We can wish and dream and have all kinds of ideas in our heads of what we should be doing to achieve the goals that we want for ourselves. But, until we have a plan for creating healthy habits, it will continue to just be a dream, wish or idea. You know the phrase, “Fail to plan, plan to fail”, right?
Even with the best of intentions, we won’t change our actions, and therefore, our outcomes, without making plans and putting in the effort. It’s easy to stick to, or fall back on our normal routines and habits. So, having a plan to follow is essential if you want to change a habit and keep it.
Are you aware that you need a plan, but just don’t know where to start?
Keep reading!
First Step in Creating Healthy Habits
Before you can even think about what it might look like to have a plan of action, you’ll need to start with awareness of your current behaviors. The first step to success is to identify which habits are holding you back. I think most of us know what we’re doing that is either helping or hindering us, even when we don’t want to admit it to ourselves. Maybe you could use some tweaking of your nutrition, more sleep, better ways to handle stress, or more consistent movement. Start by writing these things down. Don’t feel discouraged by the length of your list, even if it seems long. The whole point here is to make healthy improvements, not make ourselves feel guilty and hopeless.
Next Step
No need to work on everything on the list all at once. That would just be overwhelming and probably make you want to quit the first day. Pick just one habit from the list. It could be the one thing that you think is making the biggest impact or the thing that you feel will be the easiest change to make. It doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re willing to actually make the change.
After you’ve identified what that one thing is, it’s time to start figuring out how to, not eliminate the habit, but to change it. You’ll have a much easier time creating healthy habits if they are replacing the old habits that weren’t serving you. For example, if you currently are in the habit of drinking sodas multiple times a week and want to reduce or eliminate this habit, then you’ll want to replace this with something else. Instead of not drinking anything in it’s place, replace it with something that doesn’t negatively impact your health, like water or herbal iced tea.
Now, if you really want this to be a plan that works, not just an idea, you’ll need to figure out what actions you need to take and when. Keeping with the example from above, let’s say you’re going to start by replacing soda 50% of the time. This means you’ll need to track the amount of soda you normally drink. How will you track this? On paper or in an app? Then you’ll know how many times to drink the alternative beverage instead, right? Now you have the background info needed to create your plan!
You can start to track how many times you replaced soda with something healthier (i.e. diet soda is not a healthy alternative) to see if you’re actually making progress. Once this becomes easier, you can change the goal. Instead of replacing soda 50% of the time, change that to 75% or higher.
How to Create a Plan That Works
Identifying the changes you want to make and knowing what habits to change is only part of the process. You also have to believe the change is worth it, realistic, and that you have a way to measure your progress. Take small measurable steps. If you’re not a runner and don’t necessarily enjoy running, you probably won’t have much success having a goal to run your first marathon in a few weeks by going out and running every once in a while leading up to race day, for example. It has to mean something to you and make sense.
Questions to Ask for Creating Healthy Habits Plan
Why do I want to change this?
What will changing it do for me?
Am I ready to make a change in this habit and do I think it’s possible?
What specific actions steps do I need to take for this change?
What will progress look like? How will I measure it?
How long do I expect it will take to make the change and see some progress?
Do You Have a Plan?
If you can answer the questions above, then you should have a place to start. If you’re not sure about some of them, you might want to give it some more thought or pick a different habit to start on. Be real with yourself. You know what you’re actually willing to follow through with.
If you start off with any actual plan, you can see where adjustments need to be made and not just wonder why it didn’t work. Failing and not knowing why just leads to more frustration. Not reaching your goals, but being able see why, leads to learning and improvement.
Even if you don’t follow your own plan completely, at least you’ll have your roadmap to look back on and use to get yourself back on track.
Sometimes we just need a little help creating a plan or some accountability to stay on track once we have a plan. If you’re a busy Mom trying to do it all and would like some help with creating or sticking to a plan, feel free to book a free consult with me.
And, if you want more tips and info from a Health Coach about simple ways to live your healthiest life. don’t forget to subscribe!
