It’s Sunday afternoon. You decide that tomorrow is officially the start of a new you; you are going to workout five days a week from here on forth and bring lunch to work everyday. You’re excited because you’ve seen friends and co-workers’ lives transform because of their consistent exercise and nutrition habits. You want a wellness routine like theirs.
To set yourself up for success, you download an app with exercise circuits and block time on your calendar with the hours this week you will workout. Monday before work, Tuesday before work, Thursday after work, Friday before work, and Sunday mid-day. Then you head to the grocery store to buy food for the week. You got this.
Monday is a success. You hit the gym before work and enjoy the lunch you brought with you. That night, you have a networking event and get home later than you had planned, so getting up early to workout Tuesday morning doesn't happen. Still, you pack a quick lunch. After work you have plans with your family, so your workout gets pushed back again to Wednesday evening. The week continues with a series of unexpected events that get in the way of your new routine. By Friday night, you head home after a week that looks, more or less, like every week before it, despite your best efforts to transform. Before you know it, a week with all the ingredients for success has disintegrated into the same old habits.
Sound familiar? Don’t worry, you're not alone. Each week we hear badass women describe the same three problems they encountered while trying to develop consistent habits. We briefly explain each below and offer up solutions to set you up for success.
1. You bite off more than you can chew.
We hear it all the time “I tend to overshoot” and “I try to do a million things at once.” While determination is key to building a habit, successful new habits are small. Instead of jumping into a complex wellness routine that exists of multiple habits, pick one new habit to focus on first. Then, make it bite-sized so it fits into your lifestyle. For example, instead of suddenly going from working out once a week to five times a week, first focus on working out two times a week. After a period of time, when working out twice a week feels as routine as brushing your teeth, increase exercise habit to three times a week. Continually layer on bite-sized habits and over time you’ll develop a comprehensive wellness routine.
At Habit House, we help badass women identify the series of habits that make up their ideal wellness routine and pinpoint the first habit to focus on.
2. You pick the wrong tool.
We hear it all the time “I started doing XYZ exercise program, but I’m not fit enough yet and wasn’t able to do and felt so unmotivated” or “the program I picked required I eat so restrictively and it doesn't fit in with my lifestyle so I felt discouraged" or "I don’t have the time to meditate as often as the app told me to so I stopped completely.” There are thousands of tools out there, pick one that meets you where you currently are. For example, consider doing body movement workouts in the privacy of your own home or taking fitness classes where an instructor corrects your form before you jump into an intense 12-week self-led program. Feel confident that you're doing great work at your own pace.
At Habit House, we help you find a tool that works for you and your lifestyle.
3. Something derails you and you can’t bounce back.
The human body and brain can be frustrating. Maybe you did finally get into the habit of working out every week but then one hectic week at work, a family emergency, or a vacation completely derails you. You can't seem to muster the same "willpower" you had just a week before. To set yourself up for success, have an ally hold you accountable. Whether that is a friend, your spouse, or Habit House, tell them specific details about your plan to keep up the habits you’ve worked so hard to develop. Ask them to check in with you at the end of the week to see how it went.
At Habit House, we hold ambitious women accountable via weekly and in-the-moment touch-points.
Ready to start building a habit? Here’s how you can change your habits this week.