How do you build a vitamin routine? Can personalized vitamins help with staying committed to your routine? Drastic change does not always work. What does work is slow incremental change that moves you gradually closer to your ideal goal. Molding your daily habits over a period of months to years will ultimately add up to seismic change if you continually make adjustments in the right direction.
We have all been guilty of not flossing enough. We’ve been chided by the dentist year after year about the importance of flossing every day. However, it is the one time that the dentist asks you, “Why don’t you try flossing every other day?” that you think, “I can do that.” It alleviates the pressure.
The same holds true for exercise. If you are not a regular exerciser, the thought of embarking on a routine can be overwhelming to say the least. You see all those “health nuts” around you doing triathlon or spending hours at the gym. Not happening, right? That is not what you need to use as your goal. Use the dentalfloss principle. Something is better than nothing. Your initial exercise routine can consist of ten minutes a day of simple, at-home exercises or walking. The New York Times’ “Scientific 7-Minute Workout” is an intense program that literally takes seven minutes a day. We warn you, it is not easy and may require some ramping up to, but who can’t spare seven minutes?
Just as flossing every other day, rather than every day, is much less daunting, giving yourself simple, attainable goals can give you permission to make some of the positive changes that you know you need.
Eliminate one bad food from your diet, or one time of day when you tend to overindulge, commit to staying in control. You will not drop fifty pounds in a month this way (nor should you; it will never stay off), but you will make small progress.
Perhaps more importantly, you will get a taste of success. You will show yourself that changing habits is possible and you will give yourself permission to continue to make changes, small as they may be. The good news about adopting a plan is you already have the framework in place. Don’t think so? You really do.
You already have some structure to your daily life that serves as the basis for molding your behaviors. Even something as routine and simple as brushing your teeth can be paired with another activity. In fact, the more routine the behavior, the better. If you tell yourself in advance that you will not brush your teeth until you do ten pushups, this is an easy mechanism to ensure that you do ten pushups a day (or ultimately twice a day, depending upon your goal). The change will be best remembered if you tie a ribbon on your toothbrush or make some other form of a reminder paired with the habit. We often tell our customers who purchase daily Personalized Multivitamins™ to keep their vitamins on top of their coffee maker if this is part of their daily ritual.
So set some incremental goals. One plan may be to not let yourself shower for the day until you have exercised. Not a morning person? Make exercising on a treadmill or stationary bike part of your evening TV-watching routine. Don’t have the money or the space for at-home cardio equipment? Get a workout DVD/digital program, walk or run outside. Whatever means of exercise you choose, tie your intended activity with a regular (hopefully enjoyable) habit. You can then manipulate the length of your activity gradually over time. Fifteen minutes of exercise can extend to twenty, increasing by a minute each day.
Make getting your mammogram or going to the doctor part of a girls’ day shopping or going to the spa. What better way to celebrate your friendship than to make sure that you are each taking care of your own health? Likewise, turn your lunch date into a walking date. Keep each other accountable.
Dietary changes can also be tied to existing routines. You can plan to continue eating multiple enjoyable meals each day, but with advanced planning, you can replace some less healthful habits with better ones.
Your usual fast-food lunch can be replaced with a healthful lunch packed at home or a purchased salad, with an enjoyable treat built in for after lunch (three Hershey’s Kisses or some other satisfying but well-portioned treat). Or the reward can be slightly delayed to help get you through the day. A healthful lunch can be rewarded with a small frozen yogurt treat in the afternoon (perhaps replacing that bag of candy you typically have at that time).
Replacing bad habits with good can also have a powerful effect. For example, quitting smoking can be paired with starting an exercise routine. This helps for many reasons: It may replace your time when you might be smoking with something else to keep you busy. Instead of the after-dinner cigarette, make it an after-dinner walk around the block.
The exercise also helps combat the weight gain that can sometimes accompany quitting tobacco. Likewise, instead of going to the store to purchase cigarettes, put the money you would have spent in a jar each day. When you reach a target amount, go buy yourself a coveted item. Does this sound like a child’s sticker chart for good behavior posted on the fridge? It might. But that is okay, because it works. It gives you positive feedback on your good behaviors. Even the most disciplined of us need that to keep us moving forward.
As you work toward achieving various health goals, vitamins can play a crucial role in any comprehensive health regimen. They too require some planning and discipline. A personalized vitamin routine built for your health and lifestyle can motivate greater commitment to change. Knowing that the pill was designed to meet your needs can bestow higher degrees of confidence in the solution. An easy-to-swallow tablet with an all-in-one vitamins personalized formulation can help you stick with the change.