I’m obsessed with habits.
So I thought I’d do a blog post (and YouTube video) about the 10 healthy habits that have completely changed my life, as well as my best tips and tricks for sticking to them!
If you’ve been wanting to make a change but have been struggling to do it, make sure you keep reading this blog post!
1. Waking up early
Waking up early is definitely my favourite of all the habits I talk about in this blog post. It’s the one thing that immediately sets the tone for the day and gets me feeling organised and productive (which means it makes all of my other habits easier)!
The best bit is that you don’t have to wake up super early to feel the benefits – it can be as simple as giving yourself an extra 10 or 15 minutes in the morning to do something you love and you’ll still start the day feeling motivated and productive.
I think another reason I love this habit so much is because it’s really what helped me to get to into the position that I could quit my full-time job for blogging. When I was started working full-time as a grad accountant, I really struggled to find time for blogging. I wanted to do it when I got home from work but I was always too exhausted at the end of the day! So when I made the decision that I was going to start going all-in with blogging, I also decided that I was going to wake up early to make the time to do it (since doing it after work just wasn’t working).
So last year I started waking up at 4am so I’d have time to do a full 2 hours of blogging before I went to work everyday. And putting in that time is really what helped me create momentum and get to where I am today!
I’m definitely not saying you need to wake up at 4am (and in hindsight I still can’t really believe I did…) but it was such a game changer for me and I highly recommend it if there’s something you want to do everyday but you’re always too tired and unmotivated to do it at night!
Learn how: 6 Tricks To Becoming A Morning Person
2. Morning routine
If you’ve read my blog before, you probably already know that I’m obsessed with morning routines! Just like waking up early, a morning routine really sets that motivated tone for the day (which is why the two go together so well) especially if it’s a morning routine that includes a little bit of self development and a little bit of health and fitness!
Since I’ve already written quite a lot on morning routines, I’m just going to link all of that here for your reading pleasure:
- My Morning Routine – What I Do & Why
- 10 Ideas For Your Morning Routine
- My Step-By-Step Guide To Creating Your Perfect Morning Routine
But make sure you keep it simple! I totally get that you want 17 different things in your morning routine, but the simpler the better! I recommend choosing just two or three things that will have a positive impact on your day and starting there (once you’re in the habit you can always add more).
3. Meditation
My favourite meditation app is Headspace. For one, Andy (the narrator) has the most amazing British accent and I could listen to him talk for dayssss. But really Headspace does an amazing job of teaching the basics of meditation and the first 10 days are completely free (which you can repeat as many times as you want). If Headspace isn’t for you, you can also use other apps like Calm or any of the great free guided meditations you can find online (like these). But basically, if you’re not already picking up what I’m putting down, I recommend starting this habit with guided meditation!
Even though I’ve been meditating for a while, I still don’t feel like I’m not doing it ‘properly’ (because I spend most of the time thinking about random stuff like what groceries I need to buy) but I get the benefit, which is that I’m less reactive to everything that’s going on around me and I can pull myself out of negative thought loops and spirals very quickly. Highly recommend this habit if you ever feel scattered, anxious or overwhelmed!
4. Journaling
For journalling I personally love using the 5 Minute Journal but you could also do the Morning Pages (i.e. write out your thoughts stream of consciousness style), take 15 minutes to reflect on something you learned from a book or podcast or find some journalling prompts (I love these from my beautiful friend Jen of SimplyFiercely.com).
Whatever you choose, journalling is an amazing daily practice to help you increase your self-awareness (so you can have control over your emotions) and reach your goals!
5. Reading
I know how much of a struggle it can be to make time for reading, especially if you’re at work or uni all day and you’re tired AF when you get home. I’ve found that the easiest way to get into the habit of reading is to read 10 pages in the morning (I did a whole YouTube vid on some of my faves here) because it doesn’t take long and it means I finish an average-sized book every single month!
I also love using Audible to listen to audio books (especially during times when my eyes are extra tired) and the Kindle app when I’m travelling.
6. Creativity
Creating is one of those things that makes me feel like I’m a kid again, so I LOVE it. Especially when I’m creating purely for me. My favourite creative thing to do is write, but I also love some low key colouring in in one of my adult colouring in books, painting my nails and playing with make up. Other fun ways to be creative – taking photos, filming, drawing, editing. It can really be anything!
This isn’t just a habit for ‘creative’ people (I believe everyone’s creative but I’ll save that rant for another time) and the benefits are pretty similar to meditation – calmness and togetherness.
7. Healthy eating
There’s a lot to be said for the benefits of healthy eating – more energy, more brainpower, better sleep, better mindset. And I’m so glad that in the last year I’ve truly become consistent with my healthy eating habits (and have finally learned that it doesn’t have to be a struggle)!
I’ve always been quite a healthy eater (yes I’m one of those people that genuinely love salad…) but I also have a HUGE sweet tooth. And I used to really struggle to stay consistent with healthy eating because I was totally all-or-nothing! I’d try to eat 100% healthy and perfect. But if I ‘ruined’ my healthy eating with a sweet treat (which never took long) I’d completely give up and eat all the junk I could get my hands on!
But things changed last year I started investing in personal training. My trainer Jase helped me see that I needed to eat way more calories than I previously had been (he recommended approx 1,800 cals per day) so that my body could keep up with all the working out I was doing. And also just the act of paying a personal trainer gave me a lot of motivation to stay consistent – I’m sure as hell not going to spend my money on PT and eat heaps of junk at the same time! Having said that, part of what I consider to be ‘staying consistent’ is that I do have treats. But now, because I’ve learned how to stop triggering my all-or-nothing mindset, I can continue on with my healthy eating after I have a treat – instead of abandoning it!
I find one of the easiest ways to stay consistent with healthy eating is prepping my meals on Sundays and always making sure I have some healthy snacks on hand! And you definitely don’t need a personal trainer to be able to stay consistent with healthy eating! I’m just saying that, for me, investing in help and accountability made a huge difference!
8. Exercise
Just like healthy eating, I’ve always been into exercise. But it used to be such a struggle to stay consistent because of my all-or-nothing mindset! Case in point – I literally repeated Week 1 to 4 of Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide more than five times before I could actually finish it (I kept giving up at Week 5 and felt like I had to keep starting over from the beginning).
But again, just like with healthy eating, it was investing in someone (a personal trainer) to keep me accountable that really made all the difference! I always thought having a PT was a waste of money because I could figure everything out on my own. But last year, when I saw a million snapchats of Khloe Kardashian working out with her trainer, I just kept thinking that it would be so amazing to have one. And then I realised that I actually could have one. I got one. And I’ve never looked back!
Having someone there to keep me accountable, add variety, teach me new things and help me keep my goals focused on strength and performance has helped me stay so consistent. I personally do a mixture of high intensity workouts, strength sessions and running but I’ve done all sorts of things in the past (and I love group fitness classes). Working out doesn’t need to take long and it doesn’t need to be complicated. And in my experience, investing in someone to keep you accountable is totally worth it!
9. Saving money
When it comes to saving money, I’m never going to be the person that tells you to stop buying coffee and bring your lunch from home. Saving is a habit. And you can still have all of those little day-to-day things you love if you setup a system that takes care of your savings for you.
I’ve found that the easiest way to save money is to ‘pay myself first’ and to do it in an automated way. This is how I’ve saved up for all of my big overseas trips and I’ve actually written an in-depth blog post on exactly how I do it – read it here if you want to know more. But my biggest advice is to start small – just $50 per pay (depending on your income) is a great place to start. Once you’ve adjusted to that, you can start putting away a little more and then a little more. But small, incremental change is key!
10. Staying organised
My favourite way to stay organised has been to create habits around things that make me feel organised – a tidy desk, a plan, painted nails and prepared meals. Most of these things don’t take long at all (except maybe meal prep, but I only do that once a week) but spending just 5 or 10 minutes a day doing things that will help me feel organised has a huge impacted on my day!
If I have some tidying to do, I’ve found the best thing to do is set a timer! I can get a lot done in 20 minutes and without a timer I get easily distracted.
Watch The YouTube Video
How to stick to healthy habits
As I’ve mentioned, I used to struggle with so many of these habits thanks to my all-or-nothing mindset! It was so hard to stay consistent and once I fell out of a habit, it took me ages to start again because I was so scared I’d just disappoint myself.
But I finally figured out how to stay consistent with habits!
