Mini Habits for Weight Loss

Great book, very incitful and makes you look at dieting in a different way. It's aimed at American audiences, referencing American diet and health statistics so take this into account before reading but the premise is still the same - make healthy eating a habit/part of your routine. This book helped me build positive habits so well worth a read if you're struggling with yo-yo dieting!

Great book with a strategy that really works. I had already read his first book but it was worth getting this one also as it helped consolidate the concept of minihabits in my head. Personally, I have found success with my first mini habit (putting my washing up gloves on after dinner & certainly before bed). My minihabit took 3 months to establish but now I always have a clean kitchen because putting on my gloves is the spark to clearing my kitchen. The point - this strategy works. My current mini habit - to do one star jump a day. I did find that I got a bit inpatient about getting to some actual examples of minihabits for weight loss/fitness. Up until that point I genuinely couldn't think of any. But when I got there, it was worth the wait. I however disagree with the author about 'partial completion is failure in mini habits'. For me, the only reason why the minihabits approach works is because I combine it with another strategy to help me 'fix' failure so it never feels like failure. If it had, I wouldn't have been able to continue for long enough to establish any consistency. My first minihabit (putting on my washing up gloves) doesn't get any more mini than that, yet in my first two months I hardly managed to tick three days in a row. But I continued because I give myself the opportunity to 'fix' any missed days. Every day I do complete my task, not only am I building consistency, but I'm also fixing some of the damage (neurologically speaking), so I tick 1/3rd of a missed day. That means that after three days, I can completely tick off a previously missed day. Since the book is about building neural pathways, I think my strategy is accurate with that model. Now, 3 months after my first minihabit, I'm so consistent that any previous missed days are being patched up and becoming negligible. Thought I'd share this extra strategy for anyone that, like me, struggles with self-discipline even to complete one single (truly mini) minihabit.

"Here's a list of foods to eat & avoid. Just kidding. Let's do something smarter" is a quote from the book and kinda sums it up very well. There's no list of foods to eat or eating plans, etc, etc - just some very good advice on achieving what you want out of life - including fat loss. It would enhance any book you have recommending a particular diet if you're into Vegan, Keto, etc and have hit a bit of a wall. Easy to read and you will learn something.

This is an excellent book! I was a big fan of Stephen Guise's first book, Mini Habits, and am prepared to add it to a sadly short list of self-help books I've read which have actually helped me! I liked his second book as well, How To Be An Imperfectionist, but I thought it was a bit twee, honestly - the cartoons, and the anecdotes seemed a bit off. In this book, though, he seems to have got the balance just right! The personal anecdotes are inspiring, the information is very interesting, and the book strikes just the right balance between information, entertainment and sound practical value. I really enjoyed this book, and can thoroughly recommend it.

Excellent. I've been yo-yo dieting for over four decades! I already knew that if I dieted in the usual way, my body would fight hard to keep the weight on and then fight even harder to get my weight back to where it was before I started (plus a bit more just in preparation for the next famine). Constant failure hasn't done much for my self esteem either. However, I didn't know what else to do. I've tried most weight loss methods, including intuitive eating. I have a massive collection of diet books. Success has always been temporary. I think I've finally found my solution. The methods in this book are simple to understand and apply. A very gentle and kind approach to create small, easily achievable habits that will last a lifetime. No more running at it like a bull at a gate. Over and over and over ....

I found the style a bit simplistic, I would have appreciated more about the science of weight loss. Its a good book to read to help to keep yourself on track though. The part about addition over subtraction made the most sense to me, I've been adding more and more healthy foods to my diet, and basically if you can be genuinely full & satisfied with healthy foods then its much easier to lessen the unhealthy foods that you don't want in your diet. Habit is powerful!

I found the his book really inspirational. Stop beating yourself up about your weight and unhealthy lifestyle. Quit the diet rollercoaster and make small changes that you can sustain. That’s the overall message. Yes, the book can be repetitive but it drives the point home and demonstrates how tiny, incremental changes can lead to good habits which will improve your weight, health and life. Buy it, read it, do it!

gift

This book is not a diet book as such but very inspiring to make simple changes to our attitudes and choices in what we eat. No convenience foods, soft drinks etc but the emphasis is on eating fresh food, lots of fruit and veg, exercise. Well most of us know that but Stephen has a very persuasive way of encouraging little steps to achieve this. It's quite a long book and I've only just finished reading it so can't say if it's worked to lose weight but it has made me think that I can take these little steps easily without having to follow strict rules.

