You’ve read the articles. You know — the ones that tell you to get up early and exercise before your day starts? Or the ones that advise you to spend time doing food prep to make sure you have healthy food choices at your fingertips. It’s all part of living a healthy lifestyle, a goal you continually work toward. The experts who give this advice are 100 percent correct, and I have strived to follow their advice and incorporate healthy choices throughout my adult life.
But what happens when your busy life gets even busier? Some may even call it crazy. This explains the current state of my life, so I’ll share some of my tips and perhaps we can help keep each other accountable. Because as you will learn in a minute, accountability is key—for me anyway—and studies show that more people will reach their goals when they recruit a partner.
My journey
First, a little about me, my healthy living journey, and my busy schedule. For more than half my life, I adhered to the following routine: get up early and work out before starting my job at 8 a.m. It all changed in January 2021 when my first manuscript was accepted. Now I am a fiction author, writing a few books per year and marketing those novels—a full-time job in itself. Since there aren’t enough hours in the day, and I need my job to pay the bills, exercise is what I gave up. I’m still working to get it back. And you know what helped—a buddy!
4 Steps to incorporate healthy choices
1. Recruit a partner to keep you accountable.
For me, that was a neighbor who I enlisted to walk with me each night after dinner, and we have kept that up for almost two months now. If I walked alone, it would be too easy to cancel on myself. I never bail on Meghan because I know she depends on me. And guess what? Age doesn’t matter! Meghan is 25 to my 48 and we keep up with each other just fine! We talk the whole time, and I enjoy getting to know more about her while we walk our neighborhood for 45 minutes to an hour. Our schedules usually match up to do this about four nights per week.
Walking is a great way to get your blood pumping through exercise. If you don’t have someone to accompany you, then take the next best thing—your phone—to call a friend or listen to music or a podcast. Walking is a great way to multitask and check off other goals simultaneously.
Friends can also keep you accountable, even from another state. Make a pact to text each other daily and report back what you did that day to maintain a healthy lifestyle, whether it be exercising, food prep, healthy food choices or all of the above. This too makes a big difference.
2. Start small.
My past workout plans have included everything from running, biking, and swimming to training for a race or a triathlon. I also am a big fan of completing workout videos in my basement. Still, for some reason, I haven’t been motivated to exercise on my own. So, for this season, walking works for me to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Do what works for you and give yourself some grace. Once you master your current routine and want to set new goals, you have the flexibility to do so.
3. Set measurable goals.
Setting goals is another key to achieving success, and studies back this up as well. I’m extremely goal-oriented—when I set my mind to something, I will put the steps in place to achieve it. But not everyone is like me, a fact I was recently reminded of when spending the day with a good friend. She told the story of how she joined a gym simply to get healthy again. She worked with a personal trainer who made her set at least two goals. My friend told me she couldn’t come up with any. For her, making that commitment to work out three days a week was enough. But the trainer pushed her, and now she’s bench pressing and doing full pushups like a pro, something she never dreamed of doing. “I feel so strong,” she told me.
I was so proud of my friend, but also laughed when she told me this story. “If it were me, I would have told the trainer, ‘I want to do this, this, and this, and I want it all done by next week.’” Obviously, there was exaggeration here, and we enjoyed a good laugh, but that’s just the way I think. I’m a goal setter. If this doesn’t come naturally to you, it’s okay. Work at it, and you will get there. And you will be so proud of what you accomplished.
4. Plan ahead.
Whether it’s scheduling exercise, food prep, or grocery shopping, place it in your schedule. I know for me if I don’t plan, I will fail. If I buy vegetables and take the time to cut them up and take them to work with me, I will eat them. If I say I’m going to meet my walking partner, I do it. If I tell my 15-year-old we will go to the Farmer’s market every week after church, I follow through. You get the idea. Whatever goal you want to accomplish, schedule it in your day.
That accountability partner comes into play here as well. If you don’t have someone who can help you with these things, I promise you, there is a community of people who would love to motivate you and help keep you on track. From Facebook groups to meetups in your local area, the Internet and social media make it easier than ever to find like-minded people to help.
Good luck, and when you fumble, don’t give up. Tomorrow is a new day, and you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.
About the Author
Tara Taffera is an author who loves to stay healthy and active. She writes contemporary Christian romance from her home in Stafford, Va. When she’s not writing or working in her full-time job, she likes to take walks and spend time biking when she can with her husband of 25 years. You can learn more about her at tarataffera.com and find her on most of the major social media platforms. Follow her on pinterest.
I can’t speak enough about the importance of goal setting, particularly goals that are manageable and realistic to obtain. Start small and build your goals from there for consistent results.