I would like to know how other people manage to keep up their routines. I really struggle establishing strong positive habits, especially with food for example. Often I will have perfect weeks then fall off the wagon and feel like I’ve undone all the good work. Finding balance is difficult!

I set a daily goal to reach – something like 4 out of 5 activities in my routine. Then every day I measure my aprogress nd reflect on what I can do differently tomorrow. I write down my ideas in my journal.

Change in habits is always difficult. However, if I divide it in small steps it is more digestible, like substitute my favourite snacks with a healthier version or start to walk for small distance. Also, telling a friend or joining the group of people with similar problem could help with keeping a track.

I’ve actually just had this experience today. I’ve been eating very healthily, and keeping my portions small, but today I ate less healthy options and in larger quantities. Instead of guilting myself afterward, or thinking about the negative effects of my choices today, I decided to reframe it as a positive day. I even added it to my daily gratefulness list. Today, I indulged a bit and really enjoyed my food, even though it wasn’t the healthiest option. I felt good about what I was eating, when I was eating it, so I feel good about it now. What’s done is done. I have confidence in myself to make healthy decisions tomorrow, so there’s no benefit to framing today as a loss or in any negative light. Feeling positive about one day of indulgence in a sea of healthy decisions actually makes me more likely to make healthy choices tomorrow. Because it’s not a struggle or a fight with myself over “bad” choices, but rather a daily decision that I trust myself to make.

We all have similar struggles, myself with food and drink. Im trying to change how I view food. Im trying to listen to my body and what it needs and thinking will this nourish it. Will i feel content after ive eaten it. But im also saying to myself that its ok to indulge occasionally and not beat myself up if i go overboard. Im trying to find other things to treat myself with like a facial or getting nails done

Focus on the most important habits first: exercise and meditate. Don’t hesitate to drop everything else until these are handled.

Follow them on a spreadsheet, week after week.

Once these are handled, you can focus on the remaining.

Break it down. Start with baby steps until it becomes a habit, then move onto a new one. For example, instead of having a muffin and coffee for snack have an apple and 12 almonds instead. Once that's automatic, start with a new habit such as replacing coffee with tea 5 days a week in the morning. And so on.

As well consider the emotional connection as to why you want to change that habit. For example, don't want to see my daughter worry so much about my health. It breaks my heart to see her so concerned.

I too find Times it is difficult to walk past tempting food especially around the holidays at work but if I do cave I allow myself to enjoy that moment, don’t let the negative self talk make me feel like all my hard work has been a waste.

I totally get that. I feel like it’s important for me to build in space for imperfection or variation because that way when I do miss things or make a less-good food choice it’s on my terms and not just me binge-ing. In other words, if I have a plan or at least room in my mind for failing at the routine (or breaking a streak), then it can happen the way and at the time I want it to.

I don’t see it as finding balance, so much as prioritizing. I have the same struggle with food and when I ‘fall off the wagon’ I just get back on and start again cause I know it’s a priority for me.

I find steps and how that is easy is when you do them at the same time every day. With food I find it is best if you don’t go hungry so you are not as tempted as much. Dont worry if you have a bad day just move on and up.

What works for me:

Number one tip: try to keep a record of what you eat cronometer.com myfitnesspal – I had a marvellous year of weight loss with that… before work started. If you don’t have time, writing it down or taking a pic of literally everything cuts down on extra snacking.

Bonus: cronometer records vitamin intake per meal and gives you a % of how well you are doing on the daily recommended targets for vitamins and minerals. That really motivated me.

2) Radical move for busy people – try to replace a staple. White bread, rice, potatoes – I knew I would snack often so I cut bread, rice and potatoes out of my diet and went for lentils instead – boiled, seasoned with olive oil and some salt

3) if you have a bad day, buy your snack in small amounts, enough to eat, never to store in the house

We all suffer set backs . How could we not. It's food. So delicious. However discipline is key. Set small goals and allow room to enjoy small pwrks.

