Follow these steps to form new, healthier habits

HALLXH Tribe! Is your New Year’s resolution to live a healthy lifestyle? If so, that means the first month or two will be the most difficult for you. You see, starting healthy habits is indeed easy.

According to experts, when we start new habits, neural networks make connections and our brains learn new frameworks of action. However, our mental state becomes stressed, so sometimes we may feel tired and feel like procrastinating. Yet, if we persist and repeat the same activities every day, the pressure will be reduced.

The problem is that everyone’s ability to build new habits is different. Some may have taken only two weeks, while others had to be consistent for two months. So, we are here to try and help provide guidance for starting new and healthier habits.

Create Specific Goals

If your sole goal is only to get a “healthy body”, “lose weight” or “an ideal body“, then your efforts may go to waste along the way. Moreover, you’ll also feel that all your hard work has been fruitless. You may feel sick frequently, the scale may not have dropped, and your body shape didn’t change. When this happens, you will lose all motivation, and not feel enthusiastic about continuing with your healthy habits.

Hence, when planning your activities, you must formulate specific, measurable, and realistic goals. Instead of setting a “eat healthy food every day” goal, you can change the goal to “challenge smoothie for 22 days”. Or, if you want to get a “muscular body”, then aim for “30 minutes of strength training at the gym every Monday, Wednesday, Friday”.

Healthy Habits Between Routines

What? You said you don’t have time to work out? Try checking your daily routine again. Maybe there were times when you could have used your free time more to exercise. So think again!

At this point, you still don’t have a clue on how to create a healthy habit between routines? Here are some suggestions: you can park your vehicle some distance from the office entrance so you can exercise on foot. Then, you can also go up to the workspace via stairs instead of wasting time waiting for the elevator to come down from the 5th floor. And, for those of you who are used to watching television after work, try doing squats during commercial breaks!

Combining Healthy Habits and Happiness

Why do we always lose track of time whenever we binge-watch Netflix or check our social media? The answer is that they are fun activities! The happy hormones released during these activities entice you to do them again and again. As a result, you don’t have the opportunity to exercise.

Now, you can try a strategy of combining healthy habits with fun activities. How? When you have an hour of free time, spend half of it exercising. After that, you can reward yourself by enjoying your favourite shows on Netflix.

Change Your Bad Habits

Try to mention a list of bad habits that you often find yourself doing! Starting from snacking on salty chips while reading, drinking cold soda during hot weather, and eating instant noodles while watching soccer matches. You know those behaviours are not good for your health, but you do them anyway. After all, it’s delicious, what should I do?

Nobody is forcing you to leave those habits, but you can replace them with something healthier. You can snack on roasted peanuts as a snack, or choose a fruit juice with an authentic sweet taste over a fizzy drink. Meanwhile, avoiding delicious and “addictive” instant noodles is indeed a tough challenge. However, you can still enjoy noodles made from vegetables with mushroom broth instead.

Create an Enabling Environment

You can create an environment to support your plan of implementing a healthy lifestyle. If you have trouble getting up early for jogging, then set an alarm at the desired time. If the sound of the alarm clock still can’t wake you up because you immediately reach to turn it off, try placing it somewhere some distance away. So, you will be forced to stand and walk to turn off the alarm.

Meanwhile, for those of you who have the habit of snacking on unhealthy food, then avoid them at all costs. Don’t stock up on snacks at home or in your desk drawer! If you’ve already purchased your finger food, store it on a kitchen shelf that is difficult to reach.

Prepare for Plan B

Sometimes, your plans may not be executed. There are times when you have to work overtime, making it impossible to go to the gym after work. However, you can exercise or meditate at home with a video guide.

Meanwhile, for those of you who don’t have time to prepare a healthy lunch, don’t immediately be tempted to snack carelessly. Nowadays, there are healthy caterers everywhere, you know! You just have to order, and the courier will deliver a box of food that is low in fat and calories.

When a healthy lifestyle is consistently practiced every day, the body and mind will follow new habits. Without realizing it, you always wake up at the same time to exercise. Even though it wasn’t planned, you immediately drink water after waking up in the morning.

So, even though there is no motivation to be healthy, even though the enthusiasm has diminished, you have already made a healthy lifestyle automatically. And, all you have to do is enjoy the benefits of healthier habits.