How to Build Healthy Habits That Actually Stick

Can we get real for a moment about how to build healthy habits that stick? How many times have you vowed to finally get healthy, drop that extra weight from COVID, or cut out sugar – only to quickly fall off the wagon? Maybe you started strong, but busy schedules and old patterns slowly crept back in. If this resonates all too well, you’re not alone. Turning an initial burst of motivation into lasting habits is one of the biggest challenges we face, especially as we juggle life’s inevitable curveballs in midlife. But what if this time, you had a tactical plan to make it stick for good? Read on for a handful sustainable strategies!

Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

When it comes to new habits, slow and steady wins the race. Many of us set ourselves up for failure by taking on too much at once with dramatic overhauls. No wonder we burn out quickly.

In my younger years, I remember frequently diving into one of those “14-Day Total Body Transformation” plans from Shape magazine, convinced this would be my moment. The plan had me eating exactly 1,200 calories of very specific foods (lots of cottage cheese, fat-free “Snackwell” processed snacks, and dry chicken breast) while jumping from my occasional step class to intense daily workouts. By day 4, I was so sore I could barely climb stairs, constantly hungry, dreaming of forbidden foods, and thoroughly overwhelmed by measuring every morsel. Needless to say, I never made it past day 5.

Instead, focus your efforts on bite-sized “micro-habits” that feel very doable. For example, committing to a short 15-minute walk after dinner instead of training for a marathon initially. Or swapping just one processed snack for fresh veggies and hummus. Small steps in the right direction create powerful momentum and make new behaviors feel natural over time. Once a micro-habit sticks, you can level it up from there. This “tiny habits” approach was pioneered by BJ Fogg.

Use “Habit Stacking” to Your Advantage

Here’s a fun little mental trick: Stack your new habits onto existing daily routines that are already ingrained. This leverages the power of association to reinforce fledgling habits. It’s much easier to introduce micro-steps this way versus shoehorning entirely new patterns into your day.  

For instance, you might add drinking a large glass of water while your morning coffee brews. Or you could do gentle stretches while watching your favorite evening TV show. Perhaps you could make a habit of adding a handful of spinach to your daily smoothie, or taking three deep breaths before each meal to focus on mindful eating and improve digestion. Even something as simple as doing a few squats while waiting for your microwave to beep can add more movement to your day.

For my example, I found an easy way to build a daily meditation and prayer practice by combining it with my morning walks with my dog, Maggie. Since I already had to walk her every day (she wouldn’t let me forget!), I used this time to practice mindfulness and prayer while getting some morning exercise outdoors. Thanks to my four-legged accountability partner, I was able to stack multiple healthy habits into one daily routine!

Optimize Your Environment for Success  

Let’s face it, willpower only gets us so far. For habits to stick long term, we need to tip the scales in our favor by redesigning our surroundings to make it easy to make healthy choices and hard to slip into old patterns. This concept of making cues for good habits obvious and bad habits invisible is one of the principles from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits.

This might look like clearing your pantry of tempting processed snacks and keeping a big bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter. Or maybe you treat yourself to cool water bottles you’ll be excited to refill and reuse all day long. You could set a daily phone reminder to go off for a scheduled walk while the weather is nice. Or designate certain evenings as “workout dates” with a friend for extra accountability.

One of my favorite environment hacks is to make healthy foods unavoidable in the kitchen. I keep my healthiest snacks either on the countertop or in my most convenient cabinets. The chips and cookies are relegated to the hard-to-reach corners! Small tweaks like these help put healthy habits on auto-pilot.

Conclusion

There’s no denying it – making true lifestyle changes gets trickier as we juggle aging parents, grandkids, evolving careers or retirements, and personal self-care. But with an intentional approach to habit formation, we can finally stop recycling the same old resolutions. Keep it simple, stack habits onto existing routines, and set your environment up for success. Small daily actions add up to lasting change.

Want to see this in action? Grab my free “Plant-Powered Meal Planning 101: A 6-Step Guide” on using simple tech tools to streamline your plant-based meal planning. It’s a game-changer for busy weeks!

Let me know in the comments – which habit-building strategy resonated most with you?

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