Try as we all might, there’s no ignoring all the “new year, new me” resolutions buzzing around social media, and mainstream media. We’re here to help squash the resolutions, and create a much healthier approach to ease into the new year. Chuck the whole resolution concept and focus on a ‘theme’ for the year!
When we want to truly change a behavior or create a new habit, it takes a substantial amount of time to make the changes so that the changes and habits stick around for the long haul. With a theme, you can create realistic goals towards your chosen theme, and hold yourself accountable with one change at a time. One change at a time is the best way to create a healthier lifestyle you can carry with you for years to come.
Post-Holiday Detoxing
When your theme is improving your health, one of the first steps is detoxing from all the holiday celebrations. Which makes a lot of sense. Cleaning out the body helps your body and mind set itself up for success. Detoxing helps clear out the insides, and with a strong gut and your body’s systems running a bit smoother, it’s the perfect time to mentally prepare for planning and setting realistic health goals for not just your physical well-being, but also your mental well-being.
Our bodies and minds work together and can only benefit from specific, targeted health objectives! So ‘Clean slate it’. And give yourself a little immunity boost now that you’re a clean slate and your body is at its best to absorb all the best things we introduce it to!
Realistic Health Goals You Can Achieve
As you’re detoxing, get your health intentions on paper! But don’t just write down a list of health goals and leave it at that. Be specific and intentional with your goals. Plan these goals out. Map out how:
- you’ll achieve the goals
- create healthier habits
- change current unhealthy habits
When setting your goals for the year, there are a few things to keep in mind so you can maximize your chances for achieving new habits and changing unhealthy ones, along with any other health goals for your chosen theme for this year.
You know yourself, and even with the best of intentions, when push comes to shove you need to be realistic about what you want to achieve. Consider the health theme you have chosen for yourself, and brainstorm what you can do to achieve this theme without disappointing yourself.
Let’s say your theme for the year is eating a plant-based diet. Your first goal isn’t “give up eating all meat and only eat vegetables”. It’s just not going to work if your meals for your entire life have included meat proteins in large quantities. A more realistic first goal is to make the decision to increase your vegetable intake with each meal.
Once you have your goals set and ready to rumble, choose just ONE to focus on until that new goal/habit is something you no longer have to think about, you just do it. This takes different amounts of time for different people. Once you feel the habit is set, move to the next goal.
If you find yourself letting the previous habit slip, stop doing the new one, focus on the previous one again, and have another go at it.
Your overall theme for the year is your ultimate goal. You’ll want to create your list of objectives, and then after that, you’ll want to break those objectives into smaller steps. If your theme for the year is to lose weight, be specific about the amount of weight you will lose and then create your realistic and targeted goals to achieve your overall theme for the year.
Take the realistic and targeted goals and break them down into actionable steps that will help create healthier habits. Eat healthier is a great goal, but it needs to be broken down into smaller objectives, such as:
- Incorporate more green vegetables at dinner – and break that down into easy steps to help achieve success, such as meal prep on Sundays for a week of dinners.
- Start exercising – break this down into easy steps so you can find success
- Start the day healthier – plot out ways to start your day with one healthy change, such as drinking a smoothie filled with clean, nutritious ingredients.
Be specific! Make a plan for each goal. Set yourself for success.
We all slip up, and revert to our older habits that no longer serve our best interests. Forgive yourself for the slip, block out the negative self-talk, shake that sh*t off, and get back to your theme, goals, objectives, and plans immediately. We’re all human and need to be more kind to ourselves when we fall off.
After you’ve set the theme and plotted out your plans for achieving success, only focus on the daily tasks at hand. It cuts down the overwhelm that takes over when we think about how far we are from our ultimate destination. Focus on the day, and only TODAY.
Stop doing things all on your own. Ask for help! Busy and can’t shop for your own groceries, order them online and have them delivered. Is your daily to-do list a mile long and you have no time to prep meals on Sundays, ask for help or hire someone to do some of the to-dos so you have time to meal prep. Just need some accountability help, find someone to ask to be your accountability partner.
Need help figuring out beneficial health habits, there’s plenty of professionals that can help.
When you work hard creating healthy habits and snuffing out old unhealthy habits, or behaviors, you deserve rewards. Work in rewards when you reach specific milestones along your journey. A sweet treat, perhaps a massage after all the new workouts your body has been experiencing, or a little alone time enjoying a day at a local hotspot.
We're Dedicated to Your Health and Wellness
Since we’re proponents for healthy bodies and minds, we of course want everyone’s theme for the year to be a healthier lifestyle. If this is your theme for this year, or you want to maintain your healthy lifestyle you have already made into a life habit – we’re here to lend a helpful hand and unwavering support. Our passion and purpose is to treat your body from the inside out with revitalizing foods, rejuvenating therapies and massage, along with expert chiropractic care and our popular functional movement program, Movology.
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