretty good hint and a good signal to whether something is valid or not. So anyway, sorry to be a little tangential on this one, but, uh, hope you enjoy today's habit. I hope you can find a habit that you can stack with one of your existing ones, and I'd love to hear all about it as always in the comments below. Or if it's something you don't wanna share publicly, you're always welcome to email me as well. Um, and if you're not signed up for this challenge yet, if you just randomly found this on YouTube and you're like, what is this all about? You can go to healnourishgrow.com/habits. And you can start this 30 days of healthy habits anytime for free. Just, uh, check that link out and, uh, you'll get started that very same day or the next day. You'll get the emails and then you're onto your 30 days of creating new healthy habits. So that is it for today, and I will see you again tomorrow.
This has been the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. Again, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. You can find show notes for this episode at healnourishgrow.com. Podcast.com. If you have feedback on today's episode or questions about the content, please email us at podcast@healnourishgrow.com. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to sign up for our email list at healnourishgrow.com and subscribe to the show with your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Join us next time for more information that helps you live your best and healthiest life. Thanks for listening. Content on the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast does not constitute medical advice. Content contained in the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment. Neither the company nor its owner, Heal, Nourish, Grow LLC, nor any of the company's employees, agents, or guest speakers provide medical advice. The content provided on Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your medical provider with any questions about what health practices are right for you.
