When it comes to making health and fitness changes everyone wants the quick fix. In today’s world where people advertise teas, pills and more that will help you lose weight quickly the idea that quick fixes work and last is put out there and because that’s what people are chasing they sell. But the reality of these quick fixes is that they are not sustainable and even if they work in short-term odds are that you will be right back where you started before too long.
When we can focus instead on building lifelong habits we will see results that will stay with us over time. So why doesn’t everyone take this route? Because unfortunately building these habits isn’t as glamorous and doesn’t give you results as quickly as most people would like. Even though this may be true, I’m going to share these habits with you in order to help you implement things that will stay with and get you long-term results (even if it takes a little more time).
Start Small
When starting on a health and fitness journey you do not need to do everything all at once. Start with very simple changes that you can implement over weeks and months to help you be able to sustain them over longer periods of time.
Choose One Thing At A Time
When you can focus on one thing at a time and work to create a habit around it you are more likely to be successful over longer periods of time. If you are new to this health and fitness journey choose one thing. Maybe it’s eating more protein or maybe it’s hitting a daily step goal. Make sure that whatever you choose it’s small and realistic for you, but don’t try and change everything all at once
Make Sure the Habits Your Choosing are Sustainable
If you are building new habits into your lifelong routine then you want to make sure that these habits are actually things that you can maintain over a longer period of time. Choosing a very low calorie goal make help you lose weight, but is it something that you can sustain for a long period of time? I’m not saying that you can’t go into a calorie deficit to lose weight, however consider how much of a calorie deficit you are in. It may not be something that’s sustainable and if you are going to do that be aware that at some point you may need to adjust.
Evaluate Your Confidence
When you feel confident about the new habits you are implementing it makes continuing on your health and fitness journey more motivating and will help inspire you to continue. When you’ve chosen a new habit to implement ask yourself on a scale of 1-10 how confident you are that you can complete that habit every day. If the answer isn’t at least an 8 you may want to re-evaluate the habit to get it to an 8. When you can feel confident in your ability to build these habits it can help you bring these habits into your longer term health and fitness plan.
Adjust When Needed
It’s important to remember that as we move through life we will have different experiences. Some habits may be appropriate at certain times, while others may need to be set aside at certain periods of your life. It’s okay to adjust when needed. For example; if getting 8-9 hours of sleep is an important habit that you have been implementing and then you become a new parent, it may not be realistic for a period of time to have this as a goal. Know that there are ebbs and flows to your health and fitness journey and it’s okay to adjust these habits or goals to meet the stage of life that you are currently in. This will also help you feel more successful if you are adjusting when you need to. If you are a new parent and you are still striving for 8-9 hours of sleep you will likely feel discouraged and struggle to ever meet that goal during the newborn phase. Adjust so that you can set yourself up for success and help keep your confidence level high.
I want to challenge you to start looking at your health and fitness as a lifelong thing. Although these habits are not big things and they may not be shinny or glamorous they work and ultimately I want to encourage clients to take the route that works for them and keeps them happy and healthy as long as possible.
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