Too Big To Start, Too Small To Skip: A Simple System To Stop Procrastinating on Foam-Rolling and Breathwork

You know the habit is good for you, so why do you keep putting it off? That pattern is not a character flaw. It is usually a design flaw. I break down a simple, research-backed approach to habit formation that works even when you are busy, tired, and not “feeling it,” using a concept I love: the one tooth habit principle. We start with a story about flossing and why tiny habits are the real gateway to consistency. When you shrink the behavior to the smallest possible version, you remove the ...

• 0:09Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Chorina, I'm your host, I'm your partner in personal and collective transformation, your executive master health, sleep, stress management, recovery, self optimization coach, and just someone who has a lot of passion and obsession for learning about how to be, feel, think, do our absolute best, how to create every day a little bit more extraordinary life experience, and how to create more positive impact everywhere in the world around us.

• 0:51Speaker 00

  Today, guys, we are doing a very short and sweet episode around habits that you keep putting off, like we all tend to keep putting things off, sometimes more often, sometimes less often, but when you keep putting something off, well, before we jump into the episode and the system, and a very simple research-backed way to address this issue and to stop procrastinating on the things that are important, that you believe are important in your life, to specifically habits to create, and how to let go of things that maybe you procrastinate on for a reason,

• 1:35Speaker 00

  and you just can drop thinking about them altogether. Before we do that, don't forget, guys, there is in the show notes a way to connect with me, you can drop me a WhatsApp with your question, very simply, just press the link and it will redirect you to my WhatsApp inbox. You can also book your one-on-one session, which is designed to help you figure out what drains your energy in your nutrition, in your fitness, in your sleep, in your recovery, in your mental and emotional self-regulation, and how to use simple habits and routines

• 2:15Speaker 00

  that are absolutely free and available and super effective to close this energy drain and instead, instead start feeling more and more energized every day. So that session is available, a link to that session is available in the show notes, and let's begin today's episode. And as often as it is today, it is based on the blog that I just finished writing, and the blog's title was Too Big to Start, Too Small to Skip: How to Stop Procrastinating on Habits You Keep Putting Off. And let me tell you a story.

• 2:58Speaker 00

  Some point, I think it was more than 10 years ago now, I used to stumble on those messages or articles from the internet, you know, or it will pop up on my Google, about how important flossing your teeth was, because, you know, you get certain food particles that are stuck in between your teeth, and then it can create inflammation and bacteria or growth, etc., and that can actually contribute to your heart health, and it's been well researched, and so flossing your teeth is quite an important practice, cleansing or cleaning those in-between-your-teeth spaces, so there is nothing stuck and you don't develop

• 3:40Speaker 00

  too much of their own kind of bacteria in your mouth, which again can influence even things like your heart health or your brain health, believe it or not. So I decided that actually flossing my teeth is very important, but it just couldn't start. And one day, I think I got so upset with myself that I finally decided, hey, I'm doing this, so what is the best way to start to actually stick with it? And even back then, there was research available on habit formation, how when you get very clear about what it is you wanna do, how you can start, like very clear, so it's in your mind, how exactly you're gonna start, you make it very tiny, there is a book by

• 4:25Speaker 00

  BJ Fogg, Stanford researcher, one of the fathers of habit research, habit formation research. So in his book Tiny Habits, he proposes to form a habit, start really tiny and simply like flossing just one tooth. And the the third part, which is very important, is to stick that small habit somewhere in your day that is repeatable and where you have a trigger or a cue, like for me, flossing my teeth, I would, I decided to do it every time after brushing my teeth. I usually brush my teeth three times per day, and so after each brushing, I decided

• 5:08Speaker 00

  I'm gonna floss just one tooth, and that's exactly what I started doing. And guess what? Soon, one tooth became four, I just have the specific places where things tend to stuck in my teeth, get stuck in my teeth, and four soon became the whole mouth, and I've been flossing since then forever. And now, if for whichever reason, I decide to like not floss, or maybe my tooth floss is finished, then it feels like it's weird, like not myself even, because the habit becomes

• 5:50Speaker 00

  so a part of your, this like flow of things, of this routine, then not doing it starts feeling again, like not maybe putting your shoes when you get out of your house. That's what happens when you form a habit, when you form this routine, which is repeatable, and it happens after a certain trigger. So back to what we are talking about today. I am a certified sleep, stress management, and recovery coach, and after workout, I don't, I don't see myself finishing my workout without doing some sort of soft tissue work, like foam rolling or stretching.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  And I know how important that is to improve blood circulation, to improve mobility in all of the places, to just feel through the full range of motion and to release fascia, which is a tissue that holds sort of everything inside of you together, from your muscles to your internal organs, and sometimes it traps nerves, and then you get muscle knots or just tightness, which then decreases circulation or mobility, and then it, you know, you get a lack of mobility somewhere else, and then if you never release it or resolve it, then it can turn into injury down the road, most often that's what causes a lot of injuries.

