How habit stacking took me from overweight to lean at 44
Two years ago I was in a very different place, busy dad of two, married and work full time in a senior position. I've always been relatively active and had trained for years, but 2023 was a rough year personally due to a family illness. Looking after myself wasn't a priority and I started using being busy and low energy as an excuse.
I was overweight and didn't feel good about how I looked. The frustrating thing was I already knew what to do. I'd trained for years, knew how to lift and understood the basics of nutrition. My problem wasn't knowledge, it was consistency and not having the desire to do it.
In 2024 I decided I'd train three times a week no matter what. That sounds simple, but getting out of bed was genuinely difficult at that point. So I removed the decisions and barriers. Simple thing of just having gym clothes laid out the night before everything ready to go, with training planned. At 5am there was nothing to decide, I'd already made the decision the night before.
That became my first habit. I'm not always full of energy, so some mornings I'd tell myself, "Just give it 15 minutes." But I never stop or end a session wishing I'd stayed in bed and not bothered.
After a couple of months, getting up early became normal. I started waking naturally, which made adding more training days easier.
Then I added habit of daily walking. Before work and at lunchtime. I'd always told myself I was too busy, I'd normally work through lunch or eat at my desk. But I realised the work would still be there when I got back. The walk became a reset rather than wasted time, and eventually that became automatic too.
Once training and movement were consistent and I started seeing changes in my body composition, I looked closer at my nutrition. I began tracking calories properly with an app rather than guessing.
I didn't eliminate foods I enjoyed. I still eat pizza, eat out and have treats. I just learned how they fit into my overall intake with better awareness.
That's when habit stacking really clicked. Train consistently to getting up early to add more training days to walk daily to track my nutrition then getting consistent with them all.
Each habit made the next one easier until I wasn't really thinking about them anymore.
The biggest change wasn't actually losing the weight. It was stopping relying on motivation. The habits built the discipline.
I'm still a dad. Still working full time. Some days I'm tired, some weeks aren't perfect and life still gets in the way. The difference is one bad day doesn't turn into six months of doing nothing anymore. I'm now around 162lbs at 5'8", leaner and stronger than I've ever been at 44 Looking back, the transformation looks dramatic but it didn't happen through one massive lifestyle overhaul. It happened gradually by focusing on one thing, making it normal, then adding the next.
That's probably the biggest lesson I've learned. You don't need to change everything tomorrow. Make one decision, remove the excuses, repeat it, then build it over time and not at once where it feel overwhelmed.
