Have you been thinking about eating healthier, moving your body more, or losing a bit of extra weight, but feel stuck like a fly in sticky tape?

Do you start doing any of those things only to stop sometimes before the day is even done? “Hello, 4:00 p.m.! Where’s my sugary pick-me-up?”

I get it and let’s just say you’re not in the right head space because let me tell you, it’s all in your head. Your noodle, grey matter, melon (aka brain) can stop you from doing pretty much anything.

It doesn’t like change. It likes to keep you nice and safe, boring and the same, day in and day out.

So how do you actually make healthy changes then?

Well, you need to work on your mindset first.

5 Ways to help healthy changes stick

Use positive thinking

Positive thoughts and emotions are powerful and can be a great motivator. Take weight loss for example, instead of feeling guilty or shame that you can’t fit into your pants think how great it will be to fit into your favorite jeans again.

Ditch the All or Nothing Mentality

Are you having trouble starting a new healthy change because everything isn’t ready? Don’t have the perfect pair of workout pants, don’t have 5 healthy breakfast recipes, and how could you start without some kind of meditation ready to go?

Don’t get in the trap of thinking everything needs to be perfect before you start anything new. It’s a great excuse your brain is telling you so it doesn’t have to do anything different. Any pair of comfortable pants are great for a workout, start with 1 healthy breakfast recipe, pick one of the many (hundreds) of meditations online and go for it!

Once you finally start, you may find you’re not able to do EVERYTHING you want all at once. So you feel frustrated and give up.

People fail all the time. It’s a fact of life, and it’s how we learn and grow, so just accept that a certain amount of failure is a given.

Go back and analyze why you might have failed. Was it too many changes all at once, you’re truly not ready for the change, you didn’t prepare for your day? Make your tweaks, get help, support and keep going.

Don’t try and do everything all at once

Hmm, does that sounds familiar? Trying to change everything all at once, from what you eat to how much you exercise, is a sure way to fail.

Ever wonder why the gyms are so busy in January, and by the end of February, it’s back to just the regulars?

When you’re making healthy changes, be small and specific.

Instead of saying, “I’m going to eat healthier,” say, “I’m going to eat a healthy lunch” (small) for the next five days (specific).Doing that will result in a habit that leads to change. Again, be realistic with your goals for change, and each small one will take you down a path to where you want to be.

Commit to a plan

Have you ever done something in your business or at work without a clear plan involving steps you need to take and tools you need to get the result you want? Okay, my hand is up. How about yours? How’d that go for you? Me? Not so well.

The same goes for your health. You need a plan and path to follow.

You need to know what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it and you need to commit to your goal mentally. Big or small, everything starts from there.

Use the right tools and get support

If your goal is to eat healthier so that you can have more energy, then you’re at the very least going to need some kind of meal plan to do that, or a cheat sheet on the healthy foods you want to incorporate into your diet.

Change is hard enough to do without doing it by yourself. Getting support (and knowledge) from a coach, or even using an app that can help you stay motivated are both ways to get support.