Let me know if you’re guilty of this: When it’s time to make a change — whether a new diet, workout plan, habit, whatever — if you don’t go all in or do it perfectly, you feel like you’ve failed and then you quit.

Over and over again.

Do I see you nodding your head? If not, good for you! If so, I’m with you. And so are most people.

It’s fair to say that many of us take on an all-or-nothing approach whenever we want to make a change. Yes, we usually do it with good intentions — we just want to get a running start and make great progress, fast. And while that’s commendable (and natural), we’re invariably setting ourselves up for failure. Why? Because sweeping life and habit changes are hard to sustain. 

Think of all the New Year’s resolutions you’ve made in the past. How many of them are you still doing today? How many were you still doing a month or two into the new year? Right. That’s my point.

So how can you make health changes become your long-term healthy lifestyle habits? 

How can you finally lose those last few pounds, start an exercise program you’ll stick to, and get the sleep and hydration your body craves?

By starting small. Because, yes, little changes add up to big results.

Small Changes Add Up

If you hadn’t jogged more than a mile in your life, would you expect to wake up one day and run a marathon without any training or preparation? Of course not. You’d have to start small and build your way up. 

The same is true with any healthy lifestyle change.

So here are some small changes I’d recommend to get you going…

1. Add Bone Broth to your diet

Bone Broth is bursting with collagen-packed protein, nourishing nutrients, and hunger-satisfying taste. It can help you control hunger cravings and even help smooth away wrinkles. It’s a small addition you can make to your healthy lifestyle that can deliver huge gut-healing, energy-raising, bloat-slashing results.

You can incorporate Bone Broth into your diet in any number of ways, and those few cups a day can be absolutely life-changing. 

2. Swap Hours and Hours of Meditation for Simpler Breathwork Sessions

You know that stress management and mindfulness can help you get and keep healthy habits. But if sitting still in silence, meditating for more than five minutes at a time, is an all-out struggle for you, you are not alone.

This is partly why I’m a huge advocate of breathwork. We can use the power of our breath to pull back in and calm down our minds and our bodies. When we do that, we tend to make better choices for ourselves and our health. 

While meditation will always be one of my favorite ways to combat stress and become more mindful, breathwork is also a solid choice — plus, it’s quick and easy.

Need some guidance on breathwork? Check out my Digging In episode on YouTube, right HERE.  

3. Hydrate

Water keeps your body in peak working order. Without proper hydration, your muscles, circulation, joints, skin, electrolytes, cells, and even your body temperature won’t work or regulate as well as they would when you’re properly hydrated.  

If you’re not used to drinking much water, instead of diving right in and slugging down ten massive bottles on Day 1, ease into your new routine by starting with a glass or two more than you would normally drink. As your body acclimates — due to your hormones and kidney function changing and helping your body become more efficient — you may even find yourself craving more water, leading you to naturally increase your consumption. 

If you know you want to increase your hydration but still hate the idea of gulping down plain water, check out this Hydration Helpers post for some ideas.

4. Prep healthy snacks

When you want to lose weight, you may think you have to eat nothing but bowl after bowl of spinach or kale. And while I am a big salad lover, trying to exist on leaves alone will A) not last long and B) not be even remotely healthy for you.

Begin or enhance your healthy-eating plan by preparing good-for-you snacks ahead of time so that when you get hungry, you’re not raiding the cupboards or reaching for quick, unhealthy packaged foods.

Slice up peppers, hard-boil some eggs, simmer a batch of homemade bone broth, and stock up on some grab-and-go Collagen Fiber Bars. Keep all these healthy snacks handy and at eye-level in your kitchen so they’re the first things you see when you get the munchies. If you’re going to be out and about, pack up single-serving sizes and take them with you.

Once you transition into healthier snacking habits and are feeling great (and satisfied!), you’ll naturally want to experiment with healthier meals. Soon, the small snacking change will snowball into a full healthy mealtime makeover.

5. Take every chance you can to move your body

Movement is vitally important to your well-being, but launching into a hardcore weight-lifting program or exercising seven days a week for two hours a pop is not smart, healthy, or sustainable.

What is sustainable, however, is taking the stairs whenever you can. 

Also sustainable? Doing a series of leg lifts as you’re standing at the stove, making dinner. 

Or stretching before bed… or taking a short walk at lunch… or doing a set of push-ups against the wall as you wait for your morning coffee to brew.

I know these actions may seem small, but they all count as movement. And if you do them at the same time each day, they are likely to become habits. 

6. Try a ready-for-you kit

Sometimes you’re ready to make a change, and you have both the bandwidth and desire to go all-in for a short time, so you can reset your system and prep yourself for long-lasting changes.

Enter a ready-for-you program, like my 5 Day Cleanse & Reset kit.  

This kit requires zero prep work and no other ingredients other than water. The plan is laid out for you, and pre-packaged in an easy-to-follow, fool-proof way. 

In just 5 short days, you can load your body up with the highest quality vitamins, minerals, nutrients, collagen, and proteins, so you can flush out toxins, increase your energy, improve your gut health, lose weight, and look and feel younger. Plus, you’ll have instituted sustainable habits (like integrating Bone Broth into your diet) and know firsthand how amazing it feels to enjoy nutrient-dense drinks and smoothies.

Celebrate Your “Little” Wins

As you’re adding “small” changes to your daily routine in order to better your health for the long-term, don’t forget that those “small” changes aren’t small at all.

Every step you take to improve your health is a BIG win, and they should all be celebrated!

And, yes, I mean that every time you do a set of leg lifts at the stove, you should celebrate that.

Maybe you won’t treat yourself to a spa day just for completing one set, but you can certainly say a celebratory affirmation. Try, “I am so committed to my wellness that I find time to squeeze in healthy habits anytime, and anywhere.” Boom! You get instant gratification for the recognition of a job well done, and you get the benefits of doing those lifts.

As your “little” health changes add up and you start seeing results, you can celebrate as big as you want. In the meantime, choosing a new nail polish color after a week of consistent healthy snack prep, or investing in a cute water bottle once you’ve upped your water intake, can reinforce your healthy behaviors and show your brain that you love those behaviors so much you want to keep them.

When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, all progress is good progress. So keep adding in those good habits, no matter how small they seem… because after a while, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them.