Healthy Tips Challenge

Week 6

This is the last week of the Healthy Tips Challenge! Congrats on finishing the series.

Week 6: Transforming positive changes to healthy habits

This week is the sixth and last Healthy Tips Challenge email of the series (I know, we're sad too!). This week's topic delves into strategies and tools to convert positive changes into sustained habits.

In his 2011 Ted Talk, Matt Cutts discusses the idea of the 30-day approach to change attesting that most good and bad habits are made or broken in at least 30 days. According to Cutts, "30 days is just about the right amount of time to add a new habit or subtract a habit from your life."

With this in mind, we encourage you to reflect on the small steps you've taken over the last six weeks. What's felt easy and why? What has been a challenge and how will you continue to work at it? Choose one or two goals to apply the 30-day approach to, making a concerted effort to work on these goals each day for 30 days. If these goals become habits (and we hope they do!), choose another goal to focus on. Using this 30-day concept, we hope you'll continue to take make lasting, healthy changes throughout 2019 and beyond.

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For example, replace dreading thoughts of a gym trip with rewarding thoughts like how you’ll get to listen to your favorite podcast or playlist and work off some of the day’s stress. Get yourself excited for an outdoor walk by imagining the beautiful vistas you'll see and the invigorating effects of fresh air and sweating. Visualize yourself doing these activities and enjoying them! Each time you do, these feelings will become more automatic. It may feel forced at first, but over time, your brain will naturally start to think of exercise as a rewarding and fun habit.

Way of Life - Habit Tracker
Way of Life - Habit Tracker

Take less than a minute each day to identify, track and—ultimately—change your habits with this easy-to-use and engaging app. Input the habits you'd like to change and track your success (or failures) each day. As you collect more information about your habits, you will be able to easily spot positive and negative trends in your lifestyle.

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9 TED Talks on Forming Better Habits
9 TED Talks on Forming Better Habits

There's a lot of research out there about habits—from creating new ones to breaking bad ones, to why some people find it harder than others to find motivation. Thanks to the TED Talk program, we can learn directly from the leading researchers behind insightful research and studies on forming better habits.

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Knowing that temptation, cravings, and urges are a normal part of any long-term change, it’s important to remember that negative urges are just feelings and we don't have to act on them. In fact, most cravings or urges last between 10 and 20 minutes before they fade away. Urge surfing means riding the urge or craving like a wave—not acting on it, but experiencing it and letting it pass.

Insight Timer
Insight Timer

We heard from you that this is one of the most helpful mindfulness and meditation apps out there. Insight Timer touts the largest free library of guided meditations on earth and the world’s most loved meditation timer, all for free.

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Relax Melodies
Relax Melodies

We can't help but include a plug for this relaxation app, combining over 100 calming sounds, melodies, binaural beats and white noise. Relax Melodies allows you to create your very own relaxing soundscapes. Play them all night or for a set period of time, thanks to its built-in timer.

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Instead of attempting drastic, deprivation-based diets, we like CNN’s advice for sustainable and healthy eating habits: adopt a set of guiding principles around eating and meals.

Examples are eating mostly vegetables and protein during meals, only eating while seated at the table, taking small portions and eating slowly, avoiding mindless snacking or only snack on fruits and vegetables, and eliminating processed sugars and grains.

See How You Eat
See How You Eat

This is a simple and easy-to-use photo food journal to help you to eat healthy and smart, all while photo-documenting and time tracking your meals. You can see at a glance all the meals you've had that day, nudging you to make healthier choices. Also, meal reminders help you to eat regularly so you'll feel more energetic throughout the day.

Food Tripping (iOS only)
Food Tripping (iOS only)

This app is great for those of us frequently traveling and on the go. With a growing database of eateries, healthy food markets, farmers’ markets, juice joints, artisanals, microbreweries, organic coffee spots and more, Food Tripping makes it simple to find healthier and more thoughtful food while you're on the road, or at home looking for inspiration.

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Congratulations! You've completed the last week of the Healthy Tips Challenge. All prize winners will be announced and notified by email in mid-March. Also, keep an eye out for a final email from us next week asking how you did with these tips.

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