Change your habits, change your lifestyle!

As your Health and Wellbeing partner, we are committed to giving you the tools to understand WHY and HOW you should be setting goals for 2023 to be your healthiest year yet.

A change in habits, leads to a change in lifestyle!

Changing lifestyle habbits isn’t easy, especially when these have been part of your life for a long time, however a change in your habits will become a change in your daily routine, and slowly, healthy habits become an alteration of your lifestyle.

Research shows there are four stages you may go through when changing your health habits or behavior. These four stages of changing a overall health behavior are listed below:

Stage 1: Contemplation: “I’m thinking about it.”

You might be in this stage if you have been considering change but are not quite ready to start believing that your health, energy level, or overall well-being will improve if you develop new habits, or not sure how you will overcome the roadblocks that may keep you from starting to change.

Stage 2: Preparation: “I have made up my mind to take action.”

You might be in this stage if you have decided that you are going to change and are ready to take actions and have set some specific goals that you would like to meet like improving your mental health, walking for 30 minutes at least 4 times a week and to spend less time on social media or to stop eating junk food and lose weight.

But you are not sure how new habits will help you overcome the roadblocks that are keeping you from change.

Stage 3: Maintenance: “I have a new routine.”

In this stage, you have become used to your changes and have kept them up for more than 6 months. Remember to start small and create long term goals.

You might be in this stage if your changes have become a normal part of your routine for more than 6 months. You have found creative ways to stick with your new routine, you may have had slip-ups and setbacks but you have been able to get past them and make progress.

Stage 4: Action: “I have started to make changes.”

In this final stage, you are acting on your plan and making the changes you set out to achieve.

You might be in this stage if you have been making eating, physical activity, and other behavior changes in the last 6 months or so, are adjusting to how it feels to eat healthier, be more active, and make other changes such as getting more sleep or reducing screen time and have been trying to overcome things that sometimes block your success

Identifying which stage you are in, is key to being able to progress through and obtain your goals. Once you have identified which stage you are in, and what is stopping you from progressing to the next stage, you will be able to continue building on your daily habits and routines to lead the healthy lifestyle you are looking for.