How to Set Yourself Up for Success

Okay, let’s be honest: being healthy can be hard. work. It means being incredibly intentional about what you put into your mouth. It means constantly motivating and encouraging yourself and saying “no” to more things than you might want to. It means meal planning, spending more time in the kitchen, and dragging your butt to the gym even when it’s -25ºC outside (seriously, Canada, this is getting ridiculous…).

That being said, there are certain things we can do to make our journey towards good health a little bit easier. In today’s post, I’ll give you my top tips on how to set yourself up for success when it comes to your health.

1. Don’t keep tempting foods in the house.

The expression “out of sight out of mind” is extremely applicable here. If you see your favourite cookies staring back at you every time you open a cupboard, chances are it’s going to be really hard to avoid eating them. Do yourself a favour and simply don’t buy the foods you crave.

2. Plan out your meals ahead of time and grocery shop accordingly.

There’s nothing worse than coming home after a long day of work and having no idea what you want to eat. And when hunger takes over, it becomes all too easy to say, “Screw the diet, I’m getting take-out!” When you take the time to intentionally plan out what you’re going to eat and buy the right groceries, it becomes a lot harder to justify buying some crappy meal that’s devoid of any nutrients.

3. Eat regularly.

If you don’t set aside time to eat breakfast or lunch throughout the day, chances are you’re going to come home famished. At that point, it’s not about “mind over matter”; your body desperately needs some calories and will stop caring where they come from. Help yourself out by eating on a regular schedule throughout the week so your blood sugar levels never get low enough for poor decision-making to occur.

4. Make double portions of everything.

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As someone who lives alone, it can be easy to say that there’s “no point” in cooking a big dinner just for myself. But now I just make big batches of all of my meals and freeze them when I can. That way, I have lunches and dinners already made throughout the week. And on the days where I don’t have anything prepared, I can just grab a Tupperware out of my freezer and throw it in the microwave. Having healthy, homemade foods on hand has seriously made my life so much easier!

5. Go to bed earlier.

So many people I work with say they’re most likely to snack on unhealthy foods before bed. The simplest solution here is to simply turn off the Netflix and go to bed. Not only will this stop you from snacking, but you’ll reap the benefits of getting a few extra hours of zzz’s.

6. Keep healthy snacks on hand to satiate your cravings for sugar and salt.

Okay, so you haven’t gone to bed earlier (tisk, tisk). You can still set yourself up for success by making sure that you have healthier versions of your favourite snack items on hand. If you have a sweet tooth, check out my post on some good options. More of a salt person? I have a blog post for you, too.

7. Get a buddy.

When I had a personal trainer back in the day, one of the main benefits was being held accountable. If I didn’t feel like working out that day, tough! We had scheduled an appointment and I was expected to be there. If you can’t get a personal trainer, ask a friend if they’d be willing to play a part in your health journey (and do the same for them, too)!

The Bottom Line

Eating healthy is hard enough as it is. But keeping unhealthy foods in the house, failing to meal prep, and coming home from work starving are surefire strategies to fall off the wagon and not meet your goals. Using these simple yet effective strategies, you can increase your odds of sticking to your goals exponentially.