My goal this year is to add one healthy habit to my lifestyle each month.
A big goal and I’m encouraging others to join me to do the same for their life.
But what does this mean?
There are so many ideas floating around, how do you know what to focus on first?
Yes, there are many ideas on how to build lasting health and I’ve learned that many are worthwhile for my health, as long as you’ve built a solid foundation first.
For instance, you set a goal to lose weight this year and nothing is happening. Not the first pound has fallen off your body.
Or,
You set the goal to get up and exercise every morning before your day begins, or to exercise at the end of your day. So far, you haven’t slipped on your exercise shoes and started the program.
Worthy goals, but your foundation wasn’t strong enough to help you achieve them.
Healthy habits begin when you understand that this is a process that will take time and you’ve committed yourself to the process.
What’s your “Why?”
Your “Why” is the fuel for your motivation.
Once you know your “Why”, you’ll need to develop your goal.
Goals are where most people either over-reach or never set.
You may have said, “I’m going to lose weight this year.”
Great!
What’s your goal and plan to achieve this goal?
Again, you’re not going to wake up in the morning five pounds lighter just because you set your goal. You’ll need to develop a few healthy habits and commit to the process to see this through.
What I’ve found that works for me and many others is to develop a firm foundation first and then build my goals on this foundation.
One Small Step at a Time
I shared at the beginning that I was adding one healthy habit a month to my lifestyle.
Did you catch what you just read?
ONE!
Not two, not ten, but ONE healthy habit each month.
The reason so many become discouraged and frustrated with their goals, is that they try to make many changes to their lifestyle on the first day.
Building a life of health is built one step at a time.
You’re not able to walk a mile in one step, it takes 2,000 steps to achieve your goal of a mile.
Why do you believe you can achieve all these changes on day one?
Take the pressure off yourself.
Set your goal. Give yourself a timeframe to work within. Then break that time frame into months, weeks, days. When you begin your day, look at the steps you need to take today and work to accomplish that step.
It’s when you look at the end goal, every day, that discouragement sets in and you give up. But when, at the end of the day, you see you’ve accomplished today’s step, you’ll find yourself motivated to take the next step tomorrow.
Build your foundation with the mindset of one small step each day.
Enjoy Yourself
Healthy habits are great and I encourage everyone to develop them in their life, but I understand that everyone will build their habit in a different way.
Health habits are not a one-size-fits-all approach to life.
Our first healthy habit this year was to drink more water each day. There were some who were regular water drinkers and there were those who never gave water a thought.
Think about how you approach healthy habits.
If you had joined this challenge and you were one that rarely drank water, what would have happened if you had gotten up on the first day and set a goal to drink 100 ounces of water before bedtime?
You would have given up by the afternoon.
You didn’t enjoy the process. It wasn’t fun and you were frustrated.
How can you make your healthy habit a fun process?
For me, I added fruit and herbs to infuse my water with flavor. I enjoyed the different seasonal options and creating flavors that were healthy and natural.
I made this a fun healthy habit that I will do for a lifetime.
Consider how to enjoy yourself as you develop this new healthy habit into your life. You’ll find yourself working harder toward achieving your goals when you do this one simple exercise.
Stay True to Yourself
When you begin to consider how to achieve your goals, you may find yourself lost in the world of ideas on the best way to reach your goal.
Weight loss is always a top goal for people and I laugh when I think back on all the ways I tried to lose weight.
There was the cabbage soup diet, the green bean diet, the Hollywood liquid diet, the low fat diet, the liquid shake diet, and some I’ve forgotten.
What I learned was that none of them worked.
When I switched to just eating healthier, then I achieved my goal of losing weight. No gimmicks, just eating balanced nutritious food for every meal.
How are you approaching your healthy habit goal?
Are you searching for the latest fad to help get you there faster?
Stay true to yourself with your health as your focus. When you do this, you’ll achieve your goals one small step at a time.
Creating a life you’ll love is an ever-evolving process. Take time to build one healthy habit into your life and then build on that habit your next healthy habit. Sure, you can work on two at a time, but try not to overwhelm yourself with too many changes at once.
Let me challenge you to make a list of what healthy habits you would like to create into your life. Once you have your list, determine what it would take for you to begin that healthy habit. Looking at drinking more water, you could set a goal for week one to swap one normal drink for a glass of water each day. Then the next week, swap out another drink for water. Keep building until you’ve reached your water drinking goal.
Now that you know what it would take to begin that healthy habit, develop a plan of how you’re going to begin. Remember, not all at once, but little by little. That’s why I’ve set mine to one per month.
It’s never too late to create a life of health with healthy habits. What can you do today to get yourself started?
You’ll find plenty of ideas on my Wellness Challenge page to help you begin developing some healthy habits for a life you’ll love.
Click here to choose one to help get you started.
Wellness Challenges