Your habits say a lot about who you are.

Put another way: You look like your habits.

Confucius said, “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.”

John Dryden added, “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”

And Aristotle noticed that, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

It’s pretty clear that the habits you adopt will shape who you are.

What are your habits?

Do you practice mindful nutrition, train consistently, and get quality sleep each night?

Or maybe you’ve made a habit out of eating something sweet before bed, avoiding the gym, and staying up as late as possible.

When it comes to your fitness, the two habits that define you are your eating and exercise habits.

In fact, everyone that you know who is in great shape has dialed in these two important habits.

If you aren’t happy with your body, then simply adjust your eating and exercise habits.

How to Build Better Habits

What do you need help with right now? 

Maybe you would like to lose 10 pounds of bodyfat but you struggle with food-binging habits at night.

To make big changes you must start small.

Follow these habit-building strategies to upgrade your life.

✏️ 1. Choose one habit that you would like to develop

It’s tempting to pick up 3 or 4 healthy habits, but choosing just one new habit is more realistic and actually doable.

Here are some healthy-habit ideas:

• Do not eat after 8:00PM. At our house we say, "Kitchen's closed!"
• Bring your lunch to work instead of eating fast food or vending-machine junk.
• Exercise 4 times a week for 45 minutes each session.
• Do your workouts early, or mid-afternoon, or at night.

Just be consistent in whatever time you choose.

✏️ 2. Write your new habit down on paper

Also include your three main motivators for developing this new habit, the obstacles you’ll face, and your strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Here’s an example:

• My new habit is to work with a personal coach four times each week.
• My three main motivators are
  • to feel confident in my bathing suit this summer,
  • to have more energy, and
  • to feel like my younger self.
• The obstacles I will face are
  • not having the energy to go to my session,
  • not budgeting money to invest in coaching sessions, and
  • not having my spouse’s support.
• I will overcome these obstacles by
  • doing my workouts before the day gets in the way, so I have more energy,
  • cutting down on frivolous spending to ensure that I can afford coaching, and
  • asking my spouse to join me so we can get in shape together.

✏️ 3. Commit fully to your new habit, in a public way

This could mean posting it on social media, or simply announcing it at the dinner table.

Put yourself in a position where you’ll be embarrassed to give up on your new habit.

✏️ 4. Keep track of your progress

You could keep a detailed journal or simply make a check mark on each calendar day that you successfully complete your new habit.

Once your new habit becomes second nature, usually in about 30 days, feel free to add a second habit by going through the same steps.

My suggestion is to focus on implementing healthy habits (aka prevention) and fix your health issues BEFORE things become broken.

If you are ready to focus on prevention, go HERE.

To your success,

Coach Joe

Joseph Arangio helps 40+ men and women get leaner, stronger, and happier. He's delivered over 100,000 transformation programs to satisfied clients around the globe. If you want to lose weight from home, with the best online personal trainer, or you want to visit the best personal trainer in the Lehigh Valley, you can take a free 14-day trial.