Making Healthy Habits Stick (Simple yet powerful strategies to positively transform your life)

New year, same struggles? Join me as we discuss the secrets to making real change in your life and how to form habits that last.

Did you know that only 9% of people actually stick to their New Year's resolutions? Don't let that statistic discourage you though, because I've got tips on habit formation that will help you crush your goals, no matter what time of year it is. Every day is a new opportunity to enhance your life and health.

So listen in for some tips on habit formation and how to make your new habit feel convenient and easy to incorporate into your daily routine while giving yourself grace when you falter, because failing is an inevitable part of being human and I'm right there with you! (And sharing some of my own shortcomings so you can be in my imperfect company!) 

Discover these simple yet powerful strategies that will help you turn your healthy goals into long-term habits that transform your life...in the tune of a casual pep talk from a friend. 

Transcript

Hey there. Welcome to the Friend in Your Ear podcast. I'm your host, Luna Smith, and I will be that friend inside your ear. Well, we explore all things self-improvement. I'll share tips, motivation and positivity to help you live your best life. From health and wellness to career and relationships. I've got you covered because that's what friends are for, right?

So tune in every week for a friendly chat to brighten your day. And let's make every day a little better together, shall we, friend? And now on with the show. Hi there. How are you doing? I hope you're having a great week or weekend, depending on when you're listening to this. And I just wanted to talk to you about healthy habits with it being the new year and everything we know that a lot of people set goals and resolutions, mainly around health or personal development because it's a good fresh start, you know, New Year, fresh slate.

It just feels like a time that we can start over or just become better. But I want you to know that it doesn't matter if it's the new year or if it's July. We can always make changes to enhance our lives and our health and become better people. And so it doesn't matter what time of year this is.

I want you to know that you can always work towards your goals, and it's actually even better to do it that way. So that's where I wanted to start first, because out of all the people who set New Year's resolutions, only 9% are actually successful at achieving those goals. It's extremely difficult as humans to implement new habits in our lives because we get kind of stuck in our own habitual ways.

And it's hard to break out of bad habits and to put new habits in, especially if we have a long list of habits and we're trying to do it all at once. So the number one way that we can actually really make habits stick is if we start small. We don't want to try to overhaul our entire lives at once.

So choose one small habit that you can realistically incorporate into your daily routine. For instance, let's say you are currently not really exercising or not exercising as much as you'd like. To myself included, what works best instead of just saying like, Oh, well, I need a workout, I'm going to work out seven days a week and 2 hours at the gym and blah blah blah.

Like a lot of people kind of go gung ho like that, but it's more realistic if we just start small, it's much easier to incorporate that into our own lives. So instead of doing seven days a week workouts, maybe just it looks more like 10 minutes a day and you just do it, you know, right? When you wake up or before you go to bed or wherever it seems like it fit.

Some people like to do it at a lunch break. Lunchbreak just somewhere easy. You can put it into your own life. 10 minutes is a great start. My personal goal this year is to do two workouts a week and it might seem small, but it's much more realistic for me to be able to squish two workouts into my busy schedule than to try to do five workouts and constantly feel like I'm failing because I'm not able to do those each day.

So if you have a smaller start, a smaller goal, and you're able to incorporate that into your life and feel that success as you go on and are able to do those things, then that's more encouragement that you can keep going. And it's it's kind of better on your body that way too, to kind of slowly build, you know, the whole slow and steady wins the race.

It's very important when it comes to implementing new habits and making them actually stick. Which brings me to the next point where the habit needs to conveniently fit into our lives. And I know that's not always possible for it to be absolutely convenient, but a way we can make it feel convenient is if we have it stuck. So if you have a goal to do that ten minute workout, that's your small goal because you've decided to go small instead of striving for, you know, running a marathon the first week of January, you're going to be small and realistic and you're going to do 10 minutes and you decide that that 10 minutes of works and

your lunch break. And so how can you incorporate that into your life? Or maybe you have a walking pad at your desk and you just do a ten minute break and you just walk for 10 minutes, or maybe you just keep a set of dumbbells in your office or your living room or wherever you may be. You know, if you work from home and you just set a timer for 10 minutes, it can be like immediately after lunch and you just have that habit stack of knowing, okay, I have lunch, I'm going to do this ten minute workout either before or after or.

