Hi! I’m Dr. Kasey Jo. I’ve been working in the health and fitness industry since 2016 and have PhD in Psychology. My research and work focuses mainly on health behavior change and how to help people stick with their healthy behaviors. Over the years, my company has helped 1000+ people develop healthy habits and lifestyles. I’ve also developed a certification program for health professionals to learn the science of mindset and strategies to help clients make lasting behavior changes.
If you’re feeling frustrated with your ability to stick to a supplement routine (or any new behavior), you’re not alone. In our world today, we’re constantly being pulled in a million directions and wearing a thousand hats. Even when we know we “should” be doing something, that doesn’t make it any easier to actually get it done. I’m excited to bring some of my expertise in behavior change and psychology to help you with supplement routine consistency!
Why do People Struggle With Supplement Consistency?
Everyone is unique, so we can’t really say there’s one thing that causes supplement inconsistency for everyone. But when it comes to staying consistent with any behavior we can look to a couple hang-ups psychologically: motivation and habits.
When I say “motivation” I don’t just mean “drive to do something” but more specifically what’s important here is a specific type of motivation: intrinsic motivation. When it comes to supplements, we might be encouraged to take them from a doctor, coach, or other professional. These are external motivators and aren’t coming from an intrinsic (internal) place. This suggestion may sound odd, but if you’re struggling to stick with your supplement routine, I’d encourage you to think more about how taking the supplements can relate to something personal for you. Think about your identity or personal values… how does taking this supplement relate? Maybe you want to be a healthier, more energized version of yourself and the supplements will support your ability to do that. Maybe you value your family and taking care of yourself through these supplements is a way to support that value. The more you can trace your supplement routine back to things that are important to you personally, the easier it will be to stay consistent with taking them.
How often do you find yourself saying “I just need to make this a habit” when trying to stick to a new routine or behavior? Habits are helpful because they create an automaticity to a certain behavior, making it less effortful (and therefore easier to stick with). But the path to habit formation can be tricky. People are quick to give up on their path to habit formation because it can take time and get frustrating when you feel like it’s not getting easier. I’ll talk more about the science and strategy of habits next!
What's the Science Behind Building a Supplement Habit?
Habits are built through repetition. So what you really need to ask yourself is: how can I make this as easy as possible for me to do? When I teach habit building and breaking I talk about it in terms of friction. If you want to build a new habit you want to reduce the friction as much as possible. For a supplement routine, that might mean setting out a glass of water and your supplement containers on the counter before you go to bed so it’s the first thing you see the next morning and requires no effort while you’re getting yourself (and other family members) ready for the day. There’s another couple of concepts in psychology that can support habit building, such as, temptation bundling and habit stacking.
With temptation bundling, the goal is to pair the thing you “should” do (e.g. take supplements) with something you “want” to do (e.g. enjoy your morning coffee). With this example, you could save your morning coffee for after you take your supplements as somewhat of a reward.
And with habit stacking, you can think of something that you’re already doing… how can you pair your supplements with that? Since you go into your bathroom every morning to get ready for the day, maybe leaving your supplements in there with a bottle of water can help you stay more consistent with your routine. Rather than trying to create a new routine, think about where you can stack it into a current routine!
What are Your Top Strategies for Supplement Consistency?
- Consider putting your supplements at eye level. On your counter, on your desk, by your sink, so it's easier to remember than being tucked away in a cabinet.
- Choose forms of supplements you can easily incorporate into your day. A powered prenatal pairs nicely with a morning smoothie. Collagen pairs nicely mixed into your morning coffee.
- Create a tracking system - this could look like a calendar you hang on your fridge where you can mark off each day you take your supplements to gamify your routine and monitor your progress!
What if I Miss a Dose—Should I Double up the Next Day?
Don’t sweat it! In most cases, there’s no need to double up the next day. With supplements like Omega-3 and vitamin D, it’s not harmful to double up the next day, but with supplements like a multivitamin or prenatal, doubling up would provide excessive amounts of nutrients. It’s really about the consistency of your routine, not perfection.
If you find that you’re regularly missing your dose, review the strategies listed above.
How Can I Track my Progress Effectively?
“Self-monitoring” is the term used in psychological research related to tracking progress and it is consistently one of the most well-validated strategies for sticking with a behavior. This makes sense; you can’t improve upon something that you don’t measure!
As kind of a funny example, you can think about apps like Duolingo. With every day that you practice the language you’re learning, you’re building on a “streak” of days in a row. And people get crazy about protecting their streak! This is a fun way to gamify habit formation or establish a new behavior while also monitoring your progress over time. Think about how you can make self-monitoring more enjoyable – the more fun, the more likely you are to do it, and the more likely you are to do it, the more likely you are to stay consistent!
What About Motivation—How Can We Maintain it?
Again, the most important thing is not to strive for “more” motivation but to uncover more intrinsic motivation and personally rewarding factors related to the behavior. When you have established this, maintaining that motivation is so much easier.
It makes sense that you would feel less motivated if you don’t think what you’re doing is actually working. It would be silly to put time and effort into anything that’s not doing what we want it to! When it comes to supplements, this can be tough. We don’t always feel the immediate effects of supplements and sometimes we never feel the effects! But the point of many supplements is to optimize what your body is capable of. In this case, it’s important to remember that just because you don’t feel something doesn’t mean it’s not working. That said, there’s also a conversation to be had here around instant gratification versus long-term reward. We desire instant gratification and to feel like what we’re doing is immediately “working”. This is part of how we’re wired! But that doesn’t mean you have to listen to that wiring. Understanding that this is how your human brain works can be helpful. When you notice yourself feeling frustrated due to a lack of instant gratification, I would encourage you to think about the long-term payoff. Where will you be in 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year if you stick with it?
The Bottom Line
Sticking with any new behavior isn’t easy. We get so caught up in our autopilot, day-to-day lives, it can be hard to introduce something new… even when we know it’s good for us. New supplement routines are an excellent example of where we can struggle! If you can better understand why consistency is such a struggle for you, based on human behavior, motivation, and habits you can leverage that understanding to your advantage.
We are so much more likely to stick to things that feel personally beneficial or valuable to us, that feel easy for us to do, and that provide clear utility for our goals. If you can focus on these things, consistency in your supplement routine will be a breeze! If you’re looking for more science-backed behavior change tips and strategies check out my podcast: Not Another Mindset Show and my Instagram page!
