E103: Overcoming Your Healthy Habit Struggles

Today I’m coming in hot with a NO EXCUSES - LET’S DO THIS APPROACH! Healthy CAN be and IS SIMPLE...

[00:52] It’s us crazy humans who like to complicate things. I am totally guilty of it, don’t you worry. The good news is, in today’s episode I am going through each of your biggest struggles when it comes to healthy habits so that you can finally overcome them!

Before we dive in, take a moment to think about some of your struggles when it comes to healthy habits. Where do you get stuck? What excuses do you make? What’s holding you back?

Got them? Okay. If I don’t talk about your biggest struggle, please send me a dm on instagram @vallavignelife and/or let me know in the comments section below so that I can better support you in overcoming this struggle!

Struggle No.1: Consistency

[1:52] The first one we’re going to talk about today, is the one I hear about the most: CONSISTENCY. eDo you have a hard time keeping up with your fitness plan? Or healthy eating? Maybe you want to meditate each day but you hit snooze in the mornings instead?

This is actually such a popular question/topic that I have an entire episode dedicated to it:

E78: How to Stay Consistent with Your Wellness

Here’s where to start and be more consistent with your healthy habits: start with ONE habit. Just one. When you’ve decided what that habit should be, ask yourself: “What do I have to do before this can be done?”

For example, let’s say you decide homemade lunches during the week is your one goal. You’re tired of spending money every day on lunches that aren’t very satisfying.

Before you can make lunches for the week, you have to go grocery shopping for food. You also have to figure out what you’re going to eat for lunch. Therefore, before we can start our habit of homemade lunch we have two things we must do first.

Now that you know the answer to this question, you can begin to prepare for your success! Take a look at your calendar or planner and schedule in your grocery shopping AND meal prepping. Then, right here and now I want o to plan out your meals for the week. Don’t panic, it doesn’t have to be scary… in fact, let your homemade lunches be EASY!

My boyfriend and I make our lunch for the next day every evening before, while we’re making dinner. Most of the time we make extra dinner and eat the extra for lunch the next day. We keep things SUPER SIMPLE: One vegetable or our usually salad mixture + a serving of meat. We each like different snacks, so we will pack those also.

TAKEAWAY: Knowing your goal/habit is great, now get even more clear and figure out what you need to do BEFORE you can do your habit. There is usually one or two things you need to do before to set yourself up for success.

Struggle No.2: Complicated

[4:36] I hinted to this second struggle a little bit, which is that we make it TOO COMPLICATED, or we OVER COMPLICATE our healthy habit/goal.

Again, I’m guilty of this! Sometimes I hear about other people’s amazing daily meditation practices, or their incredibly tranquil and relaxing evening routines. I think of all the wonderful things I’d like to do before bed, like have an epsom salt bath surrounded by all the candles in the house, or meditate with my essential oils, or perhaps a 30 minute journaling and oracle card pulling.

And guess what, I’ve never-ever had an evening routine exactly like that because it’s WAY TOO different and complicated from what I’m doing now.

I’m not saying it isn’t possible, because it absolutely is. I’m saying that if you’re not already doing 4/5 of those things, don’t try to recreate your evening routine in this complicated way, because when we can’t even do our goal or habit for a few days in a row, we become very discouraged and unmotivated to continue or to try something different.

Okay so, how do we simplify?

We choose ONE habit, and then we ask, how can we break this down more?

Let’s say you want to start working out again. You used to workout 5 days a week… but lately you’ve been spending more time on the couch than at the gym.

Instead of saying, I’m going to workout 4-5 times a day, let’s simply. Look at your calendar and see where you can realistically schedule in A SINGLE WORKOUT FOR THE WEEK?

You see that Monday late more there is an opportunity for you to workout. Schedule your workout into your calendar/planner.

Do ONE workout this week. Yes ONE. ANYONE can do one workout, right? And so can you!

And get this… if you can’t do your workout on the Monday, look where else you can fit your ONE workout in. It’s a lot harder to make excuses for one workout a week than it is for five. ALSO, if you do a workout on Monday, and then also get another workout in on Wednesday, you’ve just exceeded your weekly goal.

The following week I encourage you to work your way up to twice a week. And so on and so forth. Build on this one habit. As you build the habit, you are also starting to build your self-trust and your self-confidence. Which will support your consistency.

Struggle No.3: Negative Self-Talk

[7:36] The third struggle when it comes to healthy habits is negative self-talk and limiting beliefs. Let me tell you right now, this is one of the most painful and limiting blocks of all, and sometimes we aren’t even aware of it.

Believing you are WORTHY, knowing in your heart that you are ENOUGH, that you are DESERVING of self-love, self-care, a healthy and happy life is one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves.

Here’s where to start: Think of how you want to feel. What is the word that describes how you want to feel? Now think about a time when you’ve felt that way in the past. Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing? Seeing? Smelling? Tasting?

You can really get a lot out of this exercise when you take some time to do it. I always enjoy journaling through this. When you’ve found the answers to these questions, you’ll have more information about what lights you up and brings you into alignment with how you want to feel. Even though you might not be able to recreate the exact memory or moment, you can brainstorm ways to bring that feeling into your every-day life.

Maybe your goal is to feel calm, because during your remembering you were brought back to a lovely yoga retreat you were on. You loved the morning yoga practice, the delicious food that was made for you, the calming music, the no screen time, and the lavender essential oil you could smell. You were surrounded by like-minded people and the sun was always shining.

Realistically we don’t live at that yoga retreat every day, but we can pull parts of the retreat into our daily healthy habits to help us connect to the feeling we want. Here are some simple habits based off this example:

Morning yoga practice (can be anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes)
Scheduling a date night with your partner or a friend each week where you can enjoy the food and each others company
Setting aside time every day to turn off your screens and be more present, or use that time to go for a walk around the block
Take a few deep breaths of lavender essential oil, or diffusing lavender as you work or before bed each night.

Healthy can be simple, and you my darling are WORTHY of feeling good.

Struggle No.4: It’s too expensive to be healthy

[12:22] As a wellness educator I often hear this excuse or struggle when it comes to healthy habits: “it’s too expensive to be healthy”

WRONG. For a few reasons, the first is that there are so many free resources you can use and take advantage of to incorporate into your daily lifestyle and routine. From online workout videos, to free meal plan downloads, to free coaching calls, to mediation apps, and so much more.

Another reason why this is false is because you will end up paying for your health one way or another. Therefore, you can either choose to invest in preventative health so that you live a high quality life of feeling good, and striving for balance. OR you can pay for the prescriptions, appointments, and hospitality for when your body can’t take care of itself anymore. If hearing that is a bit of a wake up call for you, I think you know your next move. Invest in ONE area of your health today.

Remember that we’re not trying to change our entire lifestyle overnight and the goal isn’t to become a super healthy person who no longer eats a, b, c, or x, y, and z. And never goes on social media and only eats out once a week, etc. etc.

Being a healthy human is about feeling good and loving our bodies.

Struggle No.5: Don’t have time

[14:39] Now let’s wrap this no excuses episode up with our final struggle when it comes to healthy habits, there is no time. Heck there’s never any time. Between the job, and the kids, and the content creation, and the commuting, and the living out the lives we already have – how on earth are we supposed to get anything done let alone add in a new habit!?

We make time for what is important to us. We can ALWAYS make time. We prioritize our time and if your healthy habit isn’t a priority, it isn’t going to get done.

I’ll never forget an example I heard, and I think it was on a podcast but I can’t remember which one. They were talking about how we always say we’re busy or we can’t do something because we don’t have time. The example was when we’re working at our computer from home and our kid comes in and says “mom can you play with me?” and we say, “not now hunny I’m busy”

But if our kid came in with a pair of scissors stuck in their bleeding arm and said “mom can you help me?” you better forking help that child right away and I know you will not be brushing them in that moment.

What changed? The priority changed. Playing with your kid wasn’t a priority, your kid’s health was.

It’s a bit of a graphic example but I will never forget it and it really made me think about what was important to me, what I was making time for.

If you aren’t really sure where your priorities are, I would highly recommend tracking how you spend your day. It’s as simple as grabbing a pen and a notebook and writing down the time, what you did during that time and how long it took you.

As an example:

7:00 am woke up, checked emails and instagram, 30 minutes
7:30 am showered, brushed teeth, 15 minutes
7:45 am made coffee, caught up on the news, 20 minutes

Right away you can see that you’ve been on your phone for almost an hour that morning. Do you need to be on emails, instagram, and the news right away? Definitely not. Cut it down, cut it out, or reschedule it to make a more “health” or “heart-centred” morning routine.

Alright my dear. I know some of what I said today might have felt a bit tough to digest. Maybe it felt a little too close to home. And maybe there are other things going on in your life that I don’t know about that are the reason why you aren’t making moves forward for your healthy habit.

Here’s what I do know. I know that you are enough, and that incorporating a healthy habit into your life will help you be the better, daughter, mother, teacher, sister, partner, and human. I know that getting out of your own way can be really hard to do. I also know that when we get out of our own way, when we go for our goals and dreams, we can move mountains.

No more excuses, and no time like the present!

Let me support you and hold you accountable! Reach out on instagram @vallavignelife or in the comments section below tell me your habit, tell me your struggle, let’s do this together.

Val Lavigne Life Women's Empowerment Podcast

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!