When you talk about health and fitness, you hear a lot about macros, cardio, strength training, etc.
While all of these things are important, the most important component is mindset.
If you have the right mindset, preparing your meals beforehand becomes very easy. If you have the right mindset, going to the gym becomes very easy.
All of the pieces of the puzzle become that much easier when you have the right mindset.
This begs the question, how do we get into the right mindset?
There are many components to achieving a healthy and positive mindset- the most influential is gratitude.
Gratitude can be an extremely powerful tool.
In order to get into a growth mindset and reach your fitness goals, you must first have gratitude
According to positive psychology, gratitude leads to more happiness which in turn results in more success.
Implementing habits that encourage gratitude don’t have to be complicated. It has been shown that writing down 