How to Develop Healthy Habits and Make Those Resolutions Stick

As a coach, I strive to support my athletes in their training activities, but I hope I'm also helping them become mentally stronger and that the strategies we use to help them be better athletes and competitors also help them in their personal lives—at home, at work, and as they look toward other hopes and dreams.

Because it’s early in the new year, and most people have set year’s resolutions or intentions, I want to support those efforts and help you be successful. Most people bail on their new year’s resolutions pretty early in the game, and there are a lot of reasons for that. Maybe they weren’t all that committed to the idea in the first place. Maybe they didn't keep the resolution top-of-mind--but most likely, it got HARD. And we resist doing hard things. We like to conserve our energy and take the path of least resistance.

This week, I'm sharing four strategies to help you develop new habits... because we all know that willpower alone doesn't work. You can listen to the full podcast in the player below (or on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play). 

The four main points I cover in this week's podcast:

•  Our brains like to make things easy on us. To avoid making lots of decisions, we do somethings out of habit. That can work for us, or against us, depending on if that habit serves us.

• You can use habit stacking to pair an existing habit with a habit you want to develop. You do this by telling yourself, every time I do THIS, I will do THAT. ("When I brush my teeth each morning, I will take my prescription medications.")
  
  
• You can use the think-feel-do model to adjust your behavior. At any point along the way, you can choose to change either the think, the feel, or the do to change the entire equation. Change your thoughts to change your feeling, which changes your actions. You control your thoughts, which means you can choose how to think about it, and what you think controls your behaviors.
  
  
• Work backwards. Look at what you want to accomplish and spend time thinking about where you get tripped up. Then look for solutions to addressing that problem.

If you want help developing your own healthy habits, or if you've struggled with sticking with your fitness and weight loss goals, I would love to work with you. Shoot me an email at [email protected] or head over to my website and check out the courses I offer. AND... if you're a runner, or this is the year you'll become a runner, let's talk about run coaching. It's time to start training for spring races!

About your Podcast Host:

Coach Kim explores topics that will help you power up your life so that you can design a life you love. If you are ready to think, feel, train and live like a champion, tune in for expert interviews and real talk that will give you the tools and courage you need to chase your dreams.

Coach Kim Peek is a fitness and real-food enthusiast who is also a theater-mom, dog-mom and breast cancer survivor. Kim has a number of coaching certifications including: ACE Certified Group Fitness Instructor, USA Track and Field Level 1 Coach, USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach and Healthy Running. She is certified to teach a variety of fitness formats, and is constantly studying movement, motivation and other wellness topics to unlock success secrets for her audience. Kim is also a Breast Cancer Exercise Specialist and a Functional Aging Specialist.

You can hang out with Coach Kim online at:

www.CrushingMyGoals.com

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Instagram @PowerOfRun

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