How do you start building healthy habits?
Overcoming the lack of inertia is the most difficult part of taking the first steps toward meaningful change like trying to create healthier habits or in my case starting or restarting Habit of Health. So how do we make those first steps towards change easier? This is the crux of the problem that we built Habit of Health to solve. Here are the big things that take little effort that most people will overlook:
Set smaller attainable, bite-sized goals – the goal of being healthy or healthier is great but it is a big and daunting idea. Where do you even start? So instead, break that big goal down into smaller more attainable, trackable goals. I am going to get 30-45 minutes of moving a day or I’m going to drink 64 ounces of water a day. And you can even break that down even further if you want. 30-45 minutes that’s just two walks with the dog or a walk to pick the kids up from school and a break from work. 64 ounces of water that’s just a pint of water with each meal and one during the rest of the day.
Write down your goal and track your progress – keep yourself accountable for those small goals you set. Write a note on your phone, text yourself, or start a journal. And It’s ok if you miss a day here and there you are building a habit. Life happens and sometimes you’ll miss a day but your journal or note or texts will show you how far you’ve come.
Tell people about your goal and ask them to be your accountability partner – putting your goal out there and telling a roommate, a friend, or a loved one about your goal and asking them to help you or join you or just check in on you every once in a while, can be a great motivator to keep you on track when things get difficult
So, to practice what I preach, my big, lofty goal currently is to get Habit of Health back off the ground and help this community create healthy habits. My small goal for right now is to make a post every day for the next 8 weeks showing this community how the Habit of Health 8-week challenge we ran guided our athletes from a nutritional perspective to create healthy habits. Hopefully, my accountability partners will be the people who read this blog and decide to join in the comments or contact me through the site or email.
