I once lasted a whole six hours while doing a 72 hour juice cleanse. Most Mondays, I pledge to completely transform my nutritional and exercise habits. I am easily distracted, often misguided, and overwhelmed by trying to implement healthy habits into my life. All that to be said, I still try. Through a bit of dissection and personal reflection, I am trying to build healthy habits using three simple approaches: Five, One, or Free.
FIVE:
If you are like me, you ride the struggle bus when trying to establish a consistent healthy habits. It often seems like a huge ordeal to take on when they are marketed in terms of days or months. This is not to say I am not up to the challenge, its just mentally not something I can wrap my head around when each day alone presents its own challenges. So, now one approach I use for building healthy habits is viewing them in five minute increments. I see what I can do (or not do) in just five minutes. Five minutes doesn’t seem as daunting to me and I have been surprised at what I can accomplish when I am focused on the task. Here are some personal examples:
- Morning or Bedtime workout
- Wash up fresh fruit or vegetables and put in a bowl for all day healthy snacking
- Write down a list of things to for the day
- Meal plan
- Time limits for social media
- Tidy up a room
- Dance party with my children
- Reply to one email
ONE:
Often when I try to make sweeping lifestyle changes, I fall flat on my face deflated. I wonder how differently my outcomes would be if I just changed one thing or focused on one goal? So, herein lies another approach to chunking out bigger goals and turning them into smaller victories. Reaching one bite-size goal can have the snowball effect and create a sense of empowerment – at least that is what I have found. Here are a few small goals to get things started:
- Walk one mile
- Take one quiet bath a week
- Read one book
- Deep clean one room
- Skip eating out one time and save the money
- Make one doctor appointment
- Let one thing go
FREE:
Costs, whether that is financial, time or opportunity, often gets in the way of building healthy habits. However, there are so many ways you can work around this to reduce or eliminate costs. The self-talk in my head loves when things are free and rewarding at the same time. I am creating a mental list of what I can do that is free, uplifting, and also positive change. These habits are my favorite to build.
- Visualize your day
- A book or movie from the library
- A stroll in the park
- Smiling at others
- Apps that help you track your goals and stay organized
- A handwritten encouraging note to yourself
- Give someone a compliment
Habits can be hard to form, but that’s not a reason to stop trying. Invest in yourself and identify what is preventing you from building healthy habits or even breaking the bad ones. To me, I have to present them as easy to conquer goals that I can keep up with even when the days are unpredictable. What habits would you like to build?
