When most people set out on their weight loss journey, they focus primarily on what to eat and how much to exercise. However, research consistently shows that the true foundation of lasting change lies in the establishment of routines and the power of repetition. And this often-overlooked aspect might be the missing piece in your weight loss puzzle.
Your Brain’s Learning Process
You may think once you’ve heard or read something then you know it. Now think back to a newspaper or magazine you read last week, or a TV or radio news programme you listened to. Apart from the few obvious headline stories, how many can you remember? How much of the detail could you repeat? Can you remember much detail about the news from three months ago?
Research shows that you need to listen to or read something repeatedly – at least six times – before any substantial amount of the information begins to be taken on board. And if you want to remember the information for any length of time, constant repetition and routine are required. This principle applies not just to academic learning and sales tactics but to adopting new health behaviours as well.
Mindlessness vs. Mindfulness in Eating Behaviours
We humans operate on autopilot at least 50% of the time. This mindlessness serves us well for routine activities like breathing or brushing teeth, and sometimes even driving. Without paying any attention, some people can drive at 80 miles an hour down a motorway, totally out of awareness. If the brake lights of the car in front suddenly come on, they become aware, giving full attention to the situation, hopefully in time to prevent a crash.
Any behaviour repeated over time becomes a routine, which is the stuff of a habit. The downside to habits is that very little, if any, conscious thought needs to be given, and this applies to unhelpful eating behaviours too.
The Mindless Eater
Mindless eating occurs when food consumption happens without conscious attention or awareness. Common examples of this might include:
- Finishing a bag of chips while watching television, having no recollection of the eating experience
- Consuming workplace snacks simply because they’re available
- Eating meals while working, scrolling on phones, or engaging in other distracting activities
- Following habitual eating patterns (like dessert after dinner) regardless of hunger levels
- Responding to emotional triggers with automatic eating behaviours (the packet of chocolate biscuits)
Do any of these sound familiar? This is because the autopilot approach to eating bypasses our body’s natural satiety signals and disconnects us from the eating experience itself.
When you change your habits you change your life. LighterLife’s TotalFast programme is designed to place a pause button between you and your eating behaviour, ready for your Group work to help you develop the skills to change your unhelpful habits in the long term.
The Mindful Alternative
Mindful eating represents a fundamentally different relationship with food, characterised by:
- Being fully present during meals with minimal distractions (no phone, tv, or book)
- Conscious awareness of hunger and fullness cues
- Appreciation for the sensory aspects of food (taste, texture, aroma)
- Recognition of emotional triggers that prompt eating
- Deliberate choices rather than automatic responses
- Gratitude for food and its origins
When practiced consistently, mindful eating helps restore the body’s natural regulatory mechanisms. Scientific reviews have found that mindfulness-based interventions consistently led to reductions in binge eating, emotional eating, and externally-triggered eating behaviours.
Creating Effective Routines for Weight Loss
Routines provide the structural framework necessary for lasting change. They reduce the mental load associated with decision-making and gradually transform conscious choices into automatic behaviours aligned with your weight loss goals.
The Science of Routine Formation
Contrary to popular belief that habits form in 21 days, research from University College London found the average time to establish a new habit is 66 days, with significant individual variation (ranging from 18 to 254 days). So you can see the importance of patience and persistence in the behaviour change process!
Effective routines for weight management can include:
- Switching to a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) like TotalFast, which takes you into ketosis and regulates hunger hormones
- Regular check-ins with your Mentor and Group to discuss new coping strategies
- Morning or evening reflection practices for goal reinforcement
- Sleep hygiene routines to support your metabolic health
- Staying hydrated throughout the day
- Regular self-monitoring activities (weighing, measuring)
Each of these routines, when practiced consistently, creates new neural pathways that will eventually need less effort to maintain as they become healthier habits on your weight loss transformation journey.
The Stages of Behavioural Change
Sustainable weight loss follows a predictable pattern of transformation and there are typically several stages to go through to become skilled at your new way of living.
#01 Contemplation – I’m thinking whether this is important enough
During this initial phase, you weigh the importance of change against the comfort of the status quo. This internal dialogue might sound like, “I want to lose weight, but is it worth the effort?” Successful progression through this stage requires tapping into your values and goals, and envisioning the specific benefits of change.
#02 Preparation – yes, it is – now I need to get going
Once committed to change, you begin gathering resources, information, and support systems. This planning stage is critical for success and might include researching diet plans, finding weight loss programmes, or joining support communities.
#03 Action – I’ve got a plan and I’m going to make it work
Here, you implement your plan with intentional effort. This stage requires the most energy and attention as you consciously override your long-held, comfortably established patterns with new behaviours. The key to success is understanding WHY you overeat, then creating systems that make healthy choices easier than unhealthy ones.
#04 Maintenance – I know I’m important enough and I’m going to work as hard at developing this new way of living as I did at losing the weight
As new behaviours become increasingly automatic, the focus shifts to sustainable maintenance. This phase is about cementing your new relationship with food as part of who you are, not just what you do.
There’s a rule which describes such new skill development as taking years to master. Based on over 30 years of working with our clients, our research tells us that if you can keep living at your healthier weight for a year, you’re right in the heart of creating your new life, and far more likely to succeed for good this time.
Repetition as the Master Teacher
The ancient Chinese proverb, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand” holds true and modern neuroscience confirms this wisdom:
- Hearing or reading information eating creates initial awareness
- Seeing examples or demonstrations builds conceptual understanding
- Doing – the actual practice of new behaviours – creates lived knowledge and understanding
- Repeated doing leads to mastery and integration
For weight loss, this means that knowledge alone is insufficient. Reading about diet plans provides a foundation, but transformation occurs through consistent practice. Each repetition of a healthy choice – preparing a Foodpack meal replacement, choosing water over soda, taking the stairs instead of the lift – strengthens your neural pathways and makes your next healthy choice easier.
Creating Your Personal Repetition Strategy
Effective repetition strategies for weight management include:
Environmental cues: Place visual reminders of your goals and strategies where you’re most likely to see them. Such as affirmations on bathroom mirrors, photos of your favourite activity on your fridge door, or workout clothes laid out before bed.
Daily rituals: Establish small, consistent practices that reinforce your commitment. Morning intention-setting, pre-meal breathing exercises, or evening reflection journals create rhythms that anchor these healthy new behaviours.
Community reinforcement: Regular participation with your Mentor and Group offers accountability, support, and tips for remembering and repeating your core principles and practices.
Skill practice sessions: Schedule dedicated time to practice specific skills – breathing techniques, stress management techniques, emotional eating awareness recognition – until they become second nature.
Progress tracking: Consistent monitoring of behaviours (not just outcomes) reinforces awareness and provides useful insights on unhelpful patterns that you can discuss with your Mentor and Group.
Embracing the Process
Your journey toward successful long-term weight management is less about perfection and more about persistence. Each repetition of a healthy behaviour, particularly following a setback, will make it easier to change your lifestyle. Sustainable weight loss transformation isn’t about dramatic short-term changes (no more yo-yo dieting) it’s about the building of repeated healthier choices, one at a time.
Are you ready to harness the power of repetition and routine in your weight loss journey? Your first step is only a click away!