• 7:15Speaker 00

  But anyhow, I know how foam rolling and stretching is important, and that's why I do it every day, but at some point, it also was not a habit. And when I decided to make it a habit, first of all, I got myself a foam roller, which I travel with, and then I decided, okay, after each workout, even if it's just one leg, I'm just gonna do one-leg foam rolling, an equivalent of one-tooth flossing, right? And how I was successful as well with that habit is, again, applying this principle,

• 7:56Speaker 00

  do the smallest, the simplest version of the habit first, and apply it or connect it to the same trigger or cue, for me, it's after my workout, and then do a lot, a lot of repetitions first, and soon you'll be doing a lot more. And so these days, I don't just foam roll one leg or one arm, I foam roll as much as possible, and very often, I get frustrated when I don't have time for like, I don't know, 15 minutes, and I just have five minutes, I'm like, ah, but I wanna do more, and that's what actually happens when you start doing a habit, you wanna do it better, you wanna get results, you know, as long as you're doing it, you might as well do it really well.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  Back to, or forward to my clients, so many of my clients, busy people, high-performing people, love working out, but they keep skipping recovery practices, and then they get injuries or need to go to chiropractor, or they are on the way to burnout, can't sleep, recovery practices, they are reflected in the quality of your life on so many levels. And how do I help people to get into those recovery practices, right? Before it becomes too painful. Otherwise, you know, people wait for the pain, and then they book the chiropractor,

• 9:25Speaker 00

  then they wait for the burnout, and then they go to some wellness retreat, people wait for the injury, and then they go and get some surgery or hip replacement, and I'm not saying, oh, that's a, you know, shoulder recovery thing. And I'm not saying that injuries will not happen, but what I do notice, people who do consistent recovery tend to get a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot less injuries and painful experiences. And waiting for the pain to go to chiropractor, nothing against chiropractors, but I hope to never need one. It's like never brushing your teeth and only going to the dentist once a cavity starts

• 10:08Speaker 00

  to hurt, or it's like waiting for a mental health crisis and then go to therapy, instead of doing things like gratitude, learning how to pay attention and focus on the positive things, learning how to cultivate positive relationships in your life, journal every day, and engaging with this very simple but very effective practice of worry journal, when you write down everything that worries you, taking 10, 15 minutes every two to three days, right? It's like, again, never brushing your teeth and only going to the dentist once a cavity starts to hurt.

• 10:48Speaker 00

  And I hear the same lines from clients, which I also heard a lot in my head, either for tooth flossing or other activities, like, oh, I just didn't get it, you know, was too busy, I was rushing after my workout, I needed to get going, or at night, I just wanted to relax and go to bed instead of doing those five minutes of foam rolling before bed.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  What if you approach that like your recovery practices like flossing, like I did with flossing? First, convince yourself it's actually valuable.

• 11:27Speaker 00

  This is the first thing to make sure you have very solid guys before you attempt to change any of your behaviors or to build any habits that you want to stick. You gotta really understand your reasons. Why do you think that is important? Otherwise, you keep self sabotaging or forgetting or procrastinating. It's the first sign or the first thing to check with yourself. Are you actually convinced that it will bring benefits into your life? I am 100% convinced that all these recovery practices and my weekly yoga and my five minutes of foam rolling and stretching after workout and breath work several times per day.

• 12:08Speaker 00

  I am convinced because of undeniably evidence, really good research evidence that those practices will prevent a lot of pain chiropractor visits, perhaps even surgery. I think the tricky part is you just never experience the pain you don't get, right? It's not like somebody is gonna come to you and tap you on your shoulder like, oh, you did all this recovery work and because of that you didn't get the surgery. No, you're never gonna get that and you at some point might feel like it's a waste of time. But I prefer to look at the people who do the recovery and who don't and see the pattern. And the pattern is clear. It just because of my work and because I get exposed to so many more people and lifestyles

• 12:50Speaker 00

  and choices, I see those patterns in other people a lot more clear than perhaps you would. So the first clarity around, is it worth it for me? You gotta be convinced. Second, choose your one tooth. With foam rolling, that's one leg, one arm, one minute. Make it very clear, make it very simple, make it very tiny. And you might think, well, it doesn't, it's not gonna make a difference. You're gonna do better and more over time. Trust the process, trust the researchers, trust all the data that we have on real people.

