Episode 634: The Wellness One: Small Habits, Big Life With Dr. Heather McKee

Hey friends! I’m kicking off a brand-new 10-part series on I’ll Have Another called The Wellness One, supported by our friends at Eternal. I wanted a space to look at whole-person health for runners and athletes — beyond splits and workouts — and bring in experts who can actually help us live, train, and feel better for the long haul.

Today I’m joined by Dr. Heather McKee, a behavior change specialist who helps people “find joy in their healthy habits.” We get into why many motivated runners (hi, us!) still struggle with the “extras” like strength, mobility, recovery, nutrition, and medical check-ins — and how to finally make those stick.

Heather explains how to connect habits to your own why so the motivation is “sticky,” what a minimum viable habit looks like in real life, and how to use flexible scaling instead of all-or-nothing thinking. We talk about “goal dilution,” the power of habit stacking, and how to become a “habit detective” using cues-routine-reward to bend unhelpful behaviors. I even share my own fidgety tendencies, and Heather offers a super practical re-route I’m going to try immediately.

We wrap with three takeaways you can use today:

• Start with why — what does this change contribute to your life.

• Choose your minimum viable habit — the smallest version you’ll actually do.

• Scale flexibly — define 1–10 versions so the habit survives real life.

Topics Discussed:

• What The Wellness One series is and why I’m doing it

• What Eternal offers and where it’s available

• Runners over-indexing training while neglecting recovery, strength, nutrition, and medical factors

• Intrinsic (“sticky”) motivation — starting with your personal why

• Minimum Viable Habit and consistency (the “one tooth” flossing idea)

• Goal dilution and focusing on one specific change at a time

• Flexible scaling (defining 1–10 versions so habits survive busy seasons)

• Habit loop: cue → routine → reward; becoming a “habit detective”

• Habit stacking and environment design to reduce friction

• Bending unhelpful habits (fidgets, nail/hair picking) and practical replacements

Media Recommendations:

• Good Habits, Bad Habits — Wendy Wood

• Atomic Habits — James Clear

• Unreasonable Hospitality — Will Guidara

• Meditations for Mortals — Oliver Burkeman

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