It’s now the end of the year, and usually, this is the time when people start thinking about getting healthier, eating better, and trying new things.
We all feel we need to get healthier after we’ve been stuffing ourselves with too many desserts. Parties with family and friends where there’s tons of food starts to take its toll on our health.
But why do we always seem to fall off the bandwagon? By February, we forget what we wanted for ourselves in December and life goes back to the same routine. The gym membership gets used less and less, and we start going through the drive-thru when we promised ourselves we would eat healthier.
So how do we start to make better choices for ourselves and our family that we can implement, and make part of our routine to live healthier and feel better?
Here are four tips to making better choices- and sticking with them.
Write it down. Put what you want on a piece of paper. Seeing the words makes it much more real. Don’t just say you are going to go to the gym more, write it down. Put it in your calendar on your phone, and set it to remind you that you need to go. Just like any other appointment or commitment, don’t brush it off. Keep the commitment. Try making a vision board. It is a great way to put down what you are wanting for your life, and put it in a place that you see everyday. If you can dream about it, and see it everyday, it will keep you focused on what you are wanting. Here is a link for How To Create A Vision Board by Jack Canfield.
Take a look at who is closest to you. You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Take a look at who you spend the most time with. Are they sucking the life out of you, or are they encouraging and helpful? Make those hard choices if necessary to have people in your life that add to it. I know it’s a difficult decision and conversation, but if you want to be better, make sure the people you surround yourself with help make you a better person.
Create a plan. If you want to be healthier, break that down, how are you going to get healthy? Do you need to clean out the pantry and get rid of things you know are not healthy? Don’t keep things for the kids. If it’s not healthy for you, it’s not healthy for them either. Plan your meals. Organize your week so you fit in a yoga class or a workout. Create an actionable and realistic plan.
Start small. Put the changes you want into small, obtainable increments. If you want to eat healthier, plan for the week. Not the month, just plan for the week. If you want to get to the gym more, how many times can you commit to getting to the gym in one week? If you’re routine is to go to the drive-thru a couple of times a week, what can you do to change that? Don’t keep it so big that it feels unattainable, start making better choices by focusing on what you can do today.
If you want to create change in your life, you have to start somewhere. The circumstances will never be perfect, and if you are waiting for the perfect time, it will never happen. So recognize that you want to start making better choices for yourself in whatever area of your life you need to change.
If you start to take action now, think of how great you will feel in 12 months when you can look back, and see all the great things you accomplished because you took the necessary steps for yourself.
I’m looking forward to a wonderful year and hearing about all the great things that we can accomplish by making better choices for ourselves.
With Gratitude,
