Living a healthy lifestyle stems from making good decisions and having good habits. Here are some ways to build healthy habits that will last.
How do you envision yourself in terms of health and lifestyle?
Everyone has an idea of what they would like to be; that is, active, fit, healthy, flexible, and the likes. The difference is, while some achieve this, for many, it is tough, and it may feel like someone has tried everything, but it does not just work out.
This is the reality of tens of millions of Americans who continuously spend on “healthy lifestyle” products and periodic books. Despite the enormous amounts of money thrown into self-improvement efforts, a lot of these methods do not bear fruits for a considerable number of people.
Where could the problem be?
You could be tackling too many things at the same time. Two, poor planning; or three, not using the right methods to achieve desired results.
Following are nine ways to build healthy habits:
1. Begin By Creating Sensible Goals
When the topic healthy lifestyle or self-improvement is mentioned, people often think or talk about actions. For instance, exercising, meditation, and healthy eating. The first step towards healthy habits is setting clear and reasonable goals.
The essence of setting goals is it cognitively prepares you for strategies necessary for achieving the goals. It allows you to conduct research, gathers information, considers options, reviews benefits and dangers. In due time, your willingness to take an action plan increases.
2. Come Up with a Meaningful Action Plan
Every effort towards healthy habit should be meaningful. This means you have to select only actions that matter to you and are directly effective in attaining a healthy lifestyle.
Take, for example, choosing to walk or commute to school or work instead of driving. The objective here is to take advantage of any opportunity guaranteed to achieve results.
Many people lose their way to selecting the right actions. This could be because of poor definition or understanding of what an action plan is or taking the entire process for granted.
You should not always jump on complex programs like hitting the gym for more than two hours or morning runs of more than two hours at a go. It should be a process that should begin with simple steps like exercising for only ten minutes. Then, gradually advancing by 5 minutes by day.
3. Give Yourself Time
Psychologists argue that it takes 21 days to create a habit. Understand this, this is only an estimate that works for some and terribly fails for others. To be on the safer side of the statistic, give yourself at least 60 days to make even the most difficult habits stick.
Experts argue that, when it comes to a healthy lifestyle, it can take up to three months for a habit to stick.
4. Understand the Mechanics of Healthy Habits
What this means is different methods work for different people. You just have to find what works for you by understanding how they work. For instance, while home workouts are a major fail for most people going to the gym is a perfect alternative for someone looking to develop a habit of working out.
Even so, developing a habit of going to the gym regularly is not an easy thing. Charles Duhigg, an award-winning journalist, outlines how one can successfully develop a habit.
Here, he offers a system that breaks down a habit into three actions, a cue, routine, and rewards. This system is easy to transition from an old habit to a new healthy one.
5. Quit Comparing Yourself to Others
A significant amount of research shows that the leading cause of depression is people continually comparing themselves to others, either in real life or on the internet. Comparison breeds unhealthy competition, which consequently wrecks healthy habits. You have to realize that we start from different places, which means your major achievement might minor to some else and vice versa.
For that reason, say, instead of comparing yourself to others who go to the gym, or are on a healthy diet as you, focus on being a better version of yourself. Strive to become better than you were in the previous month. The key to true happiness lies in acknowledging that you are better than you once were.
6. Remember to Celebrate Your Small Victories
Having a long-term goal, like losing a significant amount of weight, makes it challenging to stay motivated all through to the goal. As such, do not only focus on the bigger price. Instead, break it down to small bits along the way and pay attention to those small goals.
It can be challenging to lose 80 lbs. If you can barely lose five lbs; however, you celebrate every stepping stone, the process will be enjoyable.
7. Do Not Quit Because You Broke the Habit for a Day
Persistence is a key ingredient to sticking to a habit and enjoying its fruit. Many people do not only lack patient; persistence is also a major problem. Quitting a habit altogether because you missed a day will be detrimental in the long run.
For instance, choosing to quit the gym because of missing out a day hampers habit building.
8. Think About the Future with You in It
Research shows people react differently to impulses. Some people have a difficult time resisting their impulses. Take, for example, sticking to a healthy diet with junk food all over can be a challenge for some people.
Health specialists call this “delay discounting,” where people often undervalue larger benefits of waiting to smaller and immediate rewards. This can result in people reengaging in poor eating habits and lifestyle.
To prevent this, it is important to think about the value of the larger objective. More so, learn to postpone immediate gratification and to resist temptations. How you think about yourself in the future will shape your decisions.
9. Use Technology to Your Advantage
Technology has become an integral part of our lives. While it intends to impact our lives through efficiency and effectiveness positively, many people use it for all the wrong reasons. Sticking to a life-changing habit is extremely tough.
However, technology can make things very simpler. With numerous applications on platforms like Android and iOS, you can lighten the load. For instance, an app like HabitBull does not only send you reminders but also compels you to stick to your habits.
Creating Healthy Habits
The number of Americans on healthy habits is shockingly low; only 2.7 per cent of Americans are on a plausible healthy lifestyle. This goes to show that a majority of “healthy lifestyle” tips on and off the internet are ineffective to attaining healthy goals.
The above life-changing tips are designed to turn around life around for the better so you can live a happy, healthy, and longer life.
Visit our page to learn more about how to create healthy habits.