3 Tips For How To Make Healthy Habits Second Nature
How's your New Year's Resolution going? If you're like a lot of people, you answered something like "Not very well!" You're having a hard time getting into the rhythm of these healthy habits. You start and stop and start again...it's all a vicious cycle that leaves you feeling defeated. Let's put a stop to this right now!
Unfortunately, by late February and early March, many people have abandoned their plans to eat healthier or lose weight. They have decided it is not realistic or simply too difficult to reach their goals. Getting healthy is not unattainable! With this in mind, we’re here to encourage you to try again and use these handy tips to help you maintain your desired healthy habits:
Tip #1 Restructure your lifestyle. In order to successfully adopt a new behavior, you’ll have to minimize other areas of your life that are causing a chasm between your new desired habit and your old one. For instance, you want to lose 10 pounds, but you stop for fast food breakfast on the way to work everyday. That's going to make it pretty hard to do! By doing away with a bad habit and replacing it with something you know will benefit you in the long run, you’ll give yourself a better chance to maintain the new healthy habit. You could start making breakfast shakes to take in the car with you. With repetition and consistency, this new habit will phase out and replace the old one. Your new routine will over time just become what you do.
Tip #2 Be specific about your goals. Did you notice in Tip #1 that we said "lose 10 pounds" instead of "lose weight?" Setting an "Implementation Intention" has been shown to make you more likely to follow through with those intentions compared to those who did not. The more specific, the better! Specify which action you want to complete and what you are going to do to make it happen. For example, instead of saying you will exercise, tell yourself “I will run for 30 minutes on the treadmill at the gym at 6:30 a.m.”
Tip #3 Try "Habit Stacking." Rather than using time and place as your cue to perform a specific healthy task, Habit Stacking links an existing habit in your routine with a new one you want to do consistently. Let's say you frequently tell yourself that you will watch television after an hour-long workout on the elliptical, but frequently skip the elliptical component. Instead, Habit Stack by watching television during your workout. This will ensure you incorporate a new, positive habit with something you do daily and will make you more likely to do what you were leaving out before.
Your health habits will soon become second nature. We make it easy to order the vitamins, supplements, and other health essentials you need, directly from our website. When you don't need to leave home and make it to the vitamin store by a certain time in order to get your needed items, it's just one more thing that makes it easier to stick to your goals. Shopping online means you have no excuses. Your vitamins can be on their way with a matter of a few clicks of the mouse!