Healthy living–is there anything more idealized in our culture and yet more difficult to achieve? One of the barriers to our health is that, while thereâs no shortage of helpful experts communicating what we should do, healthy living is extremely personal.
What works for your best friend, your coworker, and your mother-in-law might not work for you. The ideal option, then, is to create a customized healthy living plan, but how can you do that when youâre not even sure where to start?
Take a deep breath, relax, and keep reading, because weâre sharing our best tricks, tools, and tips to guide you through the process of creating your own customized healthy living plan, one that will help you reach your goals without depriving yourself, losing your identity, or making you miserable.
Image via Pulse
Step One: Assess
While your first inclination upon trying to create a customized healthy living plan may be to enroll at your local gym, that is not the best place to start. Instead, weâre going to make a plan. Weâre willing to bet, in fact, that if youâve tried and failed at New Yearâs resolutions, weight loss goals, or other objectives, itâs because you either didnât make a plan, or your plan was comprehensive and realistic enough.
The first step in your plan, however, is to assess your current situation and assessment. A good step here would be to visit your doctor for a physical. Are you healthy overall or do you have areas to work on? Itâs not uncommon for individuals, especially as we start to age, to experience fatigue, stiff or injured muscles, weight gain, difficulty sleeping, or muscle weakness.
Your doctor can also help by pointing out red flags, such as high cholesterol.
Another great tool during the assessment process is good âol fashioned dreaming! Think about where you want to be in ten years–and who you want to be! Think about what kind of legacy you want to leave. Think about what has made you happy in the past and consider areas in your life–such as work, community, and so forth–where youâre not happy.
This process shouldnât happen in an hour or two; instead, it can take up to a month. You can talk it through with friends and family, but try to avoid people who will be negative or critical during this time.
Assessment is all about stepping back and taking a look at where you are and where you want to be, but itâs not about judging yourself or your past choices.
Step Two: Make a Plan
Goals are powerful things; in fact, a Harvard Business Study found that MBA students who wrote their goals down upon graduation (a mere 3% of graduates had done so) were a whopping ten times more successful than the 97% of graduates who hadnât.
Certainly, the lesson here is to write your goals down, but the even more important lesson is to simply have goals in the first place!
However, unless youâre one of those rare people whoâs great at setting (and reaching) goals, weâre willing to bet that youâve never learned how to set the right kind of goals. Thatâs about to change, though!
We love the S.M.A.R.T method for goal setting. âSmartâ is an acronym that helps you keep five important principles in mind when youâre developing your goals. Hereâs what each letter stands for:
S is for Specific
Saying âI want to live a healthy lifestyleâ sounds good, but itâs too vague to make a plan around. Instead, identify what healthy lifestyle means to you, and answer the five Wâs:
- Why do I want to do this?
- Who is involved in me reaching my goal?
- Where is my goal located or where are my resources?
- Which resources do I have or which circumstances do I need to keep in mind?
- What do  I want to make happen?
M is for Meaningful
If your goal isnât crystal clear, your why wonât be clear either, and psychologists now understand that your why is perhaps the most important part of building a customized healthy living plan.
For example, wanting to lose weight is largely unhelpful, but wanting to decrease your risk of heart disease and strengthen your endurance so that you can play with your kids will help you stick to your plan of action, even when it gets tough.
A is for Attainable
Itâs vital that you consider your resources potential obstacles when considering how to attain your goal. For example, if your goal is to have Beyonceâs body, youâre going to have to carve out considerable time into your daily schedule to work out. Do you have that time? If not, what is your plan for making that time?
This can sometimes but a gut-check, but itâs an important part of the process of building a customized healthy living plan that works!
R is for Results-Based
Another word for results-based is âmeasurable.â Essentially, youâre trying to find out how you can track your progress. How will you know youâre getting closer to your goal? Everyone fails, and itâs important to understand how to deal with that, but itâs also important that youâre able to see some kind of overall progression.
Remember our goal of decreasing your risk of heart disease and increasing endurance so you can play with your children? Progress might look like being able to play with them for longer periods of time, without needing to stop for a break. Itâs important to track your time over the course of your goal-reaching period to help you stay motivated!
T is for Timely
Speaking of time, when you do you want to have achieved your goals by? We recommend a long period when it comes to creating a customized healthy living plan. Afterall, youâre trying to make a lifestyle shift, and that, quite simply, takes time.
Donât give yourself a month or two. Instead, we recommend making a two or three-year plan with quarterly progression goals. You might, for example, use the first half of your first year to use weight loss plans to start losing weight and use the second half of your first year to focus on learning to become a meal planner using healthy eating plans.
Small steps that you take are always better than huge steps you donât take.
Step Three: Change How You See Failure
Thereâs a famous scene from the kidâs animated movie called âMeet the Robinsons.â In it, Lewis creates an invention that fails spectacularly. Instead of mocking, berating, or criticising him, the whole family bursts into wild cheers and applause.
This movie characterâs family, you see, had learned the value of failure. While many of us are terrified to start something new because we think weâll be bad at it or think weâll never meet our goals, the problem with that attitude is that we always stay where we are, ultimately becoming stuck.
A step towards a healthy lifestyle using your newly-created customized healthy living plan might be just one step, but every step you take is still better than not starting at all. Instead of fearing failure or âfalling off the wagon,â plan for those times when youâll be too tired to hit the gym or when you canât help running through the drive-thru.
Plan alternate workouts at home or teach yourself to choose healthier options at fast food places. Or, simply choose not to beat yourself up. Failing doesnât make you a failure if you choose to try again the next day! Plus, if youâre smart, youâll take advantage of the lessons you learned and be better prepared next time.
Step Four: Find Support
Our last step might, in fact, be the most important! Over and over again, we find that people who have a strong support network, who give voice to their goals and are working towards a common goal with other people, are far more likely to achieve them than the people who struggle to find support and accountability.
Whether itâs an exercise support group, a friend who wants to lose weight as well, or just your whole family coming together to rally around a common cause, finding people who can help you reach your goal is clutch.
What Are You Waiting For?
If youâve been dragging your feet about creating a customized healthy living plan, nowâs the time to assess your circumstances, make a plan using the S.M.A.R.T. goal setting technique we taught you, learn to overcome your fear of failure and start finding an incredible, supportive community.
Trust us, you always regret not starting, but you never regret trying. Letâs get moving; the new, healthier you awaits!
Feature images via Eliminate Pain. Stay Health. Perform Better
