E78: How to Stay Consistent with Your Wellness
E78: How to Stay Consistent with Your Wellness
One of the keys to making your wellness work for you is CONSISTENCY. Here's how to stay consistent with your wellness...
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[00:45] Follow me on INSTAGRAM @vallavignelife
[00:55] One of the main reasons we lack consistency and fall off track is because our actions aren't rooted at a deeper level. We set wellness goals and intentions, without getting clear about our “Wellness Why”
Our “Wellness Why” is the reasoning behind our actions. It is the emotional fuel, and meaningful driver behind our daily actions. It's what moves us forward with our healthy habits and our goals.
You want your “wellness why” to come from your heart. It’s important that it’s deep, emotional, and meaningful to you.
Everyone’s “wellness why” will be different. We all have different motivators and intentions and goals, so it’s important that when you’re creating your WHY, you are turning inward and searching inside of yourself, and not externally to why other people are taking their actions.
[2:40] Four Steps to Help You Create Your Wellness Why
#1. CREATE SPACE
Grab a pen and paper, or your favourite notebook and get comfy. If you love listening to music, put on your favourite playlist. If you work with essential oils or crystals, go ahead and bring those too. Create a comfortable atmosphere for you to turn inward, without interruption or distractions.
#2. DREAM
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Take five minutes or so to visualize the best version of yourself. If you would like more support with this, I will link to a previous episode I published called “Becoming the Best Version of You” (Episode #39)
Consider the following questions:
Who is the best version of me?
How does this version of me start their day?
What do they do every day?
What DON’T they do every day?
How does this version of me feel?
Write down the answers to these questions, and any other details about this best version of you. Get clear and specific; include all the details – everything!
#3. INVESTIGATE FURTHER
Now look over your description and answers of your future self and see if you can dig a little deeper. Why do you want to be the best version of yourself? What is the deep, emotional, and meaningful reasoning behind why you want to live a healthy lifestyle?
#4. SET UP MOTIVATIONAL REMINDERS
We want to keep our “wellness why” top of mind. Write it down and stick it to the bathroom mirror, bedside table, or on the kitchen fridge. Another idea is to create a phone wallpaper of your wellness why. Share it with your partner, your friends, and your social audience so that they can hold you accountable.
This way, when we go about our days making decisions, we’re reminded of our Wellness Why and the reasoning behind the choices that we make every day. It connects us to that why power and helps us become and embody the best version of ourselves.
Because our wellness is not about eating one healthy meal, or that week we went to 3 spin classes, or last month when we drank more water than coffee. It’s about the countless choices that we’re faced with each moment, and every day.
[5:42] We’re aiming to make the best choices, or better choices for our health and wellness, but there will be days when we make okay choices, or lesser ones.
Here are my top tips when it comes to starting your wellness lifestyle:
[5:55] TIP #1: CHOOSE 1 AREA OF WELLNESS
There are many areas of health and wellness that we can pinpoint and improve. The best way to create any habit is to start with one, and then once that action or behaviour becomes automated, we can focus on the next habit or action. This is called habit stacking.
I will mention an area of wellness, as well as an example for a healthy habit for this area. While I’m listing them, think of which area of your wellness you’d like to improve and how you’d like to do that.
Physical: walk 10,000 steps every day
Emotional: write in my mindfulness journal morning and night
Spiritual: meditate daily
Intellectual: read one book per month
Social: join an online community of like-minded women
Nutrition: Stop eating after 8pm
Sleep: Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
Occupational: Spend two hours every weekday building my online course.
Did I miss an area? Let me know in the comments section below!
[7:52] TIP #2: LET IT BE FUN & EXCITING
I always say, fitness can be fun, and healthy can be simple! Stop complicating your health and wellness goals. Just because your best friend loves her Saturday morning Zumba class, doesn't mean you have to also. Personally, I’m not a Zumba kind of girl, but I can lift weights four times a week, and that excites me!
We’re creating a lifestyle, and the best version of you is most likely excited about their wellness habits and goals; they have fun with their fitness! Choose the actions and activities that light up your life!
[8:31] TIP #3: SCHEDULE YOUR WELLNESS
It doesn’t matter if your goal is to read for 30 minutes a day, or to meditate every morning, or to build an evening routine. Put it in your calendar; the calendar you actually use! What gets scheduled, is what gets done. Make time for your wellness by blocking out the time in your calendar to do it. Set reminders on your phone to keep you on track.
The best time to do your wellness habit is whenever you do it. If you like morning workouts like me, schedule it then. If you know that the best time for uninterrupted brainstorming for your business is when your kids go to bed, schedule it then. If you’re truly committed to becoming the best version of yourself, you will make time for the actions and habits that support your journey. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
[9:33] TIP #4: BE FLEXIBLE
Life happens, and our worlds are always changing. This is okay. We’re learning to build a dream lifestyle, and that also means being flexible and going with the flow. Remember that wellness is a journey, not a destination.
I plan as much in advance as I can, but every Sunday evening I look at my week at a glance and schedule it accordingly. Most weeks don’t look the same, but I always make time for my wellness habits and goals. This is even more important for the weeks that are a little busier.
[10:12] TIP #5: REVIEW & RESET
The unexpected can come up and throw you off a little, but it doesn’t mean your whole wellness lifestyle collapses. Allow yourself the time to review and reflect on what when well, and what didn’t. Then make any adjustments moving forward to get you back on track.
It’s also helpful to give yourself permission to hit the “Reset Button.” Each day is a new day, and an opportunity to start fresh. You don’t have to feel guilty because you missed a workout, ate cake for breakfast, or stayed up a little too late watching Netflix. Take a breath, let go of the expectations, and remember your “wellness why.”
A question that I find helpful when mapping out my goals, habits, and actions is: What roadblocks do you foresee? And the next obvious question would be, What ideas do you have about overcoming those roadblocks?
This will all depend on what habits and goals we are creating. It’s also important that when we are answering these two important questions, we are being very honest with our responses. Honest, and I will also add creative with the solutions. If you’re having trouble overcoming specific or certain roadblocks, consider someone you can reach out to about achieving your goals or who might have fresh eyes on the situation.
[11:44] Committing to consistency means creating achievable habits and goals. For most of us, this will mean starting small, and choosing actions that result in immediate positive feedback. For example: Getting more sleep, and increasing your daily water intake. These are measurable daily habits.
It’s also very helpful to visually track your progress. You can create a checklist, use apps and fitness watches, and you can also download my free Habit Tracker Guide. The guide helps you set new healthy habits, eliminate old habits, and help you stay consistent with your wellness goals.
[12:25] Appreciate where you are in your personal wellness journey, and start there. Start with the smaller goals, and as you continue to track your goals, and take action, begin to add onto those habits and stretch yourself a little more. I like to check in weekly, but you can also reflect daily, bi weekly, or monthly.
Your stretch goals will be a little bigger than your smaller goals. For example, if your smaller goal was to read one book a month, and you’ve read two this month, you could stretch your goal to reading 3 or 4 books per month.
[13:00] Remember, that the key to creating our wellness lifestyle is consistency. Our brain craves it! It’s what will help us reach our goals, and automate our habits to keep us on track. And the key to staying consistent is knowing our wellness why! Our why is what motivates us to keep going; to continue to make the best choices each day.
When you’ve found your motivation, and created a routine, you’ll notice the growth and positive change. Eventually you might find yourself becoming a little stale or stagnant again in that routine. This is a great time to mix things up! Stretch your goals, stack a new habit, or try a new activity.
You can always come back to the process of creating your wellness why. Perhaps the best version of you has evolved into something different; start with dreaming of who you want to become and make adjustments to your actions.
[14:05:] Remember that, what gets measured, gets moved. Continue to measure your progress throughout your journey. Make a note of your small wins, your big wins, and what you’re learning about yourself along the way. Create check-in points to review, reset, or stretch your daily habits. When you achieve a goal or keep up with consistency, reward yourself! A friend of mine bought a new sports bra after two weeks of a consistent daily movement practice. I love this idea! It was meaningful to her, AND excites her about keeping up with her workouts because of the new gear she has.
Download the FREE Habit Tracker Guide
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!
