7 Steps For Creating Healthy Habits – How & Why

I keep talking about changing my eating and exercise habits, but it seems like this is all I’ve been doing – just talking about change. So, I turned off my TV and got my mind quiet and focused on how to move from the talking phase to the doing phase. One thing I have to do is take baby steps, and stop striving for perfection (I cover this more in step #7).

Anyway, here is my list of 7 things I am going to start doing today. It’s not a dramatic change and some readers may think it’s less than challenging, but for those of us who just get overwhelmed with the amount of weight we want to lose, it’s really a good start. I previously wrote about how to create new habits, and I realize now that seeking to make major changes can be daunting and even unrealistic, for me anyway. I’ll make these few small adjustments and after I am comfortable with the change, then I can re-write my goals.

1.    Eat breakfast every day. This may sound elementary, but it really is something I have a problem doing. I believe the experts when they say that eating a healthy breakfast is key to maintaining sugar levels throughout the day. If my use of the term healthy scared any of you, I simply mean something other than cookies or donuts. I love oatmeal and cereal. I enjoy eggs. I’m not going to commit to cooking a huge breakfast, because this would set me up for failure. For someone who rarely eats breakfast, a bowl of cereal or 2 scrambled eggs is more than sufficient.

2.   Exercise for 30 minutes every day. I’m using 30 minutes because that’s what my doctor says I need to keep healthy. However, I am not going to commit to one 30 minute block, because again, I don’t want to set myself up for failure. I can easily do 10 minutes at a time. Get creative with your exercise here. 10 minutes of vacuuming or mopping will count, as long as you keep moving for 10 minutes. I watch the news every day, so I can easily walk in place for 10 minutes. The same for getting supper ready. It takes 20 minutes to cook rice, so there’s another 10 minutes. Instead of watching TV until it’s done, I’ll walk in place for 10 minutes. These are only a few ideas. If you can think of more, please share them with me.

3.  Stop buying so much junk food. Now I don’t have small children or teenagers any more, but I do have a husband with a sweet tooth. So, while I can’t commit to banning all junk food, I will only get a few things he enjoys – snacks that I don’t really care for anyway. I’ll replace my usual snacks with something healthier than chocolate or the vinegar and salt chips I love. I’m not sure what that will be, but maybe flavored popcorn.

4.  Stop eating while I watch TV. Because our children are grown and it’s just my husband and I, we usually eat our meals watching TV, and then the snacks come out. It is so easy to finish off a bag of chips when you are mindlessly reaching in while watching NCIS. This may actually turn out to be my toughest challenge, but I’m up for it.

5.  Drink 8 glasses of water every day. Sounds simplistic, but this is also something I struggle to get done. I’m not sure why, but I do. I read somewhere a good while back that we should all drink a glass of water upon rising every morning and a glass before bed. Okay, that’s 2 right there. My problem really is just remembering to drink water. I drink coffee a lot instead, so I have decided to set an alarm on my phone to go off every 3 hours during the day to remind me to have a glass of water.

6.  Journal about these specific 7 things each night. I journal most every night. I am just going to include in it my “report” of how well my day went following these 7 steps.

7.  Accept myself and stop trying to be perfect. I have always struggled with perfection. Not that I believe I am perfect, but my mindset has always been that your project or whatever your working on is a failure if you make a mistake or go off track. This is what I am going to change here – just accept that things aren’t always going to go according to plan, but that doesn’t mean I have failed. It just means I’m human and just get back on track. I am not going to keep putting off until tomorrow or next week what I need to do simply because I slipped up today.

I hope my list helps a few of you who are in the same boat as I am at this time of my life. I would love to hear your opinions and what you think.