Many of us begin September with new goals and fresh determination. A new working year after summer holidays and a more relaxed warm season begins as children go back to school, studies resume, or we return after a longer break.
What are your new goals? To exercise, start eating healthier, move more, read more books or spend more time on yourself? And how can you actually achieve them?
Here are a few steps to help you build new habits and learn to enjoy them:
Plan. If you want to add a new habit to your routine, we recommend setting a specific time for the new activity and sticking to it. For example, if you have decided to start reading books, choose a time when you will read every day and decide how many pages you want to read. You can start with 10 pages every evening before going to bed. Over time, you will notice that this action becomes a habit. The same applies to other goals — plan the time you will dedicate to reaching your goal until it eventually becomes part of your routine. Find time to exercise, plan your weekly menu and prepare meals.
Explore. Find forms of activity that feel enjoyable to you. Think you do not like exercising? Maybe you just have not found the type of sport you enjoy yet. To start liking and building new habits, we recommend trying as many different forms of a certain activity as possible. For example, find a book genre you enjoy — maybe it is not scientific literature, but detective stories? Think healthy eating is not tasty? Try to discover dishes you actually like. Maybe you do not enjoy salads, but you love stews — make them from healthy, natural ingredients. And instead of a slice of cake, try a muffin with oats and nut butter.
Do not punish yourself. Do not forbid yourself pleasures and do not punish yourself if you slip away from your goal. Chose TV instead of exercise today? That is okay — days like that are needed too. Just do not give up and continue your routine the next day. Think that once you start exercising, you can no longer eat burgers or cake? Not true! Enjoy them and do not punish yourself for stepping away from healthy eating sometimes. Healthy eating does not mean banning fast food or giving up chocolate completely. Healthy eating = balance. Enjoy delicious food, and if you eat something less healthy, move your body and do not beat yourself up.
Track your progress. You can count the pages or books you have read, monitor your workout results — the weights you lift, your endurance or changes in your body shape. When working towards your goals, capture your starting point and observe how you progress. Once you jump into a new routine, you might not even notice how your mental or physical well-being improves while following new habits. That is why it feels so good to look back and see how much you have grown from where you started.
And we can offer you support in staying committed to your new nutrition goals and discovering Žalias Žingsnis programs that can help you find the right path and build a healthier relationship with food.
Žalia svajonė — the most popular program for those who want to quickly refresh their body. This 5-day program can help you reset and become a great first step towards building new eating habits.
Pirmas žingsnis — this program was created together with trainer Marta and can help you build an exercise routine. “Pirmas žingsnis” is your way into movement. All exercises can be done at home, with no gym equipment needed — only a water bottle and a mat.
Which program will you choose to build new nutrition and lifestyle habits?
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