Many of my clients start out with the belief that all they need is a diet and exercise plan and they will be able to achieve their health or weight goals. Though many of them have usually tried this approach in the past and have found it doesn’t work. Why? Because we spend our entire lives forming habits. Habits are really hard to break! Your eating habits and your lifestyle are habits too.
So then, how do we reach our health goals?
One step at a time.
It takes about 66 days to form a new habit. So what’s going to happen if we try to change 15 habits overnight? Hey, you might be particularly stubborn and determined and be perfectly successful, but the fact is that most of us find this challenging and are then left feeling deflated by our failure. So instead of trying to bite off more than you can chew, try this first.
1: Decide on one major goal. What is it that you want to achieve?
2: Where are you now?
3: What is standing in between today and your goal? Make sure you’re writing all of this down as you go. Chances are there are lots of things you can say here, for example: “I’m not eating breakfast”, “I get sugar cravings later in the day so I can’t help over eating”, “I feel like I don’t have enough time”.
4: Pick just one of these obstacles and make a plan for overcoming it. It might be as simple as “I will start getting my breakfast ready the night before so that I eat it the next day”, or “I’m going to eat when I feed my kids”.
5: Pick just one goal at a time to tackle.
Reaching your goals in this way will set you up for success!
