4 Tips For Making Healthier Choices

“You’ll never change your life until you change something daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine” – John C. Maxwell

Breaking out of unhealthy habits takes a lot of willpower and commitment, especially when it comes to sticking with those changes in the long run. These 4 tips for making healthier choices will help make the road less travelled an easier journey: 

Start small

Switching to healthier choices is easier when you make small, gradual changes rather than going cold turkey on whatever habit you’re working on changing. For example, if you want to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, you’ll have better success starting with some stretches and a short run around your neighborhood instead of signing up for a 5K marathon from the get go.

Setting small, achievable goals is sustainable because they are easier to achieve and will give you a sense of accomplishment that will push you to do it again and again until it’s a habit. That’s unlike setting an unrealistically ambitious goal, which you’ll inevitably fail at and feel too demotivated to continue.

Plan

Writing down your plans and goals has been shown to help you achieve them faster. For example, if your goal is to eat healthier, it helps to plan for it by researching healthy meal options and recipes, stocking up on ingredients for those, and having a meal plan. 

Planning for things helps you feel less overwhelmed with what you’re trying to achieve, especially if you break the plan up into smaller, more achievable tasks.

Avoid temptation

Our willpower is only so strong and the best thing you can do to make choosing healthier options is to avoid temptation. Shopping for groceries? Avoid the processed foods aisles if you want to eat healthier and stick to the fruit and vegetable section.

The less in-your-face these temptations are, the easier it’ll be to avoid them. Conversely, make sure you frequent spaces that lead you to your healthier choices like going to the gym if you’re working on being more fit, instead of passing through your favorite fast food place.

Swap things out

Eliminating an unhealthy habit from your life will leave a gap, which you’ll need to fill to avoid sliding back into old habits. The best way is to swap it out for a healthier option instead.

For example, if you want to cut down on buying takeaways for lunch at work or school, you can swap that out with fun, healthy snacks you can prepare at home

Or if you want to reduce your screen time before bed for healthier sleep, you can replace scrolling through your social media feeds with reading a book so you won’t be left staring at the ceiling with nothing to do, waiting for sleep to come. 

“The secret to permanently breaking any bad habit is to love something greater than the habit.” – Bryant McGill