Taking the first steps to live a healthier lifestyle can be challenging… even daunting. Why? Because although we understand that we must change many things to reach our health goals, too often we try to change everything all at once.

With the chocolate stash and quick carbs in the trash, and our gym memberships in hand, we march determinately into the new year with the intent to leave all of our unhealthy habits in the dust. Seeing the big picture goal of great health is important, but it can also be intimidating. Follow these 4 helpful tips to ensure you don’t become discouraged on your journey to better health.   

Taking the first steps to live a healthier lifestyle can be challenging… even daunting. Why? Because although we understand that we must change many things to reach our health goals, too often we try to change everything all at once.

With the chocolate stash and quick carbs in the trash, and our gym memberships in hand, we march determinately into the new year with the intent to leave all of our unhealthy habits in the dust. Seeing the big picture goal of great health is important, but it can also be intimidating. Follow these 4 helpful tips to ensure you don’t become discouraged on your journey to better health.   

1.Start Small to Finish Big

Ever heard someone say, “Eat the elephant one bite at a time”? It means that if one looks at a whole elephant, they might proclaim that they could never finish something that large. Yet, if they took one bite a day, eventually the whole elephant disappears. This also rings true when becoming the best version of ourselves. Do not look at your health journey as a giant staircase that you fear you can never reach the top of. Rather, see it as a series of single manageable steps, each of which is achievable. Any of us can take one small step every week. Make a list of everything you would do as the perfectly healthy version of you, then assign one thing that you would have to change to become that person to each week over the next few months.

2. Get S.M.A.R.T.

Specific – Set specific goals. Ambiguous statements like, “get healthy” are hard to quantify.
Measurable – How will you know if you are reaching your goals?
Accountable – Track your progress and make notes about slip-ups—and about goals you’ve reached.
Realistic – Remember, one step at a time. No one becomes a fitness model overnight.
Timeframe – Someday never comes. Put it in your calendar.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Cheat

Short term diets of many kinds are effective for weight loss. However, many of these diets require that we turn our backs on foods we love and eat meals we don’t always enjoy very much. Strict adherence is simply not sustainable over a long period of time, and certainly not over the rest of one’s lifetime. Happiness is an important part of personal health, plus, it’s good for you. Allow yourself to eat the things you enjoy—even if they aren’t super healthy—once in a while. If you love a juicy burger, grill one up every now and then, and make sure to put cheese on it. If you have an incurable sweet tooth, keep a bag of really good chocolate on hand. Just be reasonable. If being reasonable about such things is difficult, then create a schedule that says you eat X, Y or Z on Fridays, or better yet, every other Friday.

4. Maintain Your Game

Most of our health goals are centered around transformation. We desire to lose weight, gain muscle, or tone up in hopes of looking and feeling different than where we started. Health is a journey which has no end. Do not equate reaching goals with not having to set new ones. The second we get complacent we begin to backslide toward where we started. Create a checklist of healthy habits, and each week, take inventory of your commitment to those habits.