Weight Loss Journey

Plan Week: A Year of Healthy Habits

December 26, 2019

Ideas to Execute Effective Monthly Habit Challenges

Odds are you have been thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions at least once so far this time of year. Am I right? How often do you actually keep the resolutions you set for the new year? What if I told you your odds could be better? Well, they can!

It may be that you need to execute a different plan to be successful in maintaining better habits. Instead of focusing on ten different habits all at once let’s narrow it down to one, then build on that once you’ve mastered it.

Having to lose over 100 pounds I’m going to have to create and maintain a lot of healthy habits. I can choose to let that overwhelm me, or I can choose to create a game plan and focus on one thing at a time.

My Healthy Habits Experience

In full honesty, I tried to do monthly habits last year, but I failed. I have discovered where I went wrong so that I can have better success with it this year. For starters, I didn’t have a system in place to track my progress with the healthy habits I was trying to work on. I tried a few different methods on and off but I never truly stuck to keeping track. By the end of the month, I would switch gears to planning my next monthly habit without being successful in maintaining the one I previously was trying to maintain.

This year I am committing to tracking my habits in a new way. I have created a printable that I plan on using to track my habits. The great thing about a visual for your habits is that when you are falling off you can notice it quickly and it fires you up to do better. I’ll be including this printable in my new e-book coming your way at the end of the week.

The Healthy Habits

Are you wanting to try this method of creating and maintaining healthy habits? I thought I would share with you the habits I’m focusing on this year to give you a place to start. If you want more check out this article for a bigger list.

Go to bed by 11 pm: I’m definitely a night owl, which makes it hard for me to be productive in the mornings when I have time to work on my tasks.

Sugar Detox: I’ve got a huge sweet tooth but I’ve known this is something I’ve needed to do for a while now. I tried it last year during a Love Sweat Fitness challenge. Unfortunately, I didn’t do well, so here is to hoping next year will be different.

Train for a 5k: I did a Color Run a couple of years back and ever since I’ve been wanting to do another one. I’m making it happen this year, so I thought it would be fitting to include it in a monthly habit.

Meditate for 5 minutes daily: I’ve been wanting to get into meditation for a while now but every time I try it just doesn’t feel natural to me. I know it’s got great spiritual and mental health benefits. That is why I want to give it a full try and not dismiss it so quickly this time.

Get 8-9 hours of sleep: I never really knew how sleep and weight loss were connected. It turns out your sleep habits affect weight loss. Check out this article for more info. I don’t always get the amount of sleep I’d like to, which is why I want to work on this habit.

Try Whole 30: Whole 30 is something that has always intrigued me. Being a picky eater, I have always been hesitant about committing to the program. If I am going to truly flourish this year I need to step out of my comfort zone and try hard things. I plan on giving the whole 30 the best shot that I can.

Try 4 new exercises: I tend to stick with what is familiar, so I wanted to create this habit to remind me to always try new things. I will never really know how strong I am until I push my limits. During this month I want to try moves I pushed away before because I thought I wasn’t strong enough, and classes I never considered trying before.

Unplug once a week: Going a whole day without connecting to the online world seems almost impossible these days because we are all so hooked on our screens. I promise it isn’t as bad as it seems though, it’s actually quite freeing. Studies show that unplugging can be good for mental health as well. I had a goal this year to unplug at least once a month but for the month of August, I want to up that habit to once a week.

No screen time after 10: Did you know that being on your phone or watching TV right before bed can harm your sleep? For the month of September, I’ll be working on this by creating a healthy habit of turning off the screens by 10 pm every night.

Meatless Monday: I did this healthy habit before and it was one of the few I had success with so I thought it would be good to go for it again.

Sneaking in more exercise: There are so many ways to sneak exercise into your day. Taking the stairs, parking away from the store, exercising during tv commercials, etc. I thought this would be a good healthy habit to work on since this time of year is almost always busy and we tend to indulge in holiday food a lot during this time.

31 days of memories: December is always full of reflection. I tend to focus on things I wish I would have done, which I know isn’t healthy. To end my year of healthy habits I’m focusing on a mindset shift by focusing on a positive memory or achievement each day during the month of December.

There are the healthy habits I am hoping to create this year. I think I’ve got a good mix of healthy eating, exercising, sleeping, and mental health habits to work on. What healthy habits are you working on this year? As always feel free to connect with me in the comments, over on Instagram, or email.

This post is a part of Plan Week 2019. Catch up on posts you may have missed here: