Every year, people around the world make a new year’s resolution to achieve ideal health and wellness. And every year, people around the world break their new year’s resolution to lose weight. Why does this happen? Because people create unsustainable goals and invest their time into unsustainable habits that allow them to lose weight for a short time. However, since these habits aren’t sustainable, people break their diets, stop working out, and ultimately gain their weight back. 

Ideal Health and Wellness in the Quad Cities

People visit Ideal Health and Wellness for top-notch holistic and all-rounded care in the Quad Cities. They offer everything – from mental health to chiropractic, family health, women’s health, and even acupuncture, all in one place! This means we look at you as a complete individual. Mixing different kinds of care has helped many of our visitors, young and old.

Creating the right plan is crucial if you want to improve your health. Healthy habits can only improve your health if they’re sustainable; they must be something you can do every single day or at least a few times a week. But how do you create sustainable healthy habits? Here are some ideas to help:

Choose a Healthy Habit for Ideal Health and Wellness

Before creating sustainable wellness, you must know which habits you’re trying to change or add to your lifestyle. Instead of focusing on how to achieve your large, overarching goal, find smaller habits that can help you get there. For example, to lose weight, you should focus on building healthy habits like incorporating a healthy diet and exercise into your lifestyle. 

Once you’ve chosen your habit, you need to determine how to make it sustainable. Believe it or not, any habit can be sustainable if you have a plan. However, for now, just focus on one or two habits to build into your routine. It’s always better to start slow, regardless of your goal. 

Understand Your Reason for Ideal Health and Wellness

Everyone has a reason for wanting to improve their health. Some individuals have health issues they can drastically reduce with diet and exercise, while others may simply want to look and feel their best. Your reason for building new habits is the foundation of your goals, and it’s something that can help you stay motivated throughout your journey. 

 

Beyond understanding your reason, you should try to visualize a future in which you’ve achieved your goals. Consider how you’ll feel, what will have changed in your life, and how you’ll get there. 

Predict Challenges for Ideal Health and Wellness

Creating healthy habits isn’t easy, especially if you have a track record of unhealthy habits. Consider any potential challenges you’ll face when trying to build healthy habits. For instance, if you’re trying to exercise more, obstacles might be the season (we’re less motivated to work out during the cold winter months), a desk job, working long hours, or health issues that prevent you from engaging in vigorous exercise. Whatever the case, knowing your obstacles can help you create the best plans. For example, if you have bad knees, you likely won’t be able to go on a run every morning before work. Instead, you’ll have to find other ways to stay active, such as using a low-impact machine or going for brisk walks. 

Build Your Plan for Ideal Health and Wellness

Once you know your target habits and potential obstacles, you can start building a plan to help you achieve your goals. Remember, your new habits must be sustainable, something you can do every day or often. If you can’t guarantee you’ll be able to sustain and maintain your habits, you may have to revisit your goals to determine what’s actually possible. 

 

When you’re ready to make a plan, start with your first week and how you’ll make your habit successful in your everyday life. Consider whether you need to block out time in your schedule, meal prep, or remove some other items from your to-do list to reduce some of the daily burdens. Consider everything you need to do to prepare for your first week of healthy habits, such as waking up earlier to go to the gym. 

 

Your plan should also consist of supplemental items that you might need to support your new healthy lifestyle. For example, if your goal is to improve your overall health, you might invest in immune supplements to prevent illness and ensure nothing will prevent you from getting to the gym. 

 

Additionally, remember to use your obstacles in your plan. For example, preparing meals might be difficult if you have essential tremor but have a goal of eating healthier. However, you can include your plan to overcome challenges, such as creating less energy-intensive meals and getting help from a friend or family member whenever possible. You could also invest in a quality waterbottle and liquids that you enjoy to keep you hydrated along your health journey. 

 

Unfortunately, having a plan won’t guarantee your success in building these habits, but it can make them feel more achievable, and you won’t succeed without one. 

Sleep: The Body’s Recharge

Sleep is like hitting the reset button for our bodies and minds. Every night, when we close our eyes and drift off, our bodies get to work repairing muscles, storing memories, and re-energizing for the next day. It’s more than just resting; it’s a time for healing and growth. Not getting enough sleep can leave us feeling tired and groggy. That’s why it’s so important to make sure we get a good night’s rest, aiming for 7-9 hours each night. Think of sleep as plugging in a charger – it’s how we power up for a new day!

Begin Your Healthy Habits

Once you have your plan, you can begin integrating your healthy habits into your lifestyle. Stick to your plan and revisit it after one week. If everything has gone smoothly, continue with the same plan next week. However, if you face any new obstacles or challenges, you can create a new plan based on what you’ve learned in the first week. 

 

Eventually, one week will turn into four weeks, and four weeks will turn into four months. Before you know it, you’ll have successfully built sustainable healthy habits and start to see and feel the results. 

Accept Failure

Unfortunately, you will break your healthy habits from time to time. For example, you’ll be tempted to skip the gym if you have to stay late at work, or you’ll eat a piece of cake to celebrate a friend’s birthday. There’s nothing wrong with either of these things as long as you can get yourself back on track. Luckily, you already built a plan for building healthy habits, so while it may feel like you’re starting over, you already know you have what it takes to have a more sustainably healthy lifestyle. 

Building Sustainable Wellness

Sustainable wellness doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a conscious effort you have to make every day until you’ve built healthy habits into your everyday routine. If you have to block time out of your day, eventually, you won’t remember a time when you filled that block with something else. Instead, you’ll integrate healthy habits into your lifestyle, making them part of your daily routine. Eventually, you won’t even have to think about them; you’ll just do them. 

Come Visit Ideal Health and Wellness in Quad Cities

At this health center in Quad Cities, visitors receive comprehensive care that addresses their whole self. From mental well-being and chiropractic treatments to general family care, women’s health, and even acupuncture, they have it all under one roof. The team there believes in treating individuals, not just symptoms. By combining diverse healthcare methods, they’ve observed positive outcomes for individuals of every age. The center encourages everyone to actively participate in their health journey. Curious about their dedicated Health & Wellness team? Delve deeper below. And for any inquiries, they’re always ready to help.

Megan Isola

 

Megan Isola holds a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality and a minor in Business Marketing from Cal State University Chico. She enjoys going to concerts, trying new restaurants, and hanging out with friends.