Are you looking to start 2022 with healthy habits that will actually STICK all the way through the year? Some simple tips can help you achieve this! Here are our top five that will help you in making long lasting, healthy habits in 2022.
Plan, plan, plan!
Make a plan and watch it happen! Without question, planning is critical to making healthy habits stick! Being organised and diarising your exercise, shopping, cooking and prepping is the number one step towards success. There is no way you can succeed without a plan. So grab your calendar and focus on penciling in everything from meal prep to training sessions.
Now is as good a time as any to grab your goals and devise a plan to achieve them before they get away from you for another year. Your first step here is to reassess where your health is now and where you want to be. Generally, people don’t achieve the healthy habits they set for themselves because they don’t put in place a practical plan to achieve them!
Also read: How To Set Achievable Goals
Workout With Mates!
Crawling out of bed before sunrise day in and day out gets hard. So what can you do to make it that little bit easier? Joining forces and exercising with friends can be the perfect solution! It’ll give you an extra spring in your step when you lace your sneakers and head out the door each morning.
Committing to a team or meeting a friend for a run on a regular basis will help you stay on track. Find people who are interested in health and wellbeing. Perhaps someone at work, a neighbour, a family member or an old friend who lives and breathes a healthy lifestyle. These supporters will become motivators and will promote consistency and perhaps some friendly competition.
Companionship and/or teammates will be there for you, even when you don’t feel like moving! There’s no better feeling than setting a goal and then smashing it! Training with a friend will help to increase your focus and get you there together. You don’t have to have identical exercise goals, but commit to your individual objectives and help each other achieve them together!
Get Stretching!
Stretching is a perfect way to help push those healthy habits to stick! It’s a great way to give back to your body and spend some time between tough training schedules! Following a basic stretch sequence each day or even a class such as yoga is a great way to loosen those muscles.
Stretching also offers a huge range of advantages to both our physical and mental health. So putting aside a little time each day to unwind can build a strong and flexible body as a whole. Try adding your flexibility work to the end of a regular workout as a cool down. Warming up loosens muscle, prepares you for performance, minimises the risk of injury and should always be done ahead of any workout!
Also read: 5 Daily Habits To Help You Ring In 2022
Keep Your Mind In Check
One of the biggest hurdles for most people wanting to stick to healthy habits is what goes on between their ears. Yep, we can be our own worst enemies, telling ourselves things that simply aren’t true! “I can’t do this,” “I’m not good enough,” “I’ve always failed at losing weight,” “I might as well resign myself to always being this way,” or even “Life’s all downhill from here.”
Do any of these ring true for you? Or maybe you have your own devilish little tapes that repeat themselves constantly in your head. It’s important to recognise that none of the negative things we tell ourselves are facts! Start changing your mindset and build yourself up with positive affirmations.
Consistency is Key!
Keep going, keep pushing, and don’t give up. The more you do things, the more likely they will become habits. If you exercise, write in your journal and keep up with positive thinking, these little tasks will become habits.
With consistency, you’re able to focus on the task and repeat it every single day. Showing up is the hardest part. After that, you just have to get it done!
These small easy tips can help you integrate healthy habits, not just for 2022, but for life! Build good habits and slowly get rid of bad ones. Before you know it, you’ll be reaching all your health and fitness goals!
The next round of 12WBT starts soon – join now and get a head start!
