Building new habits isn’t always easy. If you are anything like me, when you fail at a goal you hear a voice in your head that says “try, try again!”.
And that is actually good advice for anyone who needs some help creating good habits. That and the tips I will present to you today.
Here are some simple hacks that will make building habits a little easier. Use them until you’ve internalized the new habit and don’t need them anymore.
Hello and welcome to Fearlessly Holistic.
My name is Irma and I want to share my journey to improved health by eating whole foods, moving my body and eliminating stress as much as possible.
It is my hope to inspire you to make daily changes. Why? Because eating fresh, seasonal food, getting some sunshine, and purging unhelpful thinking is the best way to increase longevity. But you do not want just a long life.
You want a quality long life.
Ready to apply your new, good habits to your weight loss? Be sure to check out my bundle on how to use micro-habits to achieve the weight loss results that you are looking for. If your weight has been stubborn for a while, you will want to use whatever it takes to break bad habits and replace them with good habits.
My blog posts are my opinion and the results of things that I have tried that either worked for me or didn’t. My opinions are for informational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Medical advice should always be obtained from a qualified medical professional for any health conditions or symptoms associated with them. As well, there may be affiliate links in this post. Read more here.
How To Start Creating Good Habits
Creating good habits is not just about ditching bad habits, but also having a new and better habit fill in that space in your life.
“Horror Vacui” aka nature abhors a vacuum.
What that means is that if you quit a bad habit and so leave new space in your life, it will be filled with something.
Create a new good habit or something you may not want will fill that gap.
Schedule It And Put It On The To-Do List
Sometimes we forget to do that new thing we were trying. Maybe we forget that we’re supposed to be having eggs for breakfast instead of a stack of waffles, or that we need to get that daily walk in.
Schedule your new habits or make them part of your daily to-do list until they become something you do automatically.
An example of this for weight loss is to create weekly meal plan and do what you need to to make it happen, like shopping.
Make It Public and Be Accountable
I discounted the ‘buddy system” for weight loss myself. It was not until I started doing Ketovore with my daughter that I got success much faster. It is super helpful to have someone hold you accountable for the food you eat or that daily walk.
If you cannot get a buddy right now, let family and friends know what new habits you’re trying to establish.
Get them call you out if you don’t stick to your plan and get you back on track.
You may even go as far as sharing it publicly on Facebook or write a blog about your new journey.
Knowing that others read it and know about it might be just enough to keep you going when you feel like throwing in the towel.
Piggyback On A Habit You Already Have
Whenever possible, add the new habit to one you already have.
For example, if you fix a cup of tea or coffee at 4pm, and you want to get in the habit of taking a daily walk, make the new ritual to go for your walk and then come back and enjoy your tea.
It’s much easier to amend an existing habit or ritual than creating an entirely new one.
Make Slip-ups Costly
Here’s a fun idea. Put a jar on the kitchen counter and each time you slip back into your bad habit or forget to stick to the new one you have to put five dollars in the jar.
It will be a visual reminder that you are working to change your life.
For extra motivation donate the money to charity at the end of the month.
Find A Partner and Help Each Other Along
Not all support buddies have the same goals as you do.
For example, your accountability partner may only be concerned with doing the daily walk, while you need a buddy for the daily walk and your diet goals.
Try to find buddies for all areas that you need accountability for: diet, fitness, and general support and/or mindset work.
You can join a weight loss or fitness group on Facebook, Quora, or Reddit. Look for a buddy that wants a similar outcome.
Keep tabs on each other and encourage each other to keep going. It’s much harder to skip a walk if you know someone else is depending on you being there.
Make It A Group Challenge
If one accountability partner is good, a whole group is even better. And they don’t even need to be local.
Find a supportive group online and challenge each other to stick to your new habit for the next 30 days or so.
Not wanting to be the first one to give up will keep all of you going until you establish that new habit.
Give these simple little hacks a try. Keep using the ones that you find helpful until you have made new habits you can stick with without the help of any tools or support.
Create Your Habit Filled Day
Do you have notice that it gets harder to make decisions toward the end of the day? You’re too tried to figure out what to have for dinner or what to watch on TV.
That’s because we all have a finite amount of decisions that we can make in any given day.
Decide when you are most productive: first thing in the day, before lunch, after lunch etc.
Knowing our best productivity time helps us prioritize.
We can cut out a lot of decision making by implementing habits and routines for when we are most productive.
That way we save them for the important stuff. It also frees brain space for more creative and productive thinking.
Routines are a great tool that simplify our lives and cut out a lot of our daily stress.
Chances are you already have a morning routine.
You get up, you get your coffee, read the paper or check email and fix some food before heading into the shower. Let’s expand on that.
If you create a “uniform” for yourself, you don’t even have to think about what to wear.
You just grab a pair of pants and a shirt, or a skirt, tights and sweater and off you.
Implement some routines into your workday wherever possible.
- Meal planning helps you figure out what meals to fix and eat.
- A cleaning schedule makes sure you stay on track with your household chores without you having to spend any valuable decision making skills in the process.
- Wrap your day up with a bedtime routine that not only helps when you’re too tired to make smart choices, it also helps you fall asleep more easily.
For your evening routine, what works for your toddler can work for you as well.
- Start by doing a few chores in the evening that make the next morning easier.
- Making sure the kitchen is clean and the kids’ school things are in order are great examples.
- Come up with a few calming things that help you slow down and get ready for sleep.
- Read a book, listen to some music or wind down with a cup of herbal tea.
Sit down with a pen and piece of paper and think about what parts of your day and week you can turn into routines.
Write the down and create daily to-do lists for yourself until you’ve established these new habits and routines.
Spending a little bit of time creating routines and habits will make your day run a lot smoother.
You might just find yourself less stressed and get more done during your productive hours. And that’s a beautiful thing.
It allows you to save plenty of decision making for the fun stuff like figuring out what park to go to, what family movie to watch or what board game to play.
Conclusion
I started to have more and faster success with weight loss when I implemented clean Keto diet, meal planning, and setting routine habits for success. It helped me and it can help you.
I also have a post on using habits for better sleep, so check out Improving Sleep Habits with Sleep Hacking.
Holism targets overall wellness, and when we are well, we only get better with age.
Eat the best food that you can afford to give your body the building blocks it needs for optimal health, longevity, and looking good for as long as possible 😉
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Until next time, here’s to our health!
-Irma