What does it take to build long-lasting habits?

If you are reading this you most likely have gone through a diet at some point in your life.

Maybe you were very successful with said diet.

Maybe you are about to start a new diet and came across this article.

Maybe you’ve tried multiple diets and you never seem to actually achieve long-lasting results.

Whatever your case, this article can change your outlook on how you go about your diet/exercise routine.

Let’s first start off by acknowledging what it takes to build long-lasting habits.

Let’s say you are new to this whole fitness thing. You are trying to move more and trying to eat more nutritiously.

Let’s say your old lifestyle was zero activity and eating high processed foods day in and day out.

Do you think it would be realistic to go from nothing to all of a sudden #fitnessislife?

Or

Do you think it would be more realistic to start off by showing up to the gym once or twice a week? Walking 30 mins a day and prioritizing fruits, veggies, protein, and water first. (You can always build up to more later, this is just a place to start)

This is what building long-lasting results look like. No quick fixes, no drastic changes, no all or nothing.

So now, we know what the difference between quick changes and building long-lasting changes are let’s chat further on other aspects of your life you will need to adapt.

Patience / Consistency: 

The two infamous words that we always hear.

These two words are used all the time in the fitness world but what do they truly mean and what does it look like in your day today?

Patience - Understanding that this journey will take wayyyyyyy longer than expected. If you’ve built a ‘bad’ habit that has lasted you 20 years, most likely it will take the same amount of time to unlearn said ‘bad’ habit. This is why building positive habits is so beneficial because you work on it day in and day out until it becomes a healthier habit for your life.

Consistency - Showing up even when you don’t want to. This could be showing up to the gym and skipping your workout to walk on the treadmill. This is what true consistency is, you will NOT always want to show up and this is normal. But, showing up and doing something is better than doing nothing at all.

So now that we know what patience and consistency really are let’s talk about the next steps you can take to build sustainable habits.

1. Write the habits that you want to achieve down and track that everyday say until it becomes second nature. With some of my clients I like to use a consistency calendar to really make them aware of what they are achieving in a week. (if you want to know what a consistency calendar is, message me privately)
   
2. Find sustainable habits that fit YOUR lifestyle, not your partners lifestyle, not your parents lifestyle, not your friends lifestyle and especially not your pets lifestyle 😉 . Let your lifestyle compliment the people in your life. For example: Let’s say your goal is to walk more, instead of going by yourself take your dog with you or ask a friend to go with you. This doesn’t just help you but helps / encourages the people you love.
3. Start slowwww and set ranges. Pick 1-3 things you want to change and work at it everyday. Example: Let’s say you only eat 1 serving of veggies in a day, instead of aiming for 5 right away, give yourself a range. “I want to eat 2-4 servings of vegetables a day”. This will be easier to adapt and make it more sustainable for your life.

Set SMART GOALS:

1. S - Specific - What do you want to achieve in said goal. Who, what and when will this be attained. (I want to lose 10lbs in 6 months, doing strength training 3 times a week for on hour on Monday, Wedesnday and Friday, tracking my calories being in a calorie deficit)
2. M - Measurable - How you will measure said goal? Will metrics of tracking or habits will be followed? (ex. Progress pictures and tracking strength in the gym)
3. A - Attainable - Is the goal reasonable to be attained. Losing 50lbs in one week is not attainable. Losing 50lbs in a year is!
4. R - Relevant - Is the goal worthwhile? Does the goal fit with said long term plans?
5. T - Timely - Said goal should have a timeline. Will it take me 6 months to lose 50lbs or 1 year?
6. Enjoy yourself - This one here is the most important in my opinion. Yes, some days won’t be easy, yes, some days you will feel like giving up, yes, some days you will be so tired that you’d rather eat chips / cookies all day, but this all part of the journey. If you make your goals unattainable where you can’t even enjoy yourself, than my friend, I am telling you this will be one miserable journey. Eat foods you enjoy, do exercises you enjoy, try different things to see if it works for you. At the end of the day, you will need to make sacrifices but the sacrifices don’t need to be so extreme where you hate your life while making change.
   I’ll leave you with this: 👉🏻There’s nothing more frustrating and defeating then reaching a goal just to lose it.👈🏻 If you go down the quick fix route this is what will happen to you, I’ve seen it time and time again.

   It’s finally time to make long-lasting change for YOU. No more self defeat and hatred, you are in control and you get to pick how your story plays out.

   Much love,

   Jer

   (BE)live in (YOU)rself

   Ps: If you read through this and still don’t know where to start reach out to me privately and we can figure out a plan that suits you and your lifestyle.