As you know, I have a diet coke addiction. And no matter how many times I try I can not kick the addiction. Cold Turkey, moderation, hypnosis, I have tried it all. And yes, I did try hypnosis and it did work for a little while, I actually went three years with out a diet coke.
I recently read an article on habits that struck a cord with me. Plain and simple diet coke is a habit for me. So I need to break the diet coke habit and create a new one, in its place. When I am having a bad day, I go straight for the diet coke, something about it just gives me comfort.
What are habits? Habits are largely unconscious, which is why they’re so hard to break. Your brain is so used to treading the same path that it’s hard to forge new ones. That goes double for something that’s a daily habit, which has worn deep grooves into your brain. The trouble with stopping that behavior is you’ve already conditioned your unconscious mind, which is almost impossible to undo.
A while back I read Charles Dunhigg’s book The Power of Habit, and I started to understand something he calls “the habit loop.” In the book, Dunhigg breaks down the unconscious cycle of habit into three steps: cue, routine, and reward. Subtle cues we read during the day will trigger our behavior and that in turn will give us a reward. The reward cements the behavior loop. That means once we see the cue, our brain has already hit fast-forward, and it’s reaching for that treat. Often you’re not even aware of these cues, you just find yourself surrounded by empty bottles of diet soda all over your desk (to use an entirely random example).
The bad news is once the habit loop is in place, it’s incredibly difficult to dismantle. But there’s hope. You can hack the habit loop. The key is to keep the same behavior and reward, but change the routine.
Hacking the Habit Loop
Dunhigg uses the example of Alcoholics Anonymous. Here’s what an alcoholic’s habit loop looks like according to Dunhigg:
Cue: Tough day at the office.
Routine: Hit the bar HARD. Shots! .
Reward: Feeling good, supported, and stress-free.
Now the alcoholic joins AA:
Cue: Tough day at the office.
Routine: Hit AA. Stories! Donuts! My sponsor so gets me.
Reward: Feeling good, supported, and stress-free.
Now my habit isn’t as severe as alcoholism, but it’s easy to apply the same principles. Here’s my typical diet soda run:
Cue: Tough day with the kids, it’s 4 p.m., . Time for a treat!
Routine: Let the kids watch iPad. Crack open a cold can.
Reward: Ahh! Sweet, sweet soda. Pleasure centers in the brain light up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
My mission was to keep the same habit, but replace the outcome. Afternoon “treat time” could not be undone. But it could be another routine.
My problem: the reward needed to be the same. That’s when I took a hard look at diet soda itself.
Breaking Down the Formula: Bubbles and Sugar and Caffeine, Oh My!
What could give me that same kick in the prefrontal cortex? I examined the formula and tried to replace those components. In diet soda, I get three things: bubbles, a sweet treat, and caffeine. Finding all three in a natural beverage was tricky. But I could find a substitute for each. Seltzer could give me my festive bubbles, tea my caffeine, and milky-sugary additions to that would be my sweet treat.
Real talk: That last one wasn’t exactly healthy. When I first started hacking my habit loop, I was basically swapping diet soda for cake-in-a-cup: I drank coffee or tea with a giant splash of milk and heaps of sugar. But, it was all natural, and that was my starting point. Step by step, I pulled back on the sugar, swapped in almond milk, and my treat became a bit more healthy.
This took time. My brain was wired for a big wallop of sweet, and yanking that away wouldn’t give me the reward I expected. The game plan was to shift my palate slowly so I’d still “read” the beverage as my treat and my brain would be fully fooled.
Meet My New Habit Loop
My reward in place, I subbed in my new routine into my habit loop. It unfolded like this:
Cue: Tough day, kids running around like lunatics and its 4 o'clock, it's time for a treat!
Routine: Grab an iced tea with a splash of almond milk and some Stevia.
Reward: Ahh! Sweet, sweet iced tea. Pleasure centers in the brain light up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Success!
Yes, my fellow diet soda fiends, the system works. Miraculously my brain picked up this new flight pattern knowing the reward would be waiting, and I managed to dupe myself into my new habit.
I am proud to say it has been 7 days since I last had a diet coke
To all the other diet soda fiends out there I can say, it gets better.
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