You probably have heard of habit development and how it works wonders when trying to build a healthy lifestyle and achieve your goals. But, what is it all about?
The first thing that you need to know about building a healthy lifestyle is that it has to be sustainable. Going to an extreme level of working out and nutrition is only going to burn you out and its not going to be something you will be able to maintain in the long run. This is why healthy habit development is so effective, its about working step by step toward a goal and an outcome.
For me, learning about healthy habit development has made all the difference as to what I implement into my own life. And it's what I teach my clients as well.
When youre developing healthy habits, youre working on your consistency and giving your mind and body the tools that it needs to implement more and more actions as you continue working on yourself. And this is important because consistency is key when it comes to building a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
Healthy habit development is about working on an action so often that you start doing it automatically, even if youre tired or youre not motivated to do it at all. For instance, youre probably too tired to think about brushing your teeth at the end of a long day, and youre definitely not motivated to do it, but you do it anyway because its now a normal part of your routine and you dont even have to think about it.
Do you want to start working on healthy habit development? Good news! You can get started right away. Think about an action that you can accomplish daily and that you know will help you get closer to your goals. It can be implementing more vegetables into your diet, waking up 30 minutes earlier, meal prepping, or even drinking more water. Now focus on that action every day for two weeks. This doesnt mean that youre going to stop working on other things, but the action you chose is your main priority now. After two weeks, its going to become automatic for you and you can move to the next action.
So for example, if you focus on drinking enough water for two weeks, by the end it should be easier to do it without thinking about it, so then you can start working on eating more fruits and vegetables every day. And stacking up healthy habits will become easier and easier with time.
Once you start working on healthy habit development with consistency you will find out that youre feeling a lot better about your life, your goals, and the small victories that are going to start to stack up. Youre also going to feel more motivated to continue building up those habits. Creating a healthy lifestyle and working toward your goals doesnt have to feel like a bunch of draining tasks, it should be enjoyable and smooth.
So, stop looking at a fitness journey as an intense process that will take you a certain amount of time to accomplish, and start thinking about building a lifestyle that will make you feel better and that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Thats when youll start to see real results.