With the New Year upon us peo­ple find them­selves with the usual goals that they have almost every year. Lose weight, save money, quit smok­ing etc etc, but how many of us really stick to them and actu­ally win the bat­tle of New Year’s res­o­lu­tions? I have over the past few months started a healthy regime of fight­ing the bat­tle to lose weight.

The key to mak­ing lifestyle changes is that first you have to really want to make it hap­pen. Sec­ond you need to be real­is­tic about it and start off day by day. Third writ­ing down your new goals and keep­ing it in front of you will keep you on top of the new goal.

My three new lifestyle changes that I was able to keep even though the rest fell by the way side were stop drink­ing soda, drink more water and take daily vit­a­mins. I have been doing this since late Novem­ber and to this day I have not had one diet coke! I was a huge soda and diet coke drinker. So this was some­thing that hon­estly I never thought that I could do. Here are some steps that I took to help cre­ate some healthy new lifestyle changes.

Step one:  I decided to stop drink­ing diet soda and found a healthy sub­sti­tute. I started mak­ing fresh brewed ice tea at home and have been drink­ing it unsweet­ened.  I also started drink­ing sparkling water with real lemon and lime juice in it. This tastes almost like a Sprite and is fizzy so takes bet­ter than plain water.

Step Two: I started drink­ing more water at work  and refill my water bot­tle every­day about three or four times. This way I am get­ting my water in for the day and it feels good to keep hydrated with water and not fill­ing up on sug­ary sodas liked I used to.

Step Three: Tak­ing daily vit­a­mins was some­thing I always for­got but now take two packs of vit­a­mins a day. The best way to do this is to have them with your meals and carry a few packs in your purse. So I always have mine with lunch and din­ner this way I for­get less since I usu­ally have my main meals everyday.

Tips for cre­at­ing healthy new habits for a new healthy lifestyle change.

1.) Real­ize it will not hap­pen overnight but may take 2 to 4 weeks until you are used to doing it.

2.) Find a healthy sub­sti­tute for your old habit that will help replace your old one.

3.) Pre­pare your­self if you are eat­ing healthy then make sure you always have the right sup­plies on hand  with healthy food and snacks. This will help ward off temp­ta­tion and make you less likely to cheat.

4.) Start out with just one or two changes until you are sure you can break the habit. You can add more changes later once you have mas­tered the first one or two lifestyle changes.

5.) Lifestyle changes are lifestyle changes they are not quick fixes. It can take you six months to make six pos­i­tive lifestyle changes but that is ok. These are long-term changes so don’t make the list too long or complicated.

In time you will have changed your old habits into healthy new lifestyle changes.