You intend to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and yet you silently reprimand yourself constantly for messing up. You know that a healthy diet and regular exercise can reduce your risk of horrible diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer, but you find yourself in the same rut. If you have the right tools, you will be able to work around these obstacles and accomplish your goals for a healthy life.
Step 1
Create a list of health goals for yourself by brainstorming on pen and paper. Use the following criteria to evaluate your goals to determine which ones you should implement into your lifestyle.
Step 2
Make the time for lifestyle change. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employed American with children spends 8.7 hours a day working, 7.7 hours sleeping, 1.1 hours eating and drinking, 1.1 hours performing household activities and 1.3 hours caring for others. This leaves a little over four hours a day to do everything else. With so little time available, make an appointment on your calendar for your exercise each day. If you can, combine it with other activities like playing with the kids or walking the dog. Find easy, fast and healthy recipes that allow you to eat healthy on the go. Making grocery lists and finding time to cook may take some preparation, but planning ahead will help you to make your healthy lifestyle a reality.
Step 3
Make your lifestyle changes convenient. You will be less likely to pass up your new healthy habits for something easier. Some things that you can do to make your program stick are finding a gym along your route from work to home and keeping a packed gym bag with you at all times, keeping prepared, healthy, individually packaged meals in your refrigerator to grab on the go, and to keep a variety of healthy snacks within arm's reach at your desk.
Step 4
Work on one goal at a time. According to an article in "Psychology Today," practicing will power is physically taxing on the body. By bombarding yourself with more than one goal, you are stressing your body even more. Therefore, focusing on one goal at a time can help you stay on track. Once you have mastered that goal, find another goal to accomplish.
Step 5
Keep away from temptation. Do not go to the grocery store when you are hungry. Keep junk foods out of your pantry. Not skipping meals and including a healthy snack between meals will prevent you from overeating later.
Step 6
Do not be a perfectionist. This can be a problem when you are trying to implement a healthy lifestyle. According to an article in the "New York Times," if you are a perfectionist, you may be overly self-critical, making it hard to live up to your own expectations. This can be dangerous when it comes to implementing a new healthy behavior, because you may feel as though you have failed the entire process if you backslide. Instead of having this mind frame, try to think of your journey to success as an ongoing path. Sometimes you may find yourself stepping backward, but if overall you are moving in a forward direction, be proud that you are affecting your health in a positive way.
Step 7
Make your newfound healthy habits easy to live with. You may think of the word "diet" and run in the other direction. Yes, implementing a new healthy lifestyle takes some discipline. However, to implement a lifestyle change, you have to be able to live with it for the rest of your life. The changes that you make should not be too drastic. Changes like cutting down on portion sizes, adding extra physical activity during your regular day without devoting a block of time to your workout, drinking 50 percent less alcohol or finding a form of physical activity that you enjoy will help you implement your plan easier.
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