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Anyone that’s ever tried to break a bad habit can tell you that habits are extremely powerful.  Healthy habits can form the basis of a healthy lifestyle that feels automatic and consistent, allowing you to eliminate any excuses you might have used in the past to skip a workout or overindulge in an unhealthy meal.  When we form habits, we are literally changing the brain’s neural pathways. If we can create bad habits that harm our health and wellness this way, we should be able to reverse the process and make healthy habits that form the basis of our daily routines.  FitClub has four easy ways to make a healthy habit that sticks!

1. Commit to thirty days, every day. Doing something every day makes it easier than a less frequent attempt.  If you’re committed to making exercise a habit in 2020, first commit to exercising everyday for thirty days.  After thirty days, your neural pathways will begin to associate exercise as non-negotiable daily event and you might find that it is more difficult to craft an excuse to skip your workout.


2. Recruit a friend. Accountability matters when you’re intentionally trying to form a healthy habit. If you find that it’s difficult to hold yourself accountable, try recruiting a friend that can meet you at FitClub for a group exercise class or share the workout with you.  You’ll likely find that it’s far more difficult to cancel on a friend than it is yourself.  Instead of catching up over cocktails at happy hour this year, try catching up over reps and sprints.


3. Create a ritual. We all have certain rituals that we practice without noticing.  Perhaps every morning before preparing for work, you make a cup of coffee and read the newspaper.  This simple, common ritual allows you to mentally prepare for what comes next in your busy day.  A ritual should be something that you can easily replicate, that calms your nerves and mentally prepares you for the challenge ahead.  A ritual that you can incorporate into a new workout habit might be a gentle stretch that increases your blood flow and allows you the mental space to prepare for your workout.  After an invigorating workout at FitClub, you can also give yourself a calming ritual to look forward to by stretching out sore muscles and sitting in the sauna to unwind before you reenter your day.


4. Replace negative thoughts with a positive thought. Negative thoughts often hold us back from our happiest, healthiest selves more than any other external factor.  If you find yourself thinking that you “can’t” or “won’t” stick with a workout program or that you’ll fail no matter what you try, it’s time to replace the negative self talk.  The next time you are caught up in a spiral of negative thoughts, try replacing just one with something positive.  “I can and I will,” is a simple, effective mantra that you can carry with you through a negative thought pattern you might be inclined to suffer.

What healthy habits are you creating for a better, happier 2020?