Creating New Healthy Habits
Does it ever seem like starting bad habits is super easy?
It takes no effort for a bad habit to form, but we have to constantly fight to get a good habit going. It can be daunting and frustrating.
The best way to create new and better habits is to start slowly and take baby steps.
Creating New Eating Habits
Unless you have a medical condition that you need to address immediately with completely new eating habits, it’s best to create a new eating plan slowly. Start by replacing one junk food item with a health food item.
When you feel like you’ve succeeded with that, pick the next unhealthy food item and replace it with a healthier choice.
This will not cause you to drop a lot of pounds in a short period of time, but it will eventually help you to lose weight at a steady rate.
Creating New Exercise Habits
Instead of jumping into a full-blown aerobics class or other fitness class, you need to ease into it.
Start by doing a five minute walk each day if you’re in really bad shape. If you’re in better shape and can do more, then do more.
Start gradually and add to it each week. With a few weeks or few months you will be able to take an aerobics class if you’d like.
Creating New Organization Habits
If your home is unorganized and seems to always be a mess, you can take small steps to reclaim it and end the chaos.
Instead of tackling the whole house at once, start by doing it room to room. Even one room can feel overwhelming, so in each room you want to tackle just one area of the room.
Pick an area of the room to start and get it cleaned and organized. Do at least one section of the room per day until it’s done.
If you have a full time job and other duties, you may want to do one section per week. The trick is to get started and stay on top of it.
Whatever new habits you want to start, remember, you don’t have to jump in and start everything all at once.
Simply determine that you want to make changes and break everything down in easy to do, manageable steps.
This may not be the fast track to getting things accomplished right now, but it will gradually ease you into changes and they are more likely to stick.
Too many people have come to think that everything needs to be done immediately. This sets you up for failure if you give up within the first week.
A better solution is to start off at an easy pace, make a timeline of the habits you want to create and break them down into things you can do each day that doesn’t feel so overwhelming.
As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can’t create new habits in a day either. Another tip is to try and have fun with them. Do your new task each day and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment, no matter how small it is.