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13 Ways to Develop New Healthy Habits

January 21, 2022

Changing life-long habits isn’t always easy. Sometimes it can feel like wasted effort, presuming you’ll make changes for a few days, then fall right back into your old, comfortable habits.

That’s completely understandable, especially when the bulk of your time is probably invested in your job, your kids, keeping up with home maintenance -- basically, never allowing any time to invest in yourself. But there is hope for you yet!

No matter what phase of life you’re in, you can develop new, healthy habits by making small adjustments, just one step at a time.

A Little Help Goes a Long Way

Developing new, healthy habits takes time. Sometimes, you may want to just throw in the towel. To help improve your success rate, it’s a good idea to find ways to hold yourself accountable.

Depending on the new habits you want to develop, you might want to make it a family affair. When the people you live with are trying to achieve the same goal together, everybody wins! If the changes you seek are more personal -- like getting more exercise, for example -- find a friend, or a few, to be your accountability partner.

The best investment you will make is to invest in yourself. That’s why we’re delivering these 13 tips to help you develop new, healthy habits that actually work:

 1. Go to Bed Earlier

Sleep hygiene is super important and so is getting on a sleep schedule, so you fall asleep at the same time every day. If you are having trouble falling and staying asleep, try going to bed 30 minutes earlier. You can also take a supplement like  Ashwagandha Gummies that help to regulate your mood and sleep patterns.

2. Start Small

Begin with a very small habit you want to change, like avoiding snacks between meals and make a small change at a time. For instance, if you tend to snack between lunch and dinner and at bedtime, try removing the snack from your diet during one of those times for a couple of weeks then add both times after a couple of weeks. It could take anywhere from three weeks to three months to change a behavior for good, so if you slip up, don’t be too hard on yourself. Just get back in the game and try again.

3. Stack Your Habits

You can tie an existing habit to an old one but make sure they are both healthy. Group small activities into a routine. For example, if you want to start taking daily vitamins, place them by your toothbrush so you’ll be more likely to take them in the morning. Doing this helps you to remember your routine better. Basically, you will be retraining your brain to do two habits at once, consistently and without having to think about it too much. You can also add Omega 3 plus DHA gummies, which help to support brain health and memory.

4. Make it a Daily Practice

James Clear, author of The New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits, says it’s important to have a daily routine. He says there are four stages to forming a habit which are cue, craving, response and reward. The cue is when your brain is triggered to begin a behavior. The craving is the motivational force behind every habit. The response is the habit you perform that can be a thought or action, and then the response delivers the reward.

So, the brain becomes conditioned to go through the steps to receive the reward. Hello Pavlov, looks like you never went out of style.

5. Floss Right After Dinner

First of all, let’s agree that regular flossing is crucial. Trust me, I just had my teeth cleaned and scraped this week, the right half of my mouth on Wednesday and the left side on Thursday. Both times it required extensive numbing, lots of painful shots! Lots of plaque buildup because I slacked on flossing the past few months. Flossing regularly will help avoid pockets around your teeth, which translates into bacteria buildup, and gradually loss of bone until one day in your life you are missing teeth. You don’t want that, so floss!

Now here’s the tip, straight from my hygienists: Floss right after dinner. Why? Because if you wait until the end of the night, there’s a good chance you’re going to be flopped into a recliner or sofa after Netflix shows and drowsy and maybe have to let the dog out before you want to crawl into bed. Just get it done before relaxing. Morning’s OK, but nighttime is better. Another tip, keep the plastic floss sticks in your car and do some flossing while in traffic. You’re welcome.

6. Make it Easy

Anything worth doing and doing well, especially changing a behavior, can be difficult and stressful but you can succeed if you break it down into simple steps then gradually ramp up if you need to. Let’s say you want to get better quality sleep. One simple thing you can do to help you achieve that goal is to turn off your phone and remove any electronics from the bedroom, since they emit frequencies that can be disruptive to sleep patterns. You can also develop a nighttime routine to help your mind and body know that it’s time to settle down.

7. Be Sure to Reward Yourself

Small incentives on a regular basis are super important to building healthy new habits. Try bringing yourself out on a “me” date to the movies or a favorite restaurant or spending an afternoon doing your favorite hobby or take yourself on a hike or to the beach. Whatever reward you choose, make sure it’s not counterproductive to the goals you are trying to achieve. For example, avoid treating yourself to a heaping mound of ice cream if your goal is to cut back on desserts. Instead, treat yourself to a more conservative reward like a cup of fro-yo or single scoop cone.

8. Train Your Brain

“I think therefore I am,” isn’t just an old cliche. Scientific studies have shown that doing repetitive tasks on a schedule are actually regulated by certain parts of the brain. That’s why it’s so important to train your brain to do certain activities at certain times of the day. Mental rehearsals and self-pep talks can help you get motivated to succeed while you are developing a new thought pattern. Envision yourself performing a certain action like eating a healthy snack instead of going for the ice cream. The easier choice isn’t always the one we would make at first, but it can be the best choice and produce results that are worth the wait.

9. Use Apps

There are hundreds of tracking apps out there, especially when it comes to creating new, healthy habits, like eating better or going to the gym. It can take a bit to get to know which ones are best suited for you, so be sure to do the research and see what people are saying about their success with the app. You want to make sure you are happy and getting your desired results especially if you are planning to pay a monthly fee.

10.Track Your Progress

Tracking your progress with a journal or an app is an excellent way to set and stick to your goals. The first thing to do when you are trying to develop new, healthy habits is to be mindful and aware of the habit you want to change, and your reason for wanting the change. Make note of that in a journal and keep tabs on how things are going.

11. Visualize Your Future

Manifesting your desired outcome seems to be a popular thing to do these days and for good reason. Our decisions begin in the mind and become manifested into reality. So, if you visualize the outcome you desire, then set your sights on that outcome and imagine it as if it already happened. Sometimes, creating a vision board, or even just putting a picture of your end goal in a highly visible spot, can help keep you motivated and manifesting.

13. Be Patient

If you slip up or fall short of your daily or weekly goal, don’t beat yourself up over it. Give yourself some grace and be patient, knowing your desired results will materialize if you just keep chipping away, little by little and one step at a time.

13. Turn Off Devices at Night

You need those quality Z’s to perform efficiently during the day and to maintain maximum health. One great habit to start right now is to resist the urge to reach for your phone in the middle of the night. It’ll just stimulate your brain neurons. Keep it out of reach, even better. Keep your room cool and dark. Start a healthy habit of taking care of your sleep.

Browse all of our posts here at Havasu, because omg do we have a lot more tips than this for making healthy habits. Go ahead, check it out and improve yourself.

While most people have no problem identifying what they want, it’s getting there that’s a challenge. Making changes takes time, and you should make a point of celebrating small victories to bring you a sense of joy and accomplishment. Whatever you do, put your heart and mind into it and you’ll be sure to be successful.

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