Last Updated on April 24, 2024
Everyone has changes they would like to make in their lives. It could be anything from spending less money, eating out less, or exercising more. While it’s easy to say you want to make these changes, it’s more difficult actually to do them. When you decide you want to make a change, it’s enticing to go out and make several huge lifestyle changes all at once, but research shows that there are better ways to approach it.
Everyone decides to make huge changes to their way of life, especially around January 1st, but only 8% of people complete those New Year’s Resolutions. Why do the other 92% fail? Because they go and make drastic changes on January 1st. Instead of making big changes all at once, making smaller changes over a longer period of time gives better results.
As a person with diabetes, there are two main areas that many of us could stand to make some lifestyle changes: diet and fitness. Not only will making changes to your diet and exercise help manage your diabetes, but it will also make you feel better. So if you’re looking to make positive changes in your fitness and food, don’t run a marathon and throw out all your food except for your veggies, there is a better way.
Exercise
If you want to start exercising more, there are a few small changes you can make to help you get there. The best way is to do a couple of minutes of exercise every day with one of your regular habits. For example, let’s say you do ten pushups every morning after you brush your teeth, sounds easy enough right? After two weeks, you should be able to do 15 pushups every morning and night after you brush your teeth. After two months you should be doing 30 pushups every time you brush your teeth. The same principle can be attached to any exercise. If you want to start walking or running more, start every day with lunch, eventually, you’ll be walking one mile, then two, and so on and so on.
Diet
Changing your diet works the same way. Don’t make any drastic changes all in one day, start slow by making small changes. Instead of snacking on chips during your lunch break or after dinner, go with vegetables and hummus or low-fat dressings. After you no longer despise the idea of eating vegetables, start cooking a healthy dinner once or twice a week. After you’ve been making healthy meals, begin to take a healthy lunch to work, or make a healthy breakfast instead of skipping it.
To further your chances of sticking to your changes, find someone to help you. Having someone that is working towards the same goal can give you more motivation to stick to your resolutions. Not only can that person be a cheerleader for you, but also an accountability partner when you are starting to slip into your old habits. Be sure that you and this person check-in frequently to see how your new habits are going.
Making lifestyle changes isn’t always easy. Expect to have a few setbacks during your journey, but don’t get discouraged. Learn from the mistakes you make and see how you can avoid them in the future. If you begin to skip your pushups in the morning because you’re too tired, change the routine to doing pushups after lunch. If you’re too busy to cook dinner, start preparing all of your food ahead of time, so you’ll only have to put it in the oven. Don’t let anything stop you from making the changes you want.
It’s easy to say that you want to workout more, exercise more, and manage your diabetes better, but talking about it gets you no where. It’s never too late to improve your lifestyle and become a healthier you.
Using a few of these simple tips you can create changes that will turn you into the healthy person you want to be.
