How To Create Healthy Habits That Last

As you can tell, this blog is all about creating healthy habits that you can stack and stick to for the long haul. It’s not about giving up the things you love, it’s about finding a better balance and knowing when to indulge and when to stay on track. It’s about delayed gratification, getting the results you want, and reaching your goals. 

I’ve created my signature HABITS framework to help define what they are to make them achievable and to get them to stick. 

H – Healthy 

A – Attainable 

B – Balanced 

I – Intuitive 

T – Transformative 

S – Self-discipline 

Let’s go a little deeper – 

Healthy – habits should support a healthy lifestyle. You’re creating a new habit because you want to reach a goal, see results, feel better, and/or improve your life. You need to create healthy daily routines that are going to drive you towards your goals. Some examples of this are creating a workout routine 5 days a week for 30 – 45 minutes per day. Going for a walk every night after dinner. Cooking at home most days per week using real, whole foods. Setting aside 60 minutes per week to focus on self-care to recharge your batteries. Paying yourself first from your paycheck and starting to create a habit of saving or investing each month. Practicing meditation for 10 minutes a day to reduce stress and anxiety. 

Attainable – habits need to be achievable in order for them to work and to stick. If your habits aren’t attainable over the long term, they aren’t going to last. You need to make them work to fit into your lifestyle. You can always expand your habits over time but in order to stick with them and make them work, they have to work for you. Start small, maybe it’s replacing a can of soda with plain sparkling water with a fresh squeeze of lime every day. Or adding an extra 5 – 10 minutes onto your dog walk. Maybe it’s waking up 10 minutes earlier but staying in bed to meditate. It could be starting by saving just $20 a month. Don’t be afraid of starting small. Habits are the foundation for how successful we’ll become. They are meant to be stacked and built up over time. Start with an attainable habit and as it becomes part of your lifestyle, start to build upon it.              

Balanced – like anything in life, you need to create balance. I live by the 80/20 rule in my life and creating healthy habits should be the same. Changing everything overnight is like starting a new diet – it just won’t work. Finding the intersection of the things you enjoy and the habits you need to build to create the life you want to live is key. A good example of this is finding a workout that’s fun and you really enjoy. For me, I love a rebounder trampoline workout. It’s fun and playful but also super effective. Saving money and not spending on the things you want now is not going to be fun but you’ll be happy you started investing when you see your money grow 6 months from now, a year from now, 5 years from now. But when you hit a certain benchmark, reward yourself to celebrate.  

Intuitive – in order to ingrain habits as part of your lifestyle, they need to become intuitive. This will take some time but once you’ve developed these healthy habits, they will become second nature to you. You’ll intuitively start to set out your workout clothes the night before. You’ll intuitively learn what food substitutes are the healthier options. You’ll intuitively start to pay yourself first. You’ll intuitively learn when your boundaries are being crossed and how to hold your own space. You’ll intuitively learn how low energy body feels when you eat too much sugar vs when you eat real, whole foods.     

Transformative – there are two parts to this one. First of all, you need to get into a transformative mindset. YOU are worthy. YOU can do the hard things. YOU deserve your dream life. The second part is, while you need to be able to make these wellness habits work within your lifestyle, you also need to do the things to achieve your goals and get you results. That’s why you need to make your habits transformative. Let’s say you have a dream of saving for a down payment on a house. Take the number $$ you need, and we’ll work backwards from there. Let’s say you can save $100 a month right now maximum. That is great! But it’s going to take a long time to get to a down payment. So, make it a habit that every time you get a raise, a bonus, a gift of cash, etc. you start increasing that amount – whether it’s regularly or putting in a lump sum. You may also want to explore investing rather than having it sit in a savings account that is maybe making 3%. You’ll be amazed at how your investments start to compound and the impact that this has on your life. You need to start small and do what you can but as your habits start to become intuitive, start to expand on them to make them even more transformative for your life.   

Self-Discipline – lastly, in order to stick with your habits and achieve your goals, and live the life you want, you need self-discipline. You won’t always be motivated. You won’t always feel like you’re making progress. You won’t always be inspired. In fact, a lot of days you’ll want to hit the snooze button 10 times before rolling out of bed. You’ll want to skip the workout. You’ll want to put the hard thing off until “tomorrow”. That is why self-discipline is so important and is the key to getting from where you are to where you want to go. It’s what keeps you committed to your habits. It’s what helps you overcome anxiety and self-doubt. Keeping the promises you make to yourself through showing up and having self-discipline is what will differentiate you, help you grow, and get you to achieve your goals and dreams.    

The best place to start introducing healthy habits is to take a good look at your daily routine. It’s time to get really honest with yourself. Where could you find the time to do something healthy? Are you spending time scrolling through Instagram or binge-watching Netflix? Or what are some things you’re already doing that you could improve on? What are some things in your life that you know aren’t healthy that you could improve? 

If you want to create change, take a moment to ask yourself this – are your current daily habits supporting the life you want to be living? If you’re feeling stuck, then you know that your habits need to start changing.