Start Your Journey with a Healthy Mindset

By Ashley Lee, RD

Do you have the desire to change the way you eat and improve your health?

If you want to be consistent about making healthier food choices, it starts with your mindset. Here we’ll take a look at a few simple steps to help you create a healthy mindset for change:

• consider your readiness to change,
• visualize yourself improving a current behavior,
• reinforce your “why?”,
• and make a commitment to your endeavors.

First, consider this: are you ready?

When you think about your current eating habits and behaviors, can you see yourself making a change today or tomorrow? Do you feel ready?

Next, if you are ready to make a change, envision yourself making healthier choices, which with consistency will become healthier habits.

Visualize a healthier you – imagine yourself in the future, having set and met a goal for your health. You can be a healthy person. Identify as that healthy person because you are choosing to prioritize your health.

Then, think about your “why” – your personal motivation to eat well.

What are 1 or 2 immediate reasons why you want to change? Do you wish you had more energy; do you have inflammation that makes your body ache (that could improve with your diet)?  Search for a personal, compelling reason to make changes that will inspire you. You might consider things like, “I could be more productive at work and at home if I felt less tired,” or “With more energy, I’ll enjoy my day-to-day routine more.”

And finally, if you’re ready, consider that you want to make a commitment to your health.

Most of us are never perfect but we can make a commitment and work towards it every day. Tell a few trusted friends or family members about your commitment, and tell yourself your plans out loud and often. We can be our own personal coach and reinforce healthy behaviors that make up feel good if we choose commitment and stay the course (even if we aren’t perfect!).

I have a good friend who has always said to me that achieving good health is a marathon, not a sprint, and I agree.

So, be patient. Making small changes will create bigger changes over time. Take some time now to focus on your mindset, which will help you make new daily choices and will lead you to create new, healthier habits.