Breaking Habits

The Habit Loop

Habits follow a predictable pattern known as the habit loop, a concept popularized by Charles Duhigg based on research from MIT. Every habit consists of three components:

Example: Stress Eating

• Cue: Stressful email from boss
• Routine: Walk to kitchen, grab snack
• Reward: Brief relief from stress, dopamine hit

The key insight is that you can't easily eliminate a habit-but you can change it. By keeping the same cue and reward but inserting a different routine, you can rewire the pattern.

Neuroplasticity: Your Brain Can Change

Neuroplasticity is your brain's ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. This means that habitual behaviours, including eating patterns, are not permanently wired-they can be changed.

When you repeatedly perform a behaviour in response to a cue, the neural pathways for that behaviour strengthen. The phrase "neurons that fire together, wire together" captures this principle. But the reverse is also true: pathways that aren't used weaken over time.

Research published in Nature Neuroscience shows that the brain's reward circuits can be modified through consistent practice of new behaviours. Each time you choose a different response to an eating urge, you're literally rewiring your brain.

What This Means for You

• Old habits don't disappear, but they can fade when not reinforced
• New habits take time to become automatic (research suggests 66 days on average)
• Every time you respond differently to an urge, you're strengthening a new pathway
• Consistency matters more than intensity

Why Willpower Alone Fails

If you've tried to change eating habits through sheer willpower and failed, you're not weak-you're normal. Research shows that willpower is a limited resource that depletes with use.

This is why habits are so powerful-and so hard to break. Habits run on autopilot, requiring little willpower. When you try to override a habit through willpower alone, you're fighting against deeply ingrained neural pathways while draining a finite resource.

Why Willpower Depletes

• Decision fatigue: Every choice throughout the day uses willpower
• Stress: Stress hormones deplete willpower faster
• Hunger: Low blood sugar reduces self-control
• Sleep deprivation: Tired brains have less executive function

This is why strategies that don't rely solely on willpower-like changing your environment, building new habits, and using techniques like urge surfing-are more effective for lasting change.

Urge Surfing

Urge surfing is a technique developed by psychologist Alan Marlatt for addiction treatment. It's based on a simple but powerful insight: urges are like waves-they rise, peak, and then subside.

Research shows that most urges, if not acted upon, will peak within about 20-30 minutes and then naturally diminish. The problem is that we often act on urges immediately, never learning that they would have passed on their own.

How to Surf an Urge

1. Notice: Acknowledge the urge without judging it. "I notice I have an urge to eat."
2. Locate: Where do you feel it in your body? Stomach? Chest? Throat?
3. Describe: What does it feel like? Tight? Empty? Restless?
4. Breathe: Take slow, deep breaths while observing the sensation
5. Watch: Notice how the urge changes-it will rise, peak, and fall
6. Wait: Stay with it until it subsides (usually 10-30 minutes)

Our Pause tool includes a 20-second guided urge surf. This might seem short, but it's enough to practice the technique and experience that urges do change when you simply observe them.

The 10-Minute Rule

The 10-minute rule is a simple but effective delay strategy: when you feel an urge to eat (and you're not physically hungry), wait 10 minutes before acting on it.

Research on delay discounting shows that the further away a reward is, the less appealing it becomes. By creating space between urge and action, you give your prefrontal cortex (the rational brain) time to catch up with your limbic system (the emotional brain).

Why 10 Minutes Works

• It's long enough for many urges to subside
• It's short enough to feel manageable (not "never")
• It creates a choice point-you're not saying "no," you're saying "not yet"
• It breaks the automatic cue-routine link

After 10 minutes, you might find the urge has passed. Or you might still want to eat-and that's okay. The goal isn't to never eat; it's to make eating a conscious choice rather than an automatic reaction.

Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions are "if-then" plans that specify when, where, and how you'll respond to a specific situation. Research by psychologist Peter Gollwitzer shows they significantly increase the likelihood of behaviour change.

The format is simple: "If [situation], then I will [response]."

Examples for Eating

• "If I feel stressed at work, then I will take three deep breaths."
• "If I want to snack after dinner, then I will drink a glass of water first."
• "If I feel the urge to eat when bored, then I will open the Pause app."
• "If I'm at a party with lots of food, then I will fill my plate once and step away from the table."

Why They Work

Implementation intentions work because they:

• Pre-decide your response, so you don't have to decide in the moment
• Link the new behaviour to an existing cue (the "if" part)
• Reduce the willpower needed-the plan is already made
• Create a new automatic response over time

Building Alternative Coping Strategies

Remember the habit loop: cue → routine → reward. To change an eating habit, you need a different routine that provides a similar reward. If you're eating for stress relief, you need other ways to relieve stress.

Quick Relief Options (Under 2 Minutes)

The key is having these alternatives ready before you need them. Our Pause flow offers several quick relief options-helping you experiment with what works for you.

Progress, Not Perfection

Research on behaviour change consistently shows that self-compassion predicts better outcomes than self-criticism. People who treat setbacks as learning opportunities-rather than evidence of failure-are more likely to maintain change long-term.

Breaking habits is not a linear process. You will have days when you fall back into old patterns. This is normal and expected-not evidence that you've failed or that the techniques don't work.

Reframing "Failure"

• Every pause counts - Even if you eat after pausing, you practiced the skill
• Setbacks are data - What triggered this? What can you learn?
• One episode isn't a pattern - One lapse doesn't undo your progress
• Start again immediately - Don't wait until tomorrow or Monday

Additional Resources

Scientific sources referenced in this article:

• The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
• Neuroplasticity and behaviour - NCBI
• Reward circuit plasticity - Nature Neuroscience
• How habits are formed - European Journal of Social Psychology
• What you need to know about willpower - APA
• Urge surfing and mindfulness - Behaviour Research and Therapy
• Delay discounting and impulsivity - Behavioural Processes
• Implementation intentions - Health Psychology Review
• Self-compassion and health behaviours - Health Psychology
• Food and Mental Health - Mind UK