How to Develop Healthy Habits


Disclaimer: While I wholeheartedly believe in the power of a self-care routine for mental health, this is not a solution for those suffering with suicidal tendencies. If you wish to end your life but are looking for answers before doing so, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (available 24/7) at 800-273-8255
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Developing healthy habits can seem so daunting, am I right!?

At some point during our own personal development journey, we decide that we want to create healthy habits that will elevate our lifestyle closer to where we want to be, right?

Developing healthy habits is not only great for our bodies, but our mental health and well-being as well. A healthy body usually means a healthy mind and vice versa.

What if I told you that some of us just don’t wake up one day, effortlessly living the healthy lifestyle that we’ve been wanting for ourselves? (*insert hand raising emoji*)?

Would you be surprised? Of course not.

It’s easy to look at the super fit girl at the gym, or that cute guy that you see out for a morning jog every single day and draw your own conclusions.

You might think, “I wish I were that committed to my fitness routine” or “I bet they don’t have the crazy schedule that I do which allows them all sorts of free time to stay in shape”.

If I just read your mind, I want you to know you’re not alone.

We all tend to live too much in our own heads and isolate ourselves and our problems. We might that we don’t live like anyone else, and our routines and daily struggles are so unique.

Truth is, they’re not. I bet fit girl and cute guy work really hard to stay that committed! It doesn’t come easy for anyone.

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With that in mind, I thought it would be helpful to share my own struggles with developing healthy habits. I’ll also share what has worked for me in the past (even though I’m still work in progress).

So, let’s get into it!

Acknowledge what healthy habits you want for yourself and decide if it’s reasonable for you to commit to working toward it

I suggest picking a few areas of your life that you want to improve on. Some might advise against this, and if you know it wouldn’t work for you then by all means, only focus on one habit at a time.

healthy habits

I find that having a variety of health goals to work toward encourages my overall lifestyle in a very positive way.

Need some inspiration? This is what my health goals (now habits) consist of:

  • My fitness goal was always having a defined 4 pack of abs and a flat lower belly. Pasta, beer and cheese won’t allow for a full on 6 pack, but I’m totally okay with that – for now.
  • My health goal was to end my addiction to sweets. I honestly believe that I’ve done this, although, my fiancé might tell you otherwise because I crave them more than he does.

I’m pretty sure sweet tooth is genetic. While I’m blessed with no disease in my family, I felt like it was only a matter of time before diabetes could develop. What if I unknowingly passed it down to my children!?

For real though, my mom always had a stash of chocolate when I was growing up and we always had homemade cookies on hand. Not to mention several bowls of ice cream per week.

That is SO much more than I allow myself to have now and I’m proud of that!

My fiancé and I do want children some day and I would feel awful if I gave them genes that were prone to develop diabetes. Or even some other blood/weight issues all because I couldn’t avoid the candy isle at Kroger.

  • My mental health goal was to be able to recognize when I was pushing myself into a state of burnout and depression. I’ve come a long way in this area! I have a list of things that I do when I feel like I’m starting to slip into that “zombie” state of despair. Really, I just work too much sometimes without rewarding myself.

Take baby step toward implementing your healthy habits

This step is so critical because if you just jump right in and push yourself too hard you’ll end up quitting. That could mean skipping workouts or binging on ice cream and cake (..I’ve been there).

I’m a planner and love mapping out ways to achieve my goals. I kid you not, I have an excel spreadsheet which holds my food journal and lifestyle goals.

I think it’s a great way to track your progress every single day.

You’ll be surprised how quickly the days go by! You’ll also be more aware of what you eat or how often you exercise.

Consistently tracking yourself everyday is a great way to start, even if you’re not ready to make any changes yet.

It will eventually start to bother you that you had dessert 5 days in a row and 3 bowls of spaghetti in 2 days. Or that you skipped your workout 20 days out of the month last month.

Do these sound like things someone who sticks to the healthy habits you want for yourself would do? Nope. Time to figure out a success plan then!

mental health

It’s always a great time to take charge and start improving your life!

Show up for yourself and implement some new changes with this Personal Development Plan Checklist Printable!

Click the image to grab your FREE Printable!

Come up with reasonable daily goals for yourself

Okay, so let’s say Sunday – Thursday last week you had dessert every single night. Not only that, but you had meals consisting of pasta, bread, cheese, and all the other yummy comfort essentials that (let’s face it) we’re not going to quit on cold turkey – or even altogether for that matter.

On top of that, you decided that an extra hour of sleep was more important that exercising before work, so you missed 4 of the 6 days you were supposed to workout.

I hear ya. That’s why REASONABLE goals are so important at this stage in developing your healthy habit.

Start by only allowing yourself dessert every other day of the week. On the off days, you can tell yourself that you only have to wait 1 more day, plus it will feel good to know that you can be disciplined – even for a day.

For exercising, if getting up before work is too much of a commitment right away, get up 15 minutes early and do a mini workout.

If you can spare 15 minutes nearly every day before work, you’ll quickly get used to 30 minutes, and so on. Starting small is huge!

Take your time practicing these healthy habits

Jumping to the next step of developing healthy habits is also a bad idea because you might not be ready for it and end up at square one again. This is something that I think I struggle with the most at times.

I’ll get the basics down and feel great that I have good habits going, then I’ll jump into the extremes too soon.

Outside factors such as stress from work or other personal issues could seem to come out of nowhere and completely sabotage the progress you have made.

Always make sure that you’re giving yourself enough time to solidify the small steps in the early stages.

Always make sure that you’re giving yourself enough time to solidify the small steps in the early stages.

Crank it up a little

Now that it’s been a while and your baby steps are securely in place, take it to the next level!

Allow yourself dessert only once or twice a week and exercise your goal amount per week (like 6 days) even if it’s just 30 minutes each day.

This stage is where it’s okay to jump a little more out of your comfort zone because you could very well be ready if the right building blocks have been put in place with your baby steps and reasonable expectation in the past.

After a little while of “cranking it up” feel free to sprinkle in your goal habit!

Maybe try 1 week of moderate effort (“cranked up version”) and 1 week of your full-on best effort.

This full effort would be the habit you’ve always dreamt of like going to the gym for an hour and half every single day before while meal prepping lean protein/vegetable packed meals for your workday.

Take your time – Part 2.

Rinse and repeat this step. Work on step 5 steadily and consistently for a while – this could take months. Creating healthy habits does not happen over night.

Get so used to doing 1 week of moderate practice and 1 week of “goal” practice that you start to feel like you’re holding yourself back by not giving it your full effort ever week.

This is when you know you’re ready for the final stretch to your goal habit/routine!

Become the Rockstar you always knew you could be!

For the most part, you should be consistently acting in line with your health goal at this point. You’ve been out of step 6 for a while and you’re rocking your new habit(s) like a boss.

Great! Keep it up and congratulate yourself on completing the wonderful journey toward a happier, healthier you!

I hope these steps helped you believe that your health goals can be a reality! I’d love to hear about your journey or what has worked for you when starting a new healthy habit! Send me a quick message HERE!

As previously mentioned, here is the discount link to sign up for online therapy (plus the “extras” toolbox) at 20% off your first month! GET HELP ONLINE 20% OFF

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mblblogger

Hi, I'm Marissa! I'm passionate about mental and emotional health and want to share what I've learned over the years with others! I've seen first hand how mental health struggles can cause serious issues within relationships, work life, daily productivity, self-worth and more! I truly believe that we owe it to ourselves to bring more awareness to these life changing topics. Start your mental/emotional health journey by learning more today!

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