How to Create Healthy New Behaviors Step by Step

By Lizzie Streit, MS, RDN, LD 

Starting a health and wellness journey can be daunting. That’s why it’s so important to take small steps to reach your goals, instead of just focusing on the end game.  

Take advantage of the start of a new year to reflect on your health status and focus on a few areas of improvement on which you can build over time. A new year is a great opportunity to leave the negative mindset of 2020 behind and embrace 2021 with a refreshed positivity. 

To help you focus on creating new healthy behaviors this year, we’ve put together a few ideas for how to start and make progress.  

1. Start with the lowest hanging fruit, such as adding more veggies to your diet. 

Take a second to think about the most realistic healthy behavior that you can adopt. It’s helpful to focus more on what you can add to your diet, rather than on what you can subtract. For many people, eating more veggies is a good initial step, especially since it’s easy to stick to your familiar meals while adding vegetables. 

Add a handful of spinach to your egg scramble for breakfast, or sneak in some shredded zucchini or carrots to oatmeal. At lunch, have a few carrot sticks with your sandwich. And for dinner, eat a small salad before the main course.  

2. After you get used to eating veggies at meals, work on water intake. 

Drinking water is so important for everyday bodily functions, but it can also boost metabolism and help with weight loss goals. Just like tip #1, increasing water intake doesn’t feel restrictive or overly complicated.  

A good place to start is to keep a full water bottle in your room to drink when you wake up. During the day, move the water bottle to your desk, so you can sip water during meetings and while you type emails. If you don’t like plain water, add fruit or herbs to boost the flavor or give flavored seltzers a try. 

3. Next, gradually increase physical activity. 

With all the veggies and water you’re consuming, you may start to notice that you have more energy. Now, it’s time to think about cultivating your next healthy behavior: movement. If you’re just starting out, try a short walk around the neighborhood before work or over your lunch break. Work your way up from two walks a week to three and so on. Eventually, you can start incorporating more intense forms of exercise, such as jogging, workout classes, or weight lifting. To stay consistent with your physical activity, block off time for exercise on your calendar, just like you would for any important meeting or event. 

4. Finally, work on your sleep hygiene. 

Getting enough high quality sleep is key to managing stress, maintaining weight loss, and overall feeling your best. After incorporating tips #1 to 3, you may find that you’re already getting better sleep. If there’s still room to improve, work on avoiding screen time an hour before bed, adjust the temperature in your room to fit your comfort level, and limit sugar, alcohol, and caffeine in the evening. 

Notes from Healthy For Life Meals: Get started with one of our plans today, and let us do the planning and cooking for you! Our 1200 calorie, 1500 calorie, and 2000 calorie-per-day menus give you the freedom to focus on cultivating healthy behaviors in other areas of your life, all while you enjoy fresh, delicious food that will keep you energized to achieve your goals.