Amanda Turner, RD
How many years have you made a resolution about improving your health? How many years has it started strong, only to fizzle out by February? Not this year.
I have said it before and I will say it again, the key is SMALL SUSTAINABLE CHANGES. You come out of the holidays with this newfound motivation to take control of your health, to feel better. You tell yourself, this is my year and you jump into your new healthy lifestyle with both feet. You do a week-long juice cleanse, you cut out an entire food group, you hit the gym five days a week, you start taking a multivitamin. At first you feel great. Maybe a bit sore and hungry, but great nonetheless. After a few weeks the endorphins wear off. You’re exhausted, you’re cranky and, well, you’re bored. Life takes over, you get busy and you fall back into your old routines. Sound familiar?
This year, take it slow. Focus on one or two small goals and continue to build on the momentum as you achieve them. These goals can be as simple as adding one more serving of vegetables to your day, increasing your water intake by one cup a day, cutting the sugar in your coffee in half, starting to read nutrition labels…the idea is to create new long-term habits not to deprive and overwhelm yourself.
Step One - Write Out the Why
Be clear about what you are hoping to achieve and what your priorities are. Think about what motivates you, why do you want to achieve these things? You may get frustrated along the way and need a reminder of why you decided to make changes in the first place. It can be easy to lose track of your initial intention, of what really matters. So, before you start making changes, write it out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a detailed list, a paragraph, several paragraphs or even just a meaningful one-liner. Something to remind you of why developing healthy habits is so important to you.
Step Two - Track Your Goals
Be specific about your goals and monitor your progress. Write out your long term, big picture goals and then break them down into smaller, step-by-step goals. Choose one or two small goals to start with. Once these changes start to feel natural, or habitual if you will, it’s time to add on another one or two small goals. Keep a running list of these goals and cross them out as you achieve them. If you find yourself feeling defeated, you will have documented evidence of your progress. Not to mention, the satisfaction of crossing things off a list can be very motivating!
Step Three - Stop Comparing
You may see others taking more extreme approaches and seeing quick results. You, on the other hand, are working on creating real change. Because you’re not after a quick, and temporary, fix, your progress is slower and that can be very disheartening. Remind yourself that those quick results are not sustainable. Those “quick-fixers” will ultimately fail and could very well cause themselves additional harm. Not you. You’re doing it right.
Step Four - Give Yourself Grace
Remember that life happens. You will have good days and bad days. Developing healthy habits takes time and it won’t necessarily be linear. Your capacity for making changes will fluctuate depending on what life throws at you. You’ll probably have days here and there when you feel like you have taken a step, or several steps, backwards. Not true. The odd day of wavering does not erase the progress you’ve made. This is when you should be reviewing your Why write-out and your running list of achieved goals to remind yourself that you’ve got this.
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