And Dream Habit is the online course I created to teach my exact step-by-step method for creating (and sticking to) healthy habits as someone with an all-or-nothing mindset. This is the method I’ve used to stay consistent with all of the healthy habits I talk about in this blog post!
The course itself is pretty simple – it starts with a planning sesh that takes less time than a few episodes of Netflix (and there’s a pretty workbook to help you) and then you’ll create your new habit over the following 28 days! I designed this course specifically for people like me who are all-or-nothing when it comes to habits, so you don’t need to worry if you’ve struggled to stay consistent before (and actually that means the course is perfect for you).
Plus sticking to your dream habit will actually be easy because you’ll have learned how to stop triggering your all-or-nothing mindset and you won’t make the same mistakes with planning! AND I’ll be there to keep you accountable (and give you personal coaching) in my live online workshops every two weeks – so if you do start struggling, it won’t be for long!
So that’s how it works in a nutshell! If you want a little more detail than that (like what I teach in each lesson and that kind of thing) either have a look here.
I hope you find this post helpful!
Sam xx
P.S. If you’re a procrastinator, keep reading to learn about my online course for procrastinators called Get Out Of Your Own Way:
Take your life to the next level
Four years ago, I found myself trapped in a vicious cycle of procrastination and guilt. Whenever I tried to do simple life tasks (like going to the gym, eating right and organising my time) it felt like I was trying to move mountains!
After work, I was too exhausted to do anything more than make food and lay in bed watching another episode of my favourite show. I kept telling myself I deserved a break, but I never enjoyed it. I felt guilty for wasting my time but I didn’t stop (and when I did find myself with time to do the things I wanted, I just kept procrastinating – gahh!).
And I wish it stopped there, but then I beat myself up for procrastinating! I felt like I was behind everyone else and letting everyone down, so I procrastinated even more.
No matter how many hours I spent reading motivation articles on Pinterest or how many times I filled out a new planner, I just couldn’t make myself change – even though I knew I was the one stopping myself from progressing. And I had all the advice right in front of me!
And because this whole situation was frustrating AF (and I knew I was better than that, even though I didn’t have the evidence to prove it) I dedicated myself to figuring out how to stop sabotaging my own success.
After trying hundreds of different things, it finally clicked! And this year I’ve been able to quit my full-time job for blogging, I’m more productive and focused than I’ve ever been in my life and I’ve finally stopped feeling like I’m behind! Plus it’s actually easy to workout everyday and eat healthy (which I never thought would be possible).
And since everything I’ve learned has COMPLETELY changed my life, I decided to put the very best of it together in a step-by-step course!
My online course for procrastinators
Get Out Of Your Own Way is a self-paced online video course that gives you the tools and mindset shifts you need to stop procrastinating, follow through with all your plans and have the courage to finally pursue your dreams – even if your life is totally overwhelming and you have no idea what you want to do!
I’ll just let you know that this course won’t be for you if you’re looking for quick-fix procrastination tips (let’s be real – you’ve seen all those already and they haven’t worked) or you’re afraid to dig deep and uncover the real reasons you’ve been holding yourself back.
But if you’re ready to make a change and need someone to guide you through the very first step – it could be just the thing you need!
Hi Sam! Great post. 7-9 are definitely my focus areas right now. My boyfriend and I exercise together and while it is not a personal trainer it has the same effect of someone holding you accountable and giving you motivation for going hard in the workout. A workout buddy can be a great source of motivation!
Thanks Allyson! I workout with my boyfriend too – I love doing it as a couple and it definitely helps us both stay motivated xx
I don’t know how you could manage to get out of bed at 4am! I wake up at 6:30 and feel like that’s pushing it. I love your motivation and these are great habits to get into for sure! Congratulations on making blogging your full-time gig!
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Thanks so much Lindsey! In hindsight 4am was a little drastic haha but that extra time in the morning made all the difference! xx
I would love to start having a solid morning routine! I am moving out in a few weeks and look forward to creating my own space and developing the perfect morning routine! I’m always looking for ways to max out my twenties and be a #girlboss! Love this post!
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I need to start waking up earlier – I’ve been so bad at it this time of year. I feel like I would be so much more productive during my day! I also love your mention of creativity – that is crucial for healthy living. And food, food, food. That’s the basis for everything.