3 Ways to Get Back On Track for your 2024 Wellness Goals

What can you do if you had grand plans for the year, but fell off track sometime in January?

It happens to the best of us. We see this frequently in our one on one sessions and in our personal lives. . . we commit to a new health habit and it doesn’t stick.

Whether it’s because work got crazy or everybody in your family got sick (or both), falling off track seems to be the rule more than the exception.

So if you’re finding yourself looking for motivation and better strategies to make your new habits stick, here are 3 strategies to try.

#1. Small Is All: Make the Goal Smaller (for now)

Ambitious goals are great, but they can make us feel like we’re always so far away from where we want to be. Big goals may look like:

• I will get down to my post high school (or pre-baby) weight
• I will get to the gym 6 days per week.
• I’m going to follow a Mediterranean diet from now on for my health.

However, if you found that you fell off track, you may not have gotten enough small wins to build motivation. Try a smaller goal to build momentum more easily:

• I will improve my body composition by 2%
• I want to get to the gym 3 days per week and get a walk in if I don’t make it.
• I’m going to get 1 fist of produce in at every meal and use 2 cans of beans by the end of each week.

#3. Avoid these self-talk traps:

These are the most common barriers in our way when it comes to making actual behavior change:

• “When things settle down next week…once the kids are back in school…once this project at work is finished…once I’m back in my routine… THEN it will be easier.”  It will not be easier, and something else will come up. Focus on one day at a time: TODAY.

• “This week is already a wash. Might as well wait until next week when I can get a fresh start.” Months can go by like this!  What can you do today?

• “If I’m not doing it perfectly, I should just wait until I can do it right.”  Whether it’s a half-hearted meal prep or your hectic exercise schedule, remember that health changes are often incremental. One day you’re tasting a new veggie, the next month, you try cooking a new veggie. The next month, maybe it’s part of your weekly rotation!