Finding balance is not easy. Ti establish an habit the first things in my opinion is a sort of "fake it until you make it!". I do new positive things like they are somethings I do/don't do by years. For example. I want ti quit smoking. I'm acting like I never did it in my life. But the most important thing, like Fabolous says, it's create the fight condizioni around you that make you do what you want to do. For example, put a glass of water near your bed before you go to sleep. So in the morning you've not to: wake up, go to the kitchen, open the fridge, take water and drink. You can open your eyes and the glass is right here, near you.
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Whenever you think ‘I’ve undone all the good work’, remind yourself that’s not true and continue. The more you do it, the better you get.

To me the key is keeping up with myself. In yoga the breath is the basis and the form (foundation) comes second. In life my routines and to-be-routines are the form. The basis is me. This reduces stress of the routines I have to perform only for me! It is easier to feel compassion towards myself when I don't manage to do my exercise. I can ask myself, what happend? How can I get to exercise next time? sometimes I can even make the conscious decision not to go because I have other more important things to do. I can let go and be present next training full of motivation, without regret and be happy.

I find balance by allowing myself some of those things that take me off the wagon so I don’t have to feel starved for them

No one is perfect. The problem is viewing a slip up as failure. It is simply a slip and we must get up and move forward. The fact that you have stayed on track for weeks at a time proves that you can stay on track. So instead of spending time feeling bad about what happened you need to analyze what may have caused the problem and find a solution and get back on track with a better attitude and renewed determination to keep up the good work!

You are perfectly imperfect, and so is your life. Don't dwell on what you haven't done just keep trying. I was doing great until I was sent out of town for a week, started getting back, then nasty weather sunk my routine. Every good choice is a victory, dwell on your success, do a happy dance. I spend a lot of time in the car which makes drive tries my nemesis. I keep nuts or another healthy snack in the passenger seat, and that helps.

Hi, I think you have to find what works best for you, for example radical change doesn't work for me, I prefer small steps, one at a time. I know that reducing sweets is really hard for me, I focused on making other meals healthier, like adding kale to my sandwiches. Also I try to make fruit and veggie cocktails that weaken my craving for sweet. I limited eating sweets from twice daily to once a day, now I am working to have one day break. So really small steps so you don't have to use willpower too much:)

Keep your main breakfeast always healthy, dinner always when you make it. When somebody else makes it i sometimes join them on their unhealthy party. And on snacks im not that hard on my self, just make sure you eat your two fruits a day and drink water. Then the tempation for unhealthy snacks Will be les strong

I think the key is to not punish yourself. Everyone makes mistakes and slips up, but part of positive habits is being able to start back up again after the slip up. Yes, you didn't stick to your routine, but instead of beating yourself up and continuing to not follow your routine, acknowledge what happened, look to see what you can learn from the experience such as triggers that lead to the slip up so you can be aware of them for the future, and then keep going. You can do it!

Finding balance is difficult. And learning new patterns takes time. Maybe build in more moments of small indulgences so you don’t feel so deprived throughout your “perfect” weeks. Maybe the balance is intention. Are you building habits out of punishment or out of gratitude? Are you restricting foods or are you choosing nourishment? Sometimes reframing my why changes my consistency.

I also find that life changes make it easy for me to change my habits. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that that is reality. We are always changing – the stories we hear about people who stick to their habits are stories of those people during one snippet of their lives. They too will change. I have come to see that I am not being graded and am not searching for some sort of good score with my habits, but I congratulate myself for the times I reach my goals and look carefully at the times I don’t. If I get out of a positive routine, I look to see if my life is currently too full to support that routine. If so, I decide whether or not I can change that. There are times of life where just sustaining life is a good goal, and times where pushing oneself toward bigger things is a good goal. I guess in the end, I forgive myself for being a human and I try again. 🙂

Establish a specific,”Why,” you are making changes in your life and own, meditate, journal about the “Why” so that it becomes a part of you. Recognize that behavioral and attitude change take time and patience with yourself and others. Finally, ensure your surroundings are supporting your efforts.