Healthy habits are the best habits

Have you been thinking about improving your health? Why not create a healthy habit or goal instead of a bad habit? It may not be as hard as you think to make the first step toward a healthier you. Experts say it only takes about 21 days to develop a habit; everyone should be able to stick with a health goal for that long. What goal are you going to work on: drinking water instead of soda, eating one more fruit or vegetable every day, walking three days a week for at least 20 minutes, or getting one more serving of dairy every day? There are several key factors in deciding what health habit or goal you want to work on to ensure success: • You need to be motivated to make a life-style change. • You should only select one area of your health to work on at a time. Selecting too many things makes it difficult to achieve success. • It is best to choose a healthy goal that is your own, not something that others want you to make or change. • You need to have time to work on the goal; if you are busy at work or home, you may need to choose a smaller goal to start with. • You need to have the necessary knowledge to make the change. Some things are easier to work on. For example, if your goal involved working out at a fitness center, you may need assistance from the staff. Find out if that service is offered for free or if you will have to pay for it. • It is much easier to achieve success with a health goal or habit if you have support from family or friends. Think about making a health change that others might want to work on too. Such as asking co-workers if everyone would like to start bringing in healthy snacks instead of morning donuts for office meetings, or purchasing bottled water instead of making a pot of coffee. • Remember that you will need to make a few sacrifices along the way; are you willing to do that? Once you have decided on the healthy habit that you are going to develop, set a plan for success. Be sure to decide on something that is measurable and achievable. Going from couch potato to running a marathon in a month would be unachievable, but setting a goal where you walk three days a week for 30 minutes would probably be something that most of us would have success with. Once you decide on an achievable goal, write it down and decide a few places to post it to remind you. Think about places where you will see it everyday: like your bathroom mirror, your office desk or locker, a cupboard or the refrigerator at home, or maybe on the dashboard of your car. Now that you have decided on a health habit or goal to work on, it may be a good idea to use a log to track your successes. A small notebook is inexpensive and easy to carry with you. There are also many on-line logs that work for tracking exercise and other health habits. America On The Move has a number of materials on their website that may be of assistance as you work toward your health habit, go to http://aom2.americaonthemove.org/ to get more information. If you selected a goal that you were motivated to achieve, by the end of a month you should be on your way to developing a healthy habit, instead of a bad habit. If you run into a few stumbling blocks, don't give up - see if you need to modify your goal or break it down into smaller parts and keep at it. (Written by: Lisa Barlage, BS, MS. Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, Ross Count.)[[In-content Ad]]