• 13:31Speaker 00

  Trust it, just like brushing your teeth, you did it and you're doing it still for life. So choose your one twos. Start small, start tiny, see the magic of tiny work on you. One leg, one arm, one minute. And then third, which is super important and no less important than the first two. Create the same cue, the same trigger. Habit formation works like this. You have a cue, something that like a push of a button that tells your brain, when the brain sees this, hey, this is the time to do the habit. So you need to have consistent trigger or cue. That is why it's so effective to find something that happens in your day already, every single day.

• 14:16Speaker 00

  Like if you work out every single day, then put your foam rolling there. If you go to bed every single day, that you probably do, then put that foam roller on a pillow and do one minute, set the timer, do one minute. Or maybe it's right before brushing your teeth or right after. Right? So create the cue, create the consistent trigger. It is needed to create habit because habits work like this. Cue, routine, reward. And it is fourth, which gonna accelerate the habit formation. Give yourself high five. Like after each time you do the habit, you roll your one leg, high five yourself in the mirror. Positive emotion wires habits faster.

• 15:02Speaker 00

  The more positive emotion you create right after, you have like 20 second window or less. When you reward the habit right after, it is gonna be wired a lot, a lot faster, right? So third, create the cue and fourth, create the reward. But the cue, let's get back to the cue. Attach it to a moment, attach your new habit to a moment that already exists in your day. Don't try to invent a wheel that's not there. Right after you work out, right before bed and while you're watching Netflix, if you do it every day. And, and come on, you have one minute. No matter how busy you are, that one minute will change nothing, nothing in your schedule.

• 15:45Speaker 00

  But it might save you from a lot of pain and a lot of chiropractor visits. How much time and money would that save? And then see what happens in a month, commit to a month. I bet, based on all the research and other people experiences, you'll be rolling your whole body before long. These days, again, I can't imagine finishing a workout without two things, foam rolling and at least three cycles of four, seven, eight breathing. The habit is so ingrained in me that keeping it feels weird, wrong even. It's like putting your shoes on different feet, you know, right on left and left on right. Just like not flossing or brushing my teeth with a different hand.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  Just like flossing, it wouldn't feel like me anymore. And also that is the real price, not the one minute of flossing that you start with or one minute of journaling. It's who you become through it. The person who rolls into pain-free retirement and future. What's, you know, every time we climb a mountain here in Cape Town, I, I hear people, oh, my knees, my knees. Well, your knees is because you haven't done all the recovery work. It's not that your knees after a certain age cannot do mountains. There are people who climb mountains and get back in their sixties and seventies just

• 17:13Speaker 00

  fine, not so many people because a lot of people just don't exercise consistently for their whole life. But your knee pain is not a necessity, it is a preventable thing.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  So what's the behavior you keep putting off? Even though you know, remember that first you need to understand that it's actually worth it. So read up on that, do the research studies, maybe get opinion of experts, right? What's the behavior you keep putting off even though you know it's worth it? And what's one tooth version you could start tomorrow at a specific moment in your day and celebrate it after, don't forget that, right? So what is it that you keep putting off? And what's one tooth version you could start tomorrow or even today at a specific moment in your day? So what's your one tooth habit?

• 18:14Speaker 00

  Thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you for listening again. This was a podcast episode, Too Big to Start, Too Small to Skip. How to Stop Procrastinating on Habits You Keep Putting Off and Why Your Foam Rolling Never Happens. One tooth habit, what's the version of it for the behavior you keep procrastinating on?

• 18:36Speaker 00

  And don't forget guys, don't forget to share this podcast episode with at least one other person who you meet and they're always like, I keep forgetting, I keep procrastinating on that. Share with them this episode and help them to finally get the thing going because you know it's gonna create a lot of positive outcome or help to avoid a lot of pain in the future. So do me a favor, help me to help more people share this podcast episode with at least one other person who you believe will really love it and really needs it. Check out all the links, maybe drop a question to my WhatsApp, using the link in the show notes. And till next time, guys, till next time.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  Keep rolling into your pain-free future with some recovery practice that you start today with one tooth option, something very simple and very clear that you can do every single day. Talk soon, keep rolling.