5 Steps to Take to Recommit to Your Healthy Living Goals

“Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou 

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Lately I’ve been thinking about goal setting, and how sometimes we have the tendency to set goals and start off strong, but then get distracted by old habits and the busyness of life, and perhaps never quite get there.

I know so many people who set healthy living goals, but then wind up spending years of their lives feeling guilty and unworthy because they have yet to be able to crush those goals…

Did you resolve to lose unwanted weight, but have given up on your goal after frustration with the scale? 

Did you promise to fit in regular workouts this year, but haven’t exercised as much as you’d planned?

Did you commit yourself to cooking healthy at home a lot more often, but fell back into your normal routine of ordering and eating out more than you want to? 

Did you pledge to listen to your body & honor its needs intuitively, but have fallen into the same old patterns of unhealthy behavior that you’ve struggled with your whole life? 

If you answered yes to any of these, I’ve got news for you: Many of us have been there, and there’s no reason to get discouraged.

Rather than harp on what you haven’t accomplished, I encourage you to follow these steps to recommit yourself to your healthy living goals:

1.) Set a clearly defined, attainable goal. For instance, you just aren’t going to go from never working out in your life to running a marathon in 1 month, but you certainly can go from couch potato to being able to complete a 5K in a month with some work.

2.) Write your goal down… and tell people about it! Share your goal with your loved ones. Making it public will hold you more accountable in working towards your goal, and will give your family and friends a chance to support you and maybe even join in.

3.) Write down exactly what you need to do to reach your goal. For instance, if you want to lose 10 pounds,  you’ll need to burn more throughout the day and take in less – more specifically, you’ll need to burn an excess of 35,000 calories. How can you get there? Figure it out and write down the things you’ll need to do. If you need help figuring out how to get there, reach out to a pro like a health coach or personal trainer, or even just talk to a loved one who is more knowledgeable than you are and can provide guidance.

4.) JUST START! A year from now you’ll wish you had started, so why not start right now? There’s never going to be a perfect time and life is always going to be busy. The earlier you get moving on your goal, the faster you can attain it.

5.) Do what you need to do to stay motivated. Surround yourself with people that inspire you and support you in your goal, find daily affirmations that move you to keep in mind, or watch a motivational video every morning. Whatever you need to do to keep that motivation up, do it. Consistency is the key to reaching your goal, whatever it may be.

My main healthy living goal right now is to get back to my pre-baby weight. I wanted to reach it by the time my baby is 3 months old, which is in about 10 days. I have just 3 pounds to go but I don’t know that I’ll get there exactly by the day I was striving for. For a few weeks there I kind of overwhelmed by baby, work, and everything else and didn’t put 100% in with my diet, so now I’m recommitting to reaching my goal weight in November. I’ve lost about 28 pounds since pregnancy, and I know that another 3 pounds can and will come off very soon with a bit of hard work!

Quote of the day:

“You can’t make positive choices for the rest of your life without an environment that makes those choices easy, natural and enjoyable.”  – Deepak Chopra

Tell me.. What goal are you working towards right now?