This is not just a dieting book, this is the ultimate book to finally get on track towards a healthy happy nutrition. Do not expect quick weight loss but a shift in behaviour through a fun easy method full of practical personalised strategies. Based on scientific studies, it unravels many commonly spread false myths about dieting and foods.

Have you ever eaten a decadent slice of cheesecake, only to finish and think, "Man, I could really go for some vegetables right about now"? If not, let me introduce you to Stephen Guise and the concept of mini habits. The idea, as conceptualized in this book, is not to take an approach of deprivation and radical change, but to make small, incremental, consistent changes that ultimately result in a permanent, healthy lifestyle. Stephen (can I call him Stephen?) is upfront from the beginning: this is not a journey of quick fixes, rapid weight loss, and cleanse diets. This is about working with the brain's natural resistance to change by fooling it into thinking you're not asking much from it. And really, you're not. If your goal is to do one push-up a day, you will find yourself down on the ground much faster than if your goal is to do 20. And once you are down there, you will do some more. It's human nature. The hard part, the decision to do a thing, is over at that point. And even on your worst day, even if you really only can do one, you've still made some forward momentum and reinforced that daily habit. I only finished this book a couple of weeks ago, but I have already seen the changes happen. The most brilliant stroke was in never making a food craving off limits, no matter how ridiculously unhealthy. Instead, he encourages a movement toward healthy food, a letting go of the binary way we think about eating (''I'm going to eat healthy'' vs ''I'm going to eat badly.'') As he says in his book, you know what's better than three slices of pizza? Three slices of a pizza and a salad. It's pithy and funny, but there is much wisdom here. When we're at a party, we don't have to decide between carrots and cookies. We can have both. And that realization is the spark of something rather profound. The more whole foods you eat, the more you incorporate them into your daily life, the more you want them for their own sake, not because you should eat better, or because you are desperate to lose weight, but because they are tasty and make you feel good. My nutrition mini habit, one recommended by Stephen, is to make one healthy food upgrade a day. That means a banana with breakfast, or a vegetable with lunch, or water instead of soda for a meal... just one healthy change from the norm. What I've found, as Stephen predicted, is most days I do far more than that. Some days I find myself concocting entire meals from scratch, just because I would rather eat that. But even on my worst days, I can make that one change and feel like I have forward momentum. Thus I have found myself eating fresh vegetables alongside leftover pizza, and a red bell pepper after I finished my cheesecake. What's remarkably different from previous attempts to shift to a healthy lifestyle is that for the first time ever, it feels like a choice. Not some hard-nosed restriction I'm trying to impose on myself for my own good, but just making choices amidst the ebb and flow of everyday life (the fact that my other mini habit is sitting down on my meditation cushion before bed doesn't hurt... I am much more mindful of my eating habits based on increased meditation alone.) Even my fast food addiction is waning, not because I've forbidden it, but because I've noted that fast food generally makes me feel like crap. I'm saving my sweet tooth for higher quality desserts, stuff I really love. I'm no longer eating with an attitude of scarcity - I shouldn't be having this, I must eat it now because I can't have it later. When there is no famine, there is never any need for feast. I ate out at three restaurants this weekend, and not once did I overeat or feel guilty about my choices. It's the difference between "What's one small thing I can do to make this healthier?" and "Screw it, I'm going to eat all the things." When you're working within a more reasonable framework, when you stop with all or nothing thinking, you make more healthy choices than you would imagine, and you don't have to fight your lazy brain to do it.

The book is a very light reading and the Mini habits methods are really interesting. I've finished the book within a couple of days and already started implementing new mini habits in to my daily life. I've only read this book and I didn't felt the need to read his first book, the mini habits applied to a better health are explained in this book.

I went looking for a way to make weight loss easier and more sustainable. I knew that dieting was over. There had to be a better way. And I found this book and it made sense to me. I could finally work with my neuroscience and not against it. The principles in this book will be with me forever. Learning mini habits has made everything easier. I can adopt a new habit so much better now and sustain it.