How many times have you reached for a cookie without even realizing you were doing it? Or maybe you find yourself automatically stopping for fast food on your way home from work?
We often think that our food choices are conscious decisions we make every day. In truth, many of the foods we buy, cook and eat are largely based on habit, developed through weeks, months, or years of repetition—habits we may not even be aware of.
What Is a Habit?
Habits are actions or behaviors performed automatically without conscious thought—things we do without even thinking about them. According to Wendy Wood, author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits,” research shows about 43 percent of behaviors are driven by habit, which means about 43 percent of what people do every day is repeated in the same context, usually while they are thinking about something else….