HEALTHY GIRL SUMMER: How to Build Healthy Habits and Stay Consistent

A new season brings growth, change, and a glow-up (?). If you’ve been craving a change then a new season is a great time to start building new healthy habits. Today, I wanted to share some of the tips that have helped me build discipline and stay consistent with my healthy habits and routines. If you’re ready for a change in your habits, mindset, and physical well-being, then it’s looking like a healthy girl summer for you – Here’s how to start.

1. Start with the Right Mindset

Starting with the right mindset is the only way you will stay consistent with your goals and habits. Be sure that you really want to make a change in your life. Ask yourself these questions:

• What kind of person do I want to be?

• Why do I want to be that person and what habits do I need to do to achieve that lifestyle?

The person you are today is still perfectly fine, we are improving and adding new things not taking away. It’s okay to want to improve your health or physical body, but we have to start on a healthy mindset that you want to improve your health because you want to not because you hate the way you look. Starting on the right mindset of wanting to improve and add to your health will help you stay consistent with your goals rather than simply wanting to change the way your body looks because you hate it. We want to nourish and take care of our bodies because we love them.

2. Stay Offline & Listen to Your Own Body

When you focus on listening to your body and what it needs, everything becomes easier. During this time, stay offline. The wellness and fitness advice online is very oversaturated. You’ll start to overthink and over critique everything you do and eat. “This is bad, this is good, stay away from this, stay away from that.” All of this advice is coming from “influencers” who just want the highest views by saying exaggerated statements that aren’t even true. They place fear into your thoughts and you start to overthink what you need to do to stay healthy. Your body is in charge of telling you what it needs.

*Note: I am not a professional, please see your primary care doctor if you want to change your diet.

3. Start Small

Once you have established who you want to be and why, it’s time to start small. I know we’ve all been there and wanted to start something new by going all in and then ended up hating it quickly. If you want to become a runner, you’re not going to start running 5 miles every day. If you want to start Pilates, you’re not going to start at an expert level. The idea with habits is to start small and easy. If your goal is to read more, then start by reading 1 chapter a day or a page a day. If your goal is to eat healthier, then eat one fruit with your lunch.

Starting small helps you not be overwhelmed when you’re starting a new habit. Something simple and easy will get you started and keep you less stressed. This is another great reason to stay offline because then you won’t have anyone to compare yourself to. You’re a beginner and that’s completely okay, so don’t compare yourself to someone who has been doing what you want to do for years. It’s not fair and a waste of your energy.

4. Add instead of Subtract

You don’t have to give up your favorite foods to be healthy. When you’re just starting your healthy journey, instead of taking away foods from your diet add healthy ones to it. Add a side of fruit to your breakfast, add a big salad to your lunch, and add more vegetables to your dinner. You can still eat your favorite foods by adding more healthy ones on the side or by decreasing your portions.

Taking away your favorite foods will only make you crave them more. If you’re like me and can eat an entire bag of chips, try buying small bags. I’m still eating my favorite foods, but just not the entire bag in one sitting lol.

5. Habit Stacking

New healthy habits aren’t always exciting at first. Habit stacking is combining two habits into one session. For example, walking on the treadmill and listening to music is really boring to me. Walking on the treadmill while watching videos, however, is more doable. I took my social media watching time and walking time and combined them into one session. This not only saves me time from scrolling on TikTok in bed, but it also helps me get my steps in for the day. I often tell myself that I can’t scroll on TikTok unless I get on the treadmill. It works 90% of the time!

6. Track Your Habits

To stay consistent with your habits, try tracking them. Every day track what habits you did and didn’t by putting a check mark next to them. With new habits, we can forget that we’re even trying to do them every day but with a physical list, it can help you stay on track! I use my Notion template to track my habits, but it’s really easy to make your own. Simply get a calendar and check off each day you did your habit. Seeing progress will keep you motivated and consistent with your goals!

When starting with your habits, I highly recommend printing out a habit tracker and placing it where you can see it every day. In your kitchen, on your bathroom mirror, or next to your coffee machine. A visual reminder that you’re tracking your habits will make you more inclined to do them.

I created a simple habit tracker for you to print out or have on your tablet. You can download it here!