Make Healthy Habits, Not Resolutions

Start the Year Off Right

Happy New Year! The start of a New Year is a perfect time to reflect and be more intentional with your time. This year, to become the healthiest and happiest version of yourself, focus on creating healthy habits to achieve long-term goals instead of loading more pressure on yourself with insurmountable resolutions that cause stress.

Making healthy lifestyle changes is a journey, and it can take up to 60 days to make new healthy habits stick. Success is not achievable on motivation alone, nor is it sustainable. Making realistic, attainable goals and appreciating small improvements along the way helps develop new behaviors that result in long-lasting healthy habits.

Many people get discouraged from continuing with their New Year’s Resolutions because they think exercising five days/week, eating more fruits and vegetables, or getting better sleep requires massive amounts of time and energy. Believe it or not, it is the small daily habits that can transform your health and well-being.

Here are six tips to help you get started on developing healthy habits:

Know your Habits

Wellness takes practice. Knowing and doing do not always align. The first step to making healthy behavior changes is to create an awareness around your regular habits. Perhaps scrolling through social media is taking time away from being able to exercise. To develop new habits, you must disrupt your old patterns and create new ones. Instead of connecting with friends over social media, get out, and enjoy a walk together.

Stack Habits

It is typically valuable to set three to five habits/week. It is also useful to have goals in two to three areas (fitness, sleep, nutrition, stress) so that you are working on several new behaviors that complement each other and support your optimal vision of health. For example, setting and sticking to a consistent bedtime results in being rested (sleep), which provides energy for a morning workout (exercise), leaving you hungry for a nutritious breakfast (healthy diet).

Write it down

Keeping track of all the healthy living “must-do’s” can clutter your mind and leave you feeling stressed, confused, and defeated before you even start. Research suggests that writing down goals leads to accomplishing more than merely thinking about them. Writing down goals helps clarify what you want to achieve and enables you to develop a specific plan to get there. For example, if one of your goals is to eat healthier, a task on your list could be, “Have healthy snacks ready to go throughout the week by storing pre-cut veggies in ziplock baggies.” When you complete a written goal, you get the satisfaction of checking it off your “to-do” list and a prompt to think about what’s next.

Be Intentional

When you set clear and intentional goals, you understand the motivation behind them. For example, I want to eat healthier, so I have more energy to play with my children after work. Reminding yourself what is driving your goals will help you stay on track.

Stay Positive and Practice Gratitude

Being self-critical only gets in the way of achieving your potential. On days when you find yourself off track, express gratitude instead of being self-critical. For example, be thankful for being able to celebrate a friend’s birthday with a piece of cake over lunch, and, at dinner, get back on track by including an extra serving of vegetables.

Reward Yourself

The key to making good habits stick is to reward yourself with a satisfying and immediate reward. For example, if you are creating the habit of exercising five days/week, reward yourself at the end of the 5th day with a massage. Having a reward that you are looking forward to helps with momentum and staying on track with your goal. Once a habit is firmly established, you can train yourself to delay gratification.

When it comes to our health, most people know what to do: eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise, limit alcohol, manage stress, get enough sleep and stay up to date on annual preventative health screens. Incorporating small goals and making them habits will transform your health and keep you on track to achieving your vision of optimal health and well-being.

Wishing you the HEALTHIEST year ever!

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