With the season of fall and more holidays arriving it is important to be aware of lifestyle habits or patterns. It is also beneficial to create healthy habits to make any changes easier. Making healthier choices usually makes a person feel better and can even improve the life span! Maybe there has already been an attempt of healthier eating, sleep, exercise, or other positive habits. There is science behind making these attempts more realistic. When we set our goals, any set back can cause frustration and make it more difficult. There are a lot of actions that can negatively impact the quality of life and health. Healthier choices can potentially reduce the risk for heart problems such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

It is important to know your habits. Have self-awareness of regular things such as morning and bedtime routines. Acknowledge your repetitive behaviors. These behaviors make you feel good and the positive feeling affects the brain in ways that cause it to create habits that can be difficult to change. The first step to changing behavior is acknowledging that behavior. Find the triggers of that unhealthy habit in order to determine how to change it.

Once you are aware of the unhealthy habits- make a plan. Start with small, realistic goals and be specific on the actions you will take to achieve them. Ideally, you want to attempt to make the healthy choice the easy choice. This theory makes the whole proves easier. Decide on what you will need in your life to make these choices easier and your goal achievable. One tip for healthy eating is to remove temptation from the household. Stock up on healthy food and portion out serving sizes to avoid over indulging. Another trick is to allow for people you are close to, to become involved. With support and another person to experience the struggle it makes the process easier. Another important aspect is to plan for obstacles or setbacks. This helps make them easier to handle if they do happen.

Turn the negative thoughts into positive goals. It is always great to make a healthy decision and feel better after. Stay on track. Some people find it better to keep a record so they can see their progress up close. Some people track their eating decisions, exercise, and sleep habits on programs that help keep track. Staying on track is important and also related to self-control. The more self-control is practiced the more it improves.

Make actions based on the understanding of the future that is affected. Over eating, substance abuse, drinking, or even shopping can stem from a lack of understanding the affect of that decision on the future. People sometimes undervalue how the future can be changed by current decisions. It is important to be able to postpone the immediate gratification and it helps by imagining future positive experiences.

Patience is a must when trying to break habits and create new ones. Things might not go as you imagined but that’s ok. Change is a process and that is important to keep in mind while trying to reach future goals.