Happy New Year! The best part of a new year is it gives you the opportunity for a new you and the opportunity to evaluate what is working for you and what things may need to shift in order to reach your goals….even though it sounds so cliché!
Now that we are in full swing into 2018, it’s a great time to commit to a healthy lifestyle. Some of your 2018 goals may be to change your eating habits, increase nutritional value in your diet or increase how much exercise you get in each week. Whatever your goal entails, it’s important to remember that practice doesn’t make perfect (since there is no such thing as perfect), practice makes permanent. Whatever we do daily becomes what our lifestyle eventually becomes. And it doesn’t mean you have to be perfect 24/7, it just means you must be consistent. When you are making goals and resolutions, there is one thing that is very important to your success that will get you to your goal quicker:
Don’t just set your goals, write them down – You will find a certain kind of magic in reaching your goals if you write them down and make sure you set a date and time you will achieve them. The most important part of building the permanent lifestyle you desire is to know where you are going. It’s like driving to an address. If you don’t have an address to where you are driving to, how will you get there? To really succeed, set your goals so you know the road you need to travel to get there.
Great, so you have set your goals and have written them down. It’s time to get busy and figure out helpful hints and tips to keep on track.
These tips will help you stay on track with your journey:
- Analyze your current eating habits. As I discussed in a previous blog, calories are not like snowballs, we may think we have cut down our calories, but we didn’t count the two handfuls of popcorn at the movies or the three bity bites of cake after lunch. We don’t even think about them because they seem so small and insignificant., but they add up! Often times we have so many insignificant (so we think) moments that we don’t even realize it has become a habit to ignore them and once ignored…..we keep eating them. The most important factor in changing your eating habits is to make changes that you can live with forever. Habits can last a lifetime, so make sure that your eating habits will keep you healthy and happy. Once you know what your habits really are, you can map out your meals. Maybe you are better at just three meals a day and just need to change food choices or maybe you are a snacker throughout the day and need six smaller meals a day. Start small on your changes and make new habits that become permanent.
- Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry. Plan to eat something before you go because if you don’t and you are starving walking the aisle, it’s so easy to get sucked in to buying bad food choices. Make sure you also stick to the shopping list with great focus and only get those items.
- Slow down your eating. Your brain takes around 20 minutes to register the chemicals that tell your brain you are full. After your meal, the levels continue to rise over 10 to 30 minutes. If you slow down and let your brain catch up, you will eat less.
- That brings me to my next tip…..don’t ever get to the point of feeling so hungry you would eat anything. It’s nearly impossible for anyone to slow down their eating if they are so hungry anything and everything sounds good to eat. If you need a little snack to get you to dinner time, eat a healthy one loaded with nutrition to get you to dinner.
We must eat to survive and eating really is an enjoyable experience. However, none of us like to feel overweight, tired, sluggish and foggy. And that is what happens with unhealthy eating habits, binging, and choices that don’t serve us. So, write down your goals, follow tips that help you stay on track with you goals and remember to celebrate each successful step no matter how small.
My trusted staff is now available to help guide you to meeting your healthy lifestyle goals. To learn more, contact us today!
