With January in full swing this is often the time of year we all make lots of promises about how we’re going to improve our life and while intentions are good the chances of us all having dropped ten pounds, gained that promotion, quit smoking, started eating healthily and read a classic book every month all by spring are actually pretty remote. Whether you’re calling it a New Year’s resolution or you’ve just decided there’s a few thing about your life you’d like to improve here are some helpful tips on how you can live a more healthy lifestyle and stick to it.
Set Specific Goals
The first thing you need to do is give yourself a specific goal and try and make it as unique to you as possible. If you want to lose weight have a target weight you want to achieve, have a specific size of jeans in your favorite shop you’d like to fit into. Once you’ve worked out what you want to achieve, have a set idea of why you want to achieve it. If you’re trying to lose weight, is it for a wedding this summer, have you just got out a relationship and you feel you’ve let yourself go a bit, maybe you have a photo of yourself taken recently and you didn’t like how you looked. You need to know exactly what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it in order to make sure you stick to it.
Don’t Try Too Much At Once
At the start of the year people often have a list of things they want to change about themselves as long as their Christmas wish list. Although it’s great you’re so ambitious and you want to be the best you can be, changing and trying too much at once is going to be overwhelming and you’re more likely to fail. If you’re trying to quit one thing, as well as trying to get to the gym at least twice a week and learn a new language it’s all going to get too much. Focus on one thing at a time until it just becomes part of your lifestyle and then move on to the next one.
Get Into A Routine
The best way to stick at anything new is get into a routine. You only have to do things a few times for a few weeks for your brain to get used to it and it’s not longer something you need to try at; it just comes natural. Once you’ve got into the habit of going to the gym after work every Monday and Thursday your brain will automatically stop you arranging to do other things then and it will just become part of your usual activities. If you’re trying to give something up it works the other way, do you only drink coffee at certain times in the office, do you only smoke in the car; if you can work out that routine you’ll find it easier to kick your habit.
Get Social
No matter what you’re trying to achieve the chances are you’re not alone, although you need to set your own specific goals they’ll be other people out there trying to achieve the same end goal. For the more common ones like quitting smoking or losing weight most large towns and cities will have regular groups for people looking to achieve a similar goal. If you’re heading down to the gym on a regular basis see if you’ve got a friend who would like to go with you – most gyms will offer a few friend passes for new members if you ask. If you can’t find anyone to go with you keep your eyes open when you’re there and you’ll soon spot people in a similar situation as yourself.
Jessica works for JTX Fitness
