How to Create Healthy Habits that Stick
Do you want change? Change in diet, change in your physical appearance, change in energy? It’s not only change you want, but it is also the ability to have the change stick and stay with you. Re-identify yourself to create habit based changes. Here is how you start.
A new self-proclaimed healthy identity.
Start with changing your identity, and then approach the goal (ex: weigh loss) and system (ex: I’ll exercise and eat healthy to lose weight). If you start identifying yourself as someone who is physically active, your system becomes much more likely to succeed.
It’s one thing to say: “I am the type of person who WANTS this.” It’s another to say, “I am the type of person who IS this.” You might start a habit because of motivation, but you’ll stick with a habit when you re-identify as the type of person that executes the new habit.
Don’t fall into old patterns and forget your goals.
For example: John sees the New Year approaching and decides to start exercising again. John even sets a SMART goal of losing 10 pounds in 3 months. He is encouraged, and motivated by this for a few days. John gets up early to go to the gym. He is eating nutritionally dense meals, limiting sugar, and going to bed early. Friends and family jump on board. Commercials about exercise equipment reinforce and encourage this new beginning. He is excited and ready to finally see these pounds melt away! Two weeks pass, John is back to hitting the snooze button, going to work, and then back home for fast food dinner and Netflix. Friends and family fall into old habits of inactivity and over eating, and what was a new accountability system, has now turned into an unreliable group that encourages previous bad habits. The commercials are now a reminder of failure. Inevitably, John is discouraged, and goes back to the path of least resistance. Another New Year’s resolution failed.
Mind over matter is the key to a healthy lifestyle.
Change who you are by what you do. Follow a system. Win the day. Win the week. Win the month. Win the year. Win your life. Questions to ask yourself:
Who is the type of person that can lose 10 pounds?
Who is the type of person that can bench 225lbs?
What would a healthy person do?
Walk, run, lift heavy weights, eat proper portions, believe in himself/herself, and wear appropriate exercise gear?
Once you have a handle on the person you want to be, follow the habit of that person. Identity gets you to that result. Think less about what that person has and focus on becoming that type of person: how that person thinks, what that person does, and the habits that go along with it.
Through out perfection.
You don’t have to be perfect. In an election, you need the majority votes to win. The same goes for your habits. One bad habit or bad decision does not overshadow the other 99 good habits or good decisions that were previously made. Expect some failure, jump back on the horse, and win the majority!
Written by Tyler Disney – Front Door Fitness Personal Trainer
