Healthy Weight Week (January 17th-23rd) serves as an annual observance to kick off healthy eating habits as a way of life instead of dieting to lose weight.

One week is rarely enough time to establish any permanent changes but it is a great launching point to start a new journey of better choices.

The best way to start a healthy habit is to determine a potential change that excites you. When you think of a stereotypical checklist of healthy living, what comes to mind? You probably think of things like eating more fruits and veggies, working out, drinking more water, etc. Which healthy action pulls you in, excites you, and feels doable? If you don’t like working out, then that probably isn’t your best choice. But maybe you love broccoli and wouldn’t mind having an extra serving of your favorite veggie every day. Let’s start small and establish that as your new habit.

From here, it’s important to follow the process and take it slow. We all know Rome wasn’t built in a day so putting pressure on yourself to “lose X-pounds by X-date” can feel like an unattainable mountain off in the distance when you don’t see the scale move. A goal like that is a results-oriented goal that you don’t have 100% control over. If you focus instead on a process-driven goal, you can take one day or habit at a time, feeling successful each time you accomplish your new habit-change. Every time you eat a “little tree,” you will feel proud of yourself.

Next, don’t overwhelm yourself. Your new habit does not need to be a daily one. If the idea of eating broccoli every single day is just too much, you can sub in your second favorite veggie every other day, or you can simply pick a certain number of days per week to add broccoli to a meal. The same premise works if your initial goal is to add in 2 servings of veggies per day. If that seems overwhelming, back it off to just 1 extra serving per day.

When setting a new habit as part of a process-oriented goal, the best way to calculate your potential success is to ask yourself if you are “ready, willing, and able” to do your new habit. Ready – Do you want to ? Willing – Are you open to now? Able – Do you have the skills, resources, and ability to ?

What will your first habit change be to kick off Healthy Weight Week? If you are still struggling or unsure where to start, reach out to me, Faith Elliott, for some ideas. If you are interested in a more thorough process of nutrition coaching, I would be happy to set you up with a 1-hour assessment, where we would discuss your goals, understand your “why,” and get you going with action steps right away. Here’s to Healthy Weight Week being your launching pad towards a healthier, fitter 2021!