Healthy Habit Building
Building healthy habits can be challenging but we know that making these healthy choices can not only make us feel better and live longer but provide us with a better quality of life.
Maybe you’ve already attempted to lose weight, eat healthier, work out more frequently, get more sleep, reduce your stress knowing that it’s not easy. Research shows us that you can build, create and sustain this healthy lifestyle through habit, consistency and perseverance.
According to Dr. Susan Czajkowski, (2019), “It’s frustrating to experience setbacks when you’re trying to make healthy changes and reach a goal.” “The good news is that decades of research show that change is possible, and there are proven strategies you can use to set yourself up for success.”
There are lots of things that can impact your health and well-being right now and in the future. You can mitigate your risk for most common and preventable health issues, by making choices that are healthy.
Lots of things you do impact your health and quality of life, now and in the future. You can reduce your risk for the most common, costly, and preventable health problems—such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and obesity—by making healthy choices.
Benefits of Creating Healthy Habits
- Controlling your weight
- Improves your mood
- Ward off disease
- Boosts energy
- Improves longevity
How to Build Health Habits
Building healthy habits takes time, consistency and practice. The brain is slow to change because it’s hardwired to make do the same things over and over. When we challenge it to do something different it takes time. Below are the steps to building healthy habits as follows:
- Begin by identifying triggers and unhealthy patterns of behaviour. Plan by setting realistic, specific and timely goals. Write down the steps to help you to achieve them.
- Figure out ways to make healthier choices, easy choices. Take away any temptations, make a change in your surroundings. Whatever helps to make this easier for yourself.
- Ask for the help and support you need. If you think this is too much to lay on your friends and family, call us to help work with you. Sometimes you need a qualified professional counsellor to assist you in making these changes.
- Fill the void with healthy activities like exercise, immersing yourself in your favourite hobby, spending time with friends or family.
- Write down and keep track of your progress so you can stay focused and catch any issues that might come up.
- What future benefits are there to staying focused and on track. Keep this in mind.
- Ensure you reward yourself by giving yourself a health reward when you’ve achieved a small goal or a milestone. This can be like a massage, some personal time, a manicure; etc.
- Try to be patient, remembering that patience is critical as you make changes which time time. Sometimes setbacks happen, just keep moving forward. Focusing on progress and not perfection.
If you or someone you know should need help with learning how to build healthy habits, please contact us at admin@ovcs.ca.
