Whether your goal is to lose weight or improve your health, you need to build healthy habits to achieve it.
Habits are like a double edge sword that can improve or ruin your life.
If you build bad habits like drinking all the time or eating junk food, it will be difficult for you to lose weight and become healthy.
On the other hand, if you can build healthy habits like working out regularly and eating right, it will be easier for you to build your dream body (1).
Truth be told, building healthy habits is a not walk in the park. Without help, you will likely go in circles and make very little or no progress.
This article contains the intricate information you need to build healthy habits that will improve your life and help you become a better version of yourself.
Why it is difficult to build healthy habits
Building healthy habits have never been easy, and it probably never will.
Most of the time, we can’t get our self to do the things that will help us become healthy and fit.
For example:
- We know that we need to work out a few times a week to lose weight.
- We know that we have to cut out junk food from our diet and eat right to become healthy.
The reasons why we can’t stick with these things for more than a week or two is as follows:
- Don’t know how to build habits.
- Are busy.
- Rely too much on motivation and willpower.
- Tend to bite more than we can chew.
- Expect things to be easy.
- Expect quick results.
To scale through some of the above challenges, you must be focused. Being focused means building one habit at a time.
People who try to build multiple habits often end up overwhelmed.
Knowing Your “Why”
Before taking steps to build a habit, it is wise that you think deeply about the reasons why you want to build it.
Knowing your “why” will help you go the extra mile and motivate you to keep pushing when you feel like giving up.
If you can’t think of a good reason why you want to build healthy habits, it will be difficult for you to make any progress.
For example, if you want to get in shape because someone told you to, you will likely fail when things become difficult, or you get busier.
After knowing your “why”, the next thing you should do is to turn the habit you plan to build or your resolutions into a bigger cause that is worth achieving.
For example, instead of making a resolution to go to the gym, tell yourself that you are working out to build a new body so that you can start dating again.
If the habit you want to build centers around eating healthy, then you should tell yourself this- “I want to eat healthy so that I can look better in clothes or fit into my wedding dress.”
Try to be as creative as possible and build your resolutions and habits around things that you really want (2).
Ways to sustain healthy habits
After narrowing down the one habit you want to build and knowing your “why”, the next thing you should do is to learn how to make a habit stick (3).
Visualize the results you want
Most people are usually very excited and super motivated when they start building a new habit or working on a goal.
But after a while, they usually become less motivated and start to dread doing the things that will draw them closer to their goals.
When this happens, you should stop thinking about the actions you have to take. Instead, you should think deeply about the outcome or the future you are creating.
For example, if you don’t feel like going to the gym, think about how you will look, feel, and even the compliments you will get if you don’t give up.
Doing this may motivate you to do the right thing even when you don’t feel like it.
Realize that you won’t be able to achieve your goals overnight
Your health and fitness level isn’t something you can improve overnight, regardless of how hard you work (4). These things take time.
So, if you are not patient, you won’t go far.
Regardless of the habits you are trying to build, you should start small and work your way up.
Trying to do too much is only going to set you up for failure.
For example, if you are trying to build habits that will help you lose weight; your routine shouldn’t look like this: I will go to the gym 5 times a week, run 5 miles daily, and follow a keto and paleo diet.
Instead, it should look like this- I will go for a 10 minutes’ walk a few times a week and add more vegetables to my diet.
As time goes on, you can increase your efforts and do more things that will draw you closer to your goals.
Take actions that matter
Of course, you have the freedom to do whatever you want to achieve your goals and build any habits. But, if you want to achieve the results you so badly desire quicker, you should think carefully before taking any action (5).
If you want to lose weight, you may want to build a habit of parking your car a good distance away from where you are going.
While doing this may help you burn some calories, it may not draw you closer to your overall goal.
An alternative strategy is to narrow down a long term goal you can gradually work towards.
For example, you can set a goal to workout 5 hours a week (1 hour daily). To achieve this goal, you first have to join a gym and workout once a week for 10 to 15 minutes, and then 20 minutes twice a week, and so on.
Setting a goal like this will create room for you to grow and develop gradually.
Healthy habits that can help you lose weight
If your goal is to lose weight and become healthy, you should consider including the following habits into your routine.
Start your day with a high protein breakfast
As you likely know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
So, if you skip it, you will likely overeat later on. Even more, you may start to crave unhealthy foods.
According to one study in adolescent girls, eating a high protein breakfast can reduce cravings for junk food (6).
Besides helping you eat less, consuming more protein can help you lose weight and build muscles.
Below are some high protein foods you should consider eating in the morning.
- Eggs
- Chia seeds
- Greek yogurt
- Nuts
- Cottage cheese
Pack your lunch
Setting aside some time to prepare what you will eat later in the day will make it difficult for you to eat out of your diet.
One large study with more than 40,000 test subjects found that meal planning can lower the risk of obesity (7).
Another study found that people who eat home-food meals 5 times weekly are less likely to become obese (8).
Set a day aside to plan and prepare the meals you will eat for lunch during the week and store them.
Sleep longer
Squeezing out time to get more sleep will help you lose weight and increase your physical and mental performance.
Several studies have shown that lack of sleep or sleep deprivation is linked to weight gain and increased appetite (9) (10).
One small study found that people who aren’t getting up to 6 hours of sleep will likely consume an average of 500 more calories than those who slept for 6 hours and above (11).
So, if you are really serious about losing weight, you should try to get at least 6 hours of quality sleep each night.
Drink a lot of water
Drinking a glass of water in the morning will go a long way in helping you lose weight.
As can be seen in this study, drinking 500 ml of water can increase metabolism by 30%.
Another study in overweight women found that drinking 34 ounces of water daily can help one lose up to 4 pounds over one year (12).
Drinking more water can also help you consume fewer calories.
One study in older adults shows that dirking 500 ml of water in the morning can reduce the food we consume by 13% (13).
The bottom line on how to build healthy habits to lose weight
To achieve your fitness goals quicker, you need to resist the urge to do what everybody else is doing.
Instead of following a fad diet or an extreme workout program, you should build a few healthy habits that will help you lose weight.
If you can stick with some of these habits for a month or two, they will become part of you. In fact, you won’t have to push yourself to do them.
