5 Tips to Make Your Healthy Living Goals Stick

Today we have a guest post from one of our favorite health and wellness bloggers Madeline from Food, Fitness and Family. She is always sharing great tips from her life as a fit mom-on-the-go. We are so grateful to have her pass on some of her wisdom to us. 

We are a couple of weeks into 2013 now and often times this is when people start slacking on some of their New Year’s resolutions.  When approaching a new year, it’s easy to make grandiose claims to the changes you are going to make.  Some of the most set New Year’s resolutions involve exercising more and leading a healthier lifestyle.  People start tacking their goals with gumption and then start slowing down until they fall back into old habits.  However, by taking a few things into consideration, you can help make those goals a reality.

1.  Make SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.  By keeping these things in mind when setting goals, you stand a better chance of achieving those goals.

2.  Be Consistent

It takes 21 days to make a habit stick so it is super important to be consistent when approaching your goals.  Try eating clean for a whole

3.  Don’t Over Do It

Completely eliminating things you enjoy from your life can be one of your biggest leaps towards failure.  If your goal is to lose weight it’s ok to eat a cupcake every now and then.  If you take the sweets away completely relapse and binging can happen.  Instead, practice portion control and reward yourself occasionally.  Same thing goes for exercising.  If consistent exercise hasn’t been a part of your routine, set a goal of getting out there 3-4 times a week instead of 5-6.  You can always add days on as if becomes habit.

4.  Find Your Support System

For me, having a husband who is as into healthy living as I am makes achieving my goals a lot easier.  We do it together and support each other along the way.  Find the person in your life that can help you towards your goals and lean on them for support.  The healthy living blog community is also a great source of inspiration and support.

5.  Reward Yourself

And I don’t mean with food.  I mean with some pampering, like a pedicure or a massage as you accomplish something.  Or a mini shopping spree for new clothes when you reach your goal weight.  Something that helps make getting there even more fun and lets you relish in your achievement when you get there.

How do you make your healthy habits stick? Name your tricks below.

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