You know, for some people, the beginning of the day is better, you know, get up 10 minutes earlier and do that ten minute workout before you shower and get ready for the day. It might not seem like much, but it does matter because 10 minutes is still 10 minutes. It's still better than no minutes, right? So it's so much better to start small and to make those small steps and that progress.

And it will help that habit to stick, especially if you can do whatever that small task is in relation to another task you're already doing. So lining it up. So another way I guess is if you wanted to work out more, you can just do small like micro moments throughout the day, you know, hitting your lunch up in the microwave, just like get those barbells out.

Dumbbells, you probably don't. Barbells and get your dumbbells out or just do some like bodyweight squats, hold a plank, you know, something like that. Like while you're waiting for the thing to cook in the microwave or while you're watching something, whenever a commercial comes on, that's the trigger for you. That's like the the stack. I guess instead of just sitting there and watching the commercials, that's your trigger to get up.

I guess these things that are already in your life that you're trying to stack your habit on to, they're basically essentially triggers. So it's a trigger for you to help you remember to do this new habit. So if you associate this new habit you're trying to implement into your life with something that you already have going on, that's a way to remind yourself to do it.

And you might. I won't say you may. You very much. Most definitely will miss some days because it's very hard to remember to do this new thing unless you are putting it in your schedule and having an alarm go off or some kind of, you know, bigger reminder, it's going to take a little bit of time to make that full association with whatever is part of your daily routine.

It just takes practice and time, but it will eventually happen, which is why you need to not be hard on yourself when you do slip up. Because we all make mistakes and it's very important to be kind to ourselves and to forgive ourselves when we falter because we're human. And it's going to happen. And it's hard. It's very hard to to do something that you haven't been doing until like make it a part of your daily routine.

It's we're going to slip up. So don't be hard on yourself about that. We all do it. I do it all the time. For instance, I only attended 18 yoga classes last year. I know this because the app told me is so surprising. That's more than I thought I made it too. So you know, when they're. I guess.

But yeah, it doesn't seem like much to go to only 18 classes. I didn't really have a set goal specifically. I guess I was hoping to go to two classes a week and it didn't really work out. So I could get down on myself and just be like, Oh, bummer, you know, I'm not going to do it anymore.

Or I should. I what I should do is say, You know what, I'm human. A lot of stuff came up. Life was really difficult last year and it was pretty hard to get that scheduled to go to a class outside my house, which is why my goal this year is to do the two workouts a week at home.

That way I don't have to have that added obstacle of getting out of the house to do something. I can just do it whenever I have the opportunity in my own house, which might be something you should look into too. If you're finding that going out to a gym is causing too much of an obstacle or not, you know, making it inconvenient because like I said, making the habit convenient is going to help you to continue doing it.

Now, you might be someone who finds a gym to be more motivating, and if that works for you, then sure. Like, you know, if you can find a way to conveniently insert that into your everyday routine, then that's fine. Like totally do that. But whatever it is, if we can make it as convenient to our existing routine as possible, that's really going to help us to make those habits stick and take hold.

And we will slip up and we will fail and we will fall. And we just need to dust ourselves off, accept that we're human, and then just try again the next day. Another big one is accountability. This might not work for everyone. Some of us might feel like we're a little too shy to be sharing our personal goals and aspirations, and maybe we don't want to put it out into the world.

But for those of us who like that kind of pressure, it's helpful to put it out in the world. What you're trying to accomplish or do just tell a family member or a friend. Or even better yet, if you can find someone who has similar goals to you to do it with you, then you can motivate each other.

And just having that support system is very helpful in moving forward with whatever we're trying to achieve. So I already told you what my goal is. I'm putting it out there to the universe that I am going to do two workouts from home every week and you can feel free to check in on me and leave comments and say, Hey, how are those workouts doing?

And I will hopefully say, Well, they're going well, but you never know. I might have some weeks that I mess up or that I am just not able to do it and that it will be okay in the grand scheme of things. Because what we really are striving toward is any step towards progress. It doesn't matter if we're absolutely perfect because perfection does not exist as you have heard or will hear.

If you listen to my episode called Do the Dang Thing, where I talk a lot about perfectionism issues with getting stuff done, another way that I've personally found to be extremely helpful with implementing new, healthy habits into my life, especially in terms of like dietary changes. I guess that's what I'm mostly speaking to in this particular moment, is to add and not subtract.

So if you're anything like me, you may find that you want whatever you tell yourself you cannot have. So if you tell yourself that you're not allowed to eat chocolate and that it's off limits, no more chocolate. You're going to want it all the time. You're going to just crave it. You will crave it and crave it, and you will just try eating other things that are healthier.

But you're trying to, you know, quench that craving and you will just continue to crave that thing until you finally give in to it, and then you'll feel guilty. But you also eat and all this other stuff in an attempt to avert that craving and you know, this you have this like if you have an all or nothing mentality that can totally derail you and your habits, and you might just feel like you've lost all of your progress and lost it all, which is absolutely not true.

We all fail and falter and we just have to start fresh again the next day. But what you are going to do instead of telling yourself you can't have it as you were going to focus on adding stuff into your diet instead of taking stuff away. So you're going to add more vegetables into your diet and you're not going to put anything off limits.

You just add in the fresh stuff, you add in the healthier foods. You'll find that because you're filling up on that healthier stuff, that you're not really having room or craving so much the unhealthy stuff. I eat a lot of healthier versions of junk food every day and I allow myself to and I don't like to restrict myself at all.

Disclosure I have had an eating disorder in the past. It was a very long time ago, and the way that I've been able to not fall back into that is by not restricting anything. So I allow myself to eat whatever I want to eat. And there's definitely some foods where I choose not to eat just because I know that it's not serving me and my body.

So I just find myself either finding a healthier alternative or, you know, just not eating it out of my own desires to not eat it. But I'm not telling myself that I can't eat it. So if I ever decide that I do want to have it, I can. And I think that that helps a lot. And it's a great way to just slowly start changing yourself in your diet.

And in that regard, the way that I started on my own, more like of a health journey, was to start with smoothies, because it's such an easy way to get a couple of servings of fruit and vegetables into your diet without doing a whole lot of work. And it tastes mostly like dessert. So you can, you know, stack it up with protein and stuff, too.

But I found smoothies to be amazing and I, in the warmer months, drink them daily in the winter. It's every now and then. But it's such a great way to give yourself an extra boost of nutrition and get more servings of fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables on a daily basis. And all you're doing is just adding that into your diet and because it tastes like dessert, you might find yourself not really, you know, craving other, less helpful desserts, whatever you do, do it with a love.

This is kind of another big thing if you're making any dietary changes, if that's your healthy habit to eat healthier, you need to do it with love. I mean, working out as well. Like if we do things with love for our bodies, we're way more likely to actually continue doing those things because if we're just punishing ourselves, it's not going to feel good.

But if we are doing it because we love ourselves, we're way more likely to keep doing it because that feels good. I like to drink smoothies or make sure I get x amount of veggies a day because it makes me feel like I'm giving my body what it needs and to have that kind of mindset is going to encourage you to keep doing it.

So yes, I eat a lot of healthier versions of junk food every day and probably way more chocolate than I should. But I also make sure that I get three servings of veggies or so, and I try to make those choices to make sure that I'm getting that nutrition for my body, because it makes me feel good and it makes me feel like I'm giving my body what it needs.

And if you have that kind of mindset, it's going to keep you going and encourage you to to make healthier choices just based on the love for yourself and wanting to nourish yourself. And that is a very important in the name of health, we shouldn't be punishing ourselves. There's already enough punishing things in the world, like don't do that to yourself too.

The reason I want to work out twice a week isn't because I hate my body or dislike myself. It's because I want to serve my body. I want to be stronger. I want to move my body so that my body continues to move. For me, that's a better perspective than to workout out of heat. You're more likely to continue doing it if you're doing it with love.

So that is another big tip is to make sure that you are making these changes out of love and respect and nourishment for yourself, for your body, for your mind. And you're more likely to do it and to keep doing it when you're do it with love. So I hope you find these tips useful. To summarize again, ways that we can make healthy habits stick are to start small.

Don't try to change everything in your life all at once. So that works for any kind of habits, health or otherwise. It's important to take it a little step at a time and celebrate those achievements. Make your healthy habits convenient. Make it easy for you to keep doing that habit. If you want to eat more vegetables, make sure you have more vegetables easily accessible.

A thing that I find too is if the vegetables are already pre prepared and cut up, I'm way more likely to eat them. It's usually the the fact that like if you have to take the extra steps to wash something and cut it up and prepare it, you're less likely to do that if you're short on time, which is why a lot of people like to eat convenience foods.

So if you pre prep those things, you're more likely to grab them in a time when you want to snack. So make it convenient for you. Get a support system. Even if that support system is just yourself and a notebook or you're habit tracking, you can mark off and check off every little step, every little time that you make it or accomplish.

One of the tasks on your to do list or your goals. Celebrate that check it off and embrace the fact that you are making progress. It doesn't matter how slow it is or how small it is. If you're making progress, that is something to be celebrated. And don't be too hard on yourself. Remember, we are human. We are slipping up.

It happens. You are human. I'm human. We are doing this together and we're messing this up together and we are making our way towards our goals. And that's what matters. And lastly, add, don't subtract. This obviously works especially for nutritional changes and trying to eat healthier. We want to focus on getting more nourishment in and not taking anything away because if you know those cookies bring you joy, they bring you joy.

Don't punish yourself if you have one. As long as you're getting that nourishment and eating healthier. Otherwise, then you are still making progress. Even if that just means one smoothie like everything else in your diet is absolutely the same. You're just adding in a smoothie and getting those couple of servings of fruit and vegetables every day. That is still progress.

You are still giving your body nourishment and that is something to be proud of. Actually, I should mention, speaking of convenience, when it comes to smoothies, you could have all the different parts and put it together. But if that does not make it convenient for you and you find yourself not drinking the smoothies, you can always look into a company that either has the smoothie mixes, like pre-made or even like you can buy like completely mixed up smoothies in a grocery store.

But I usually prefer to get from like a frozen company because you're seeing that nutrition still. Whereas like if you buy like a completely liquid one, you're not really seeing what's inside it. And I think that visual is kind of important. So I recommend looking into a smoothie company where you see the nutrition and the nutrients that you are consumed.

I've tried a bunch of different companies and I can tell you my favorite and the one that I've like fully committed to after experimenting and trying with a bunch of different companies, is called a frozen garden. They use organic when it counts and source from small farms, female owned and operated is just a great company. They are also pretty conveniently priced compared to a lot of other comparable companies.

But the number one reason I love them, of course, all those things really matter. But was that they actually showed up frozen because I was using a different service, a very popular one before. But every time I ordered from them, everything was just completely thought out when it arrived and they just kind of gave me the runaround every time I complained.

And then the next box would also show up, completely thought out, and I couldn't drink anything. And so I was very frustrated. And that's how I found the frozen garden was looking for an alternative to that bigger company. So anyway, I would highly recommend them because of my extremely positive experience. I'm subscribed to them, so I get smoothies on a regular basis.

I would recommend them. If you're looking for that convenient that way, getting a smoothie into your everyday life. And I have a code for you guys. If you go to thefrozengarden.com/thatblissfulbalance and use code THATBLISSFULBALANCE at checkout, you can get $5 off your first order, you can find links in the show notes if you are interested.

And it's also a way you can support the show while supporting yourself and your own nourishment. So I hope you'll check them out. I love them and if you're going to look into them, I highly recommend the Chocolate Dream Smoothie. That's my personal favorite. If you are a chocolate fan like me, it has like chocolate and cinnamon and spinach and bananas.

And if you are someone who has a hard time getting greens in your diet, smoothies are amazing because they totally hide the flavor of the greens. If you're having a fruit based smoothie and just tossing greens in there, they also have some other amazing flavors. Rolling Oats is another really good one. It's like a blueberry with oats, and if you're more into green smoothies, they have some more greener flavored smoothies too.

But I tend to like the fruity ones with the greens mixed, so that's why I really like a chocolate dream feeling. I highly recommend it. You can go to the frozen garden dot com, slash that blissful balance, use code that blissful balance at checkout for $5 off. And if you're wondering what that blissful balance is, that's my regular site.

So that's the code that I have anyway. And I hope you'll check it out. And of you, a great way to show support for the show while adding something healthy that you can easily implement into your life as a way to kick start your healthy goals. Thank you so much for listening to the show. I really appreciate it and I hope you found some value in it and I look forward to talking to you again next week.

The mantra of this week is, I am capable and worthy. You are so strong, you are so capable. You are always more capable of what we think we are capable of. And sometimes we just need to see evidence of it. So I hope you take those small steps towards your goals and prove to yourself just how capable and worthy you are and if this mantra doesn't serve you, I hope that you find one that does, but I hope it serves you because I want you to know how capable and worthy you are.

Thanks again for being here and I'll see you. Thanks again for being here. I hope you have a great week and you are amazing. Remember that. Okay, be proud of yourselves with every stumbling step. Be proud. All right. I'll talk to you later, friend.