Healthy habits are good for you
We all know that making healthy choices in life can help us feel and do better. But it can be hard to know where to start when we want to make changes and create new habits. It’s common to create multiple goals around habits, or be very general, like I’ll start eating healthier and begin a new exercise program. But when you try to do too much, it can feel overwhelming and discouraging. Try to focus on one healthy habit at a time. Once that becomes part of your routine, then you can focus on the next one.
What are some healthy habits you’d like to bring into your life? Here’s a few to think about:
- Get more sleep
- Eat healthier food
- Get outside more
- Spend more time with loved ones
- Exercise more
- Drink more water
Write down your goal and come up with a plan to create new habits to support your goal. Writing your wishes down and saying them out loud tells the universe you’re ready for change.
Many years ago, my sweetheart and I wanted to start juicing. Our goal was to enjoy more vegetables and fruits in our diet. I remember the first time we juiced—Chopping up all the vegetables, figuring out the recipe so it tasted good, and then cleaning out the juicer after we finished. It was a lot of work!
But we were committed to eating healthier, so the next step was making it a part of our lifestyle. We continued juicing and made smaller, more specific goals: Once a week, we’ll juice. Then I started a shopping list, so I would always have the juicing ingredients we needed. After I mastered the shopping list, we increased our juicing to two days, then three days. I researched more on the cold press juicers and in doing so, I learned that if you want to keep in all the fiber from the vegetables and fruit, using a Vitamix blender is the way to go.
With a lot of trial and error, I landed on a wonderful recipe that works in the Vitamix. As I look back at our journey learning how to juice, I realize how many small steps we took to get to our end goal. We’ve been making our vegetable green juice every morning now for many years; it’s a permanent part of our morning ritual, and a real lifestyle healthy habit. One of the keys to a healthy habit is focus. You must decide that this is what you are committed to and that this is the result you want. By setting smaller, more attainable short-term goals, we were able to increase our confidence and motivation which in turn helped us to reach our long-term goal.
Let’s say your desire is to eat healthier food. A short-term goal could be replacing sodas with water or replacing snacks like chips with fresh fruit. You’re not changing your whole diet; you’re only changing small things and making healthier choices that move you to your end goal.
What will you need to be successful? How can you change your environment around you to support your goal? You might need to stock up on healthy foods and remove the unhealthy temptations from your pantry. You might need to purchase new sneakers to help support the new walking program you want to start. Or maybe getting a Fitbit to help count your steps is the way to go. Small goals make a huge difference in the long run. Remember: Building new healthy habits can take some time, so be patience and loving with yourself. The good news is many healthy habits are mutually supportive—Getting more exercise may help you sleep better and may inspire you to make healthier food choices. Getting enough sleep may give you the energy you need to get out more and enjoy time with friends and family. When you put in the time to develop healthy habits, the effort that you put into your body, mind, and relationships will come back to you many times over. It is definitely time well spent.