As summer approaches, this is a good time to reflect on your habits, analyzing which ones are good to keep and which ones could use some improvements. Creating new habits within your life not only sets you up for a healthier version of yourself, but it will also help you to feel a sense of personal growth. If you go about this process in the right way, these habits can be ones that you will carry with you for a lifetime. Whether your goal is to eat healthier in general, incorporate a weekly exercise routine into your life, make more time for relaxation, maintain a better sleep schedule, or any other healthy habit you want to focus on adding into your life and routine, these tips will help increase your chances of success.
Be Realistic
If you aim to incorporate changes into your life that aren’t realistic, or are too drastic of a change from where you were previously, they may wind up not lasting. The key to developing long term habits is to slowly work your way into them one step at a time so that they stick and become part of your routine. For example, if you currently don’t exercise at all, setting a goal to exercise five days per week may not be realistic. Start small and aim for 2-3 days per week, and then once that becomes ingrained into your routine, then you can increase to five days per week.
Maintain Discipline
Discipline is going to be important when it comes to maintaining these habits on a long term basis. Finding motivation to cultivate and stick to healthier habits will help you to prevent discipline from fading. If you notice that starting to happen, you can remind yourself of the reasons why you set these goals for yourself to begin with, which will help you to maintain your motivation and discipline. Another tip for maintaining discipline is to identify any obstacles that may present themselves and prevent you from sticking to your goals. This way, you can find a solution or a different path around these roadblocks before they actually prevent you from reaching your goals.
Accountability
Sometimes it helps to have other people help hold us accountable in reaching our goals. Don’t feel like you need to do this alone. Some people really struggle with self-discipline, and that is ok! If you fall into this category, setting up a support system for yourself from the beginning may be the best thing you can do to help ensure your success. You can either get a friend or family member on board to help, join a group of people who have similar goals, or hire a coach. Having some sort of accountability partner can help fill in the gaps of your own self-discipline. If you are trying to incorporate healthier habits into your life while you’re also following your G-Plans meal plan, one of the best things you can do is join one of our managed plans to work directly with a G-Plans nutritionist. Not only can our nutritionists help you customize your meal plan for optimal success, but you will also receive support and accountability around all of your health goals. If you struggle with actually getting started implementing the goals you set for yourself, sometimes taking the first step of hiring a professional is just what you need to get the ball rolling and build the positive momentum you need.