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Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

BEHAVIOR CHANGE IS KEY TO CREATING habits that support peak nutrition for mountain athletes. But how is that change achieved? Often people don’t consider their behaviors when it comes to eating; they usually develop a target for what they eat, change their eating habits for a brief moment, and then fall off the wagon and wonder why. It’s because of behavior and lifestyle choices made each day. People are creatures of habit, and it’s difficult to get out of patterns that have been deeply ingrained since childhood. Behaviors are like trails in a forest. It’s so much easier to stick to the path of least resistance. For behavior to change, you have to choose one trail at a time and make it clearer and easier to follow. Then you can create a new trail.

In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg states that to be successful at changing habits, you should address only one habit at a time. If you work on two habits, the likelihood of failure increases; if you work on three or more, you will undoubtedly fail at all of them. This chapter reveals the secret to building (and keeping) a new habit. For the following exercises, work on each habit for two weeks to one month at a time before adding the next one. These habit exercises have been used successfully by thousands of people. We are 100 percent confident that you too can get great benefit from practicing them. And you’ll form mindfulness and appreciation while doing so.

“We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle