There are no limits to the types of sustainable lifestyle habits you can create to help get yourself headed in the right direction. There are unlimited ways to begin to do new things in new ways but remember something important- less is more. This is especially true when it comes to sustainable healthy eating habits. Sustainable lifestyle habits are similar to micro habits. They are teeny, tiny actions that on their own may seem insignificant, but they are perfect for building lasting change.
Keep Your Focus on Sustainable Lifestyle Habits
Micro habits should be geared towards one thing, sustainability. Whatever micro habit you create, it should become something you can activate, repeat, and eventually internalize so it becomes automatic. This is especially true of sustainable healthy eating habits that require a less is more approach.
A great example of a micro habit could look like this: If you frequently misplace your keys, you can create the micro habit of hanging them on a hook beside the door every time you enter your home. This becomes a sustainable lifestyle habit as you grow to expect the keys to be hanging by the door. This becomes a priority to hang them up as soon as you come in inside of dropping them wherever you sit down.
In the beginning, it will take conscious effort to remind yourself to hang the keys as you walk in. If done repeatedly, the action will become automatic and you won’t have to consciously think about it again. The micro habit eventually becomes automatic and the result is you never waste time or are late because you don’t misplace your keys.
Break Your Habit Down to the Barest Minimum to create sustainable lifestyle habits
Designing a micro habit requires breaking it down to the barest minimal essence of a task. Think of it like a step-by-step plan towards a goal. If you set a goal to ‘Eat Healthy’ you can create sustainable healthy eating habits by breaking the goal down until you create a micro habit that supports the goal and is sustainable for your lifestyle. A few examples of a micro habit to ‘Eat Healthy’ could be
- Carry an apple with you in your bag
- Eat one veggie per meal
- Drink one glass of water an hour before bed
- Eat fruit with breakfast
Any of these sustainable lifestyle habits will be easy to adopt and easily become a habit that is automatic over time. Carrying an apple with you can open up opportunities to not snack and create sustainable healthy eating habits. Eating one veggie per meal or drinking water an hour before bed can also help ease hunger. Creating the micro habit helps steer you towards the overall goal.
Did you know!? The great thing about sustainable lifestyle habits is they build on one another. Once a micro habit becomes automatic, it’s a great time to piggy back off of it and add a new micro habit. An example could be piggy backing drinking more water with eating healthier. After mastering a micro habit for adding more veggies in, you can tag a new micro habit that supports increasing water with it. An example could be
In between meals, I drink a 16 oz glass of water
When I wake up in the morning before breakfast I drink 32oz of water
Adding positive micro habits together increases their value and adds to your overall best practices in life. These can build to create sustainable healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime. Anytime that you come off track you can easily regroup and rebuild the sustainable lifestyle habits that you started. For more tips, insights, and tools please sign up for our mini series 10 Habits in Ten Days.