How to make healthy and long lasting habits
If you’ve decided it’s time to drastically improve your health, then you’ve come to the right place. Putting a plan into motion can be difficult, especially if you’re new to living a healthy lifestyle. Daily exercise might not be something you’re used to, and if it’s not, then adjusting can be fun, rewarding, and it can also feel like an uphill battle.
When you’re feeling as though you’re not making enough progress or being strict enough with yourself, then it’s time to reassess your methods.
Try not to rely entirely on your own motivation, so employ the assistance of friends and even a personal trainer to get you out of bed, into your trainers, and doing squats in the morning. You’ll find your rhythm and groove soon enough; it takes a while to find out how you like to work out, what time in the day, and to figure out when you’re feeling most driven.
Here’s how to make healthy habits long lasting.
Meal Planning
If you’re looking for somewhat of a quick fix and an easy meal replacement, in other words, if you’re not much of a chef or have a very hectic day-to-day life, then try diet shakes and see whether they work for you. They can replace meals when you haven’t got the time and help you to feel satisfied.
While your healthy living plan is still in its infancy, try to resist the urge to buy food out by making your own meals at home. This way, you’ll know exactly what’s in it and you can keep on eye on how many calories you’re consuming if you’re on a calorie deficit diet.
Prepare your lunches the evening before and take them to work in reusable Tupperware. You can eat the leftovers from dinner, or you can prepare a healthy lunch for the next several days. Do this by baking sweet potatoes and adding a filling each morning, or preparing a cucumber, tomato and feta salad, for example. Or, cook several chicken breasts and steam green vegetables like broccoli, courgettes, kale, pak choi, and asparagus for a filling but healthy meal.
Reward Yourself
If you’re sticking to your diet and exercise plan to the word, then go ahead and reward yourself. This isn’t to say that you should indulge an entire packet of biscuits or enjoy sitting on the sofa all weekend, but congratulate yourself in other ways. You’ve worked hard to achieve, so try to feel less guilty about enjoying one glass of wine on a Friday night.
Book a babysitter for a night in the week so that you and your partner can enjoy an evening to yourselves. Alternatively, book a short city break or splash out a bit on a new piece of clothing you’ve long been admiring. Work hard, play hard as they say, so enjoy a little downtime when you can afford to.
Control Snacking
Snacking can provide you with the much-needed hit of energy on a Friday afternoon as your energy levels begin to wane. However, snacks can see you double your daily calorie intake if you’re not careful. Absentmindedly eating at your work desk, on the train home, and while watching television can have serious implications on your weight, health, and general wellbeing.
Snacking on crisps, chocolate and cake, for example, can take its toll as processed goods are more often than not full with saturated fats, sugar, and salt. What you need to do in order to form long-lasting habits is snack on foods that keep you feeling fuller for longer and are good for your health. These include the likes of boiled eggs for protein, nuts and seeds, vegetable sticks with hummus, oatcakes, and fresh fruit.
Don’t Do It Alone
Sometimes all you need to get healthy habits to stick is to know that there’s someone else doing the same and helping to keep you on track. Before launching into beginning your health and fitness journey, ask those close to you whether they’d be interested in accompanying you and boosting their health too.
Ideally, this person or persons should be your partner as they generally live with you, help you cook, and share similar interests to you. They’ll be on hand to spur you on, just as you’ll be there for them.
Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated is going to be key to you feeling energised and motivated to cook a healthy meal from scratch, get up and get active, and remain in a positive mood. When you don’t drink enough water throughout the course of the day, you can become afflicted with headaches, bad breath, low mood, irritability, dizziness and tiredness.
Your body suffers when it’s not sufficiently hydrated, and it can leave you craving sugary foods – not good if you’re trying to get in shape and live a healthier life.
Get yourself a glass water bottle so that you needn’t worry about the adverse effects of BPA in plastic, and try to remember to take it with you everywhere you go. If you dislike drinking water, then splash a small amount of squash into the bottle. However, you should do this with every intention of slowly weaning yourself off and beginning to enjoy the taste of water.
Get Inspired
Half of the effort of getting fit and healthy is staying inspired to want to alter your life and remain focused on your goals. When you feel as though your ambition is slumping, then you should remind yourself exactly why you started this journey in the first place. Think of all the hard work you’ve put in up to this point, and how positive and proud you feel after successfully attending a HIIT class, running circuits, and lifting weights. The high you get after working out is due to the rush of hormones and chemicals flooding your bloodstream to make you feel happy and accomplished.
If you’re improving your health for the sake of your kids, then channel that drive once again. Tell yourself that you want to be the best parent you can be, to inspire and support them. Whatever the driving force behind wanting to change, keep it at the forefront of your mind and you’ll begin to enjoy working out, seeing changes in your body, and your new fitness levels and increased energy.
