Discover how to create healthy lifestyle habits for LIFE with my easy, 8-step process. You’ll learn how to ditch diets and deprivation forever, develop a sustainable lifestyle, and start living your healthiest, happiest life today!
How to Create Healthy Lifestyle Habits in 8 Easy Steps
1. Identify your “Big Why.”
Why do you want to accomplish X, Y, or Z??? This is a crucial first step towards ensuring you’re likely to follow through with your healthy lifestyle habits and goals. For example, my “big why” is to live a vibrant, healthy life into old age.
2. Write down all your health goals, both short-term and long-term.
These goals should be realistic and doable.
Tip! If one of your goals is “to reach a healthy weight,” I challenge you to pick at least one other goal that isn’t weight-related, such as “to have more energy” or “to feel happier.” These are often the changes you’ll notice first, which will help motivate you to keep up your new habits.
3. Determine your current level of motivation on a scale of 1-10.
This is SO important and something I ask my clients before making any diet or health changes. But, of course, sometimes you’re NOT ready to change your habits, and that’s A-OK.
4. List ALL obstacles {real or perceived} keeping you from reaching your goals.
Just a few examples that come up with my clients are: “I travel too much,” “I don’t know what’s healthy to eat,” “I have no time to exercise,” “I don’t know how to cook,” “I don’t enjoy cooking,” I don’t know what diet is right for me, plus SO many more. So write them ALL down and identify what obstacles you want to work on immediately.
5. Choose up to 5 healthy lifestyle habits to work on AND put a * by your top 2.
From my experience, focusing on just a couple of healthy lifestyle habits at a time is much more doable for most clients. While you may identify several habits to work on, sticking with 1-2 at a time is much easier. This is especially true when life gets extra busy-for many of us, most of the time!
6. Write down HOW you will monitor your habits & track your progress.
This could be a healthy lifestyle habits tracker form, an old-fashioned journal, or one of the many smartphone apps available. There’s no right or wrong choice. Experiment with different tracking tools and find something that works for you. See my recommended resources at the bottom of this post.
7. Identify any resources/education/support you need to reach your goals.
Examples include working with a dietitian or nutrition coach (I’d love to work with you!), reading a self-help book, downloading an app, taking a class, using a customizable meal planner, etc.
8. Choose your support system.
This can be someone in your family, a friend, a dietitian, a physician, a trainer, a therapist, an online forum, or a smartphone app.
More Tips for Creating Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Start small. You can work on up to 5 healthy lifestyle habits at a time, but keep your focus on 1 or 2 of them. Once these initial habits become routine, you can focus on adding new ones later.
Start whenever you are ready. There is no need to wait until Monday or for the “perfect time,” as often there is NO perfect time to start. But it’s also essential to do your “homework” ahead of time and determine if you’re ready to make changes.
Allow a minimum of 30 days to change a habit or create a new one. Often, habit change may take up to 60-90 days or even longer. That’s ok. Stay positive and think about long-term success!
Try something new. On the flip side, if you get bored with doing the same thing each day, why not try a new healthy lifestyle habit each day for a month? For example, let’s say you want to “eat better” (a little broad, I know). You can try doing something new daily, like eating veggies for breakfast, meal planning, sticking to 3 meals/per day, etc.
If you don’t succeed at first, try {and try} {and try again}! I think I’m on my 5th or so go around with getting into a strength training habit. For some reason, this has been a hard habit for me to stick with. But, as I get older, I realize how important it is to maintain muscle mass, so I keep forging ahead!
Re-frame your mindset, and tell yourself that hard work is required. Habits aren’t easily changed {at first}, but once you securely adopt your new habits, they will be MUCH easier to maintain~I promise!
Think outside the box and redefine what you “can” and “can not” do. For example, before I started following a gluten-free diet, I thought the only way I could cook was to follow a recipe. But, once I stopped eating gluten, I was forced to get creative in the kitchen & create my recipes—bottom line: No matter your age, you can always learn and master new things.
Healthy Habits Resources
I hope you will find these healthy lifestyle habits resources & tools helpful. I use them personally, as well as with my nutrition coaching clients. If you have any other favorite healthy habit resources to share, please share your recommendations with me~thanks so much!
Healthy Habits Worksheet and Tracker
Healthy Habits Books
- Atomic Habits. An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits-to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life
- The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
- Mini Habits. Smaller Habits, Bigger Results
Healthy Habits Websites & Articles
- James Clear (Author of Atomic Habits)
- Gretchen Rubin’s Blog & Website
- MINIHABITS® Website
- Habit Nest Website
- 80+ Experts {Including Me!} Sharing Amazing Tips on Weight Loss and Motivation
Let’s Chat!
- What are your biggest challenges in keeping up with healthy habits and reaching your health goals?
- Do you have any healthy lifestyle habits you want to change or add?
- What are your favorite tips to share for creating new habits?
If you enjoyed this post, I’d love for you to share it! Thanks so much for your support in helping me spread the word that healthy IS delicious!
