How can I maintain healthy habits?
Yes, Maintaining Healthy Habits, can feel overwhelming at times but the most successful people maintain momentum through daily and weekly rituals.
Here are the key mindset fundamentals for success.
1. Aim for progress NOT perfection. Small consistent changes in the right direction are key.
2. Celebrate your successes – daily, weekly. This can be easier if you record them or have an accountability buddy. Ie, weekly or monthly weigh-in & measurements, food and exercise diary.
3. Identify key habits that keep you on track – such as getting enough sleep (in bed by 10 pm), exercising daily, planning meals and cook ups each Sunday.
4. Create daily rituals. Ie, 2 glasses water on rising, exercise before breakfast.
5. Lose the excuses and stories. If you fall off the wagon, dust yourself off and get straight back up there. This is building your resilience and persistence. Getting off track can reinforce how nice on track is.
6. Not working for you – find another way. There are many paths to the same outcome. Have an injury or setback, modify to accommodate it and keep going. Momentum is key.
7. Visualize daily where you want to go. Hook into the feeling of being there – put a name to it. Is it strong, vibrant, energized, clear………? Seeing the destination gives you something to aim for, but it’s the person who you become along the way that really matters.
Research suggests that achieving and maintaining a healthy weight takes a long-term commitment. Rapid weight loss is more likely to be temporary. It also puts you at greater risk of regaining the weight you lost, plus more.
You need to focus on what works in the long run. This means viewing healthy habits not as something you adopt for a few months, but as ongoing changes to your lifestyle. – Australian Government – Department of Health
Hope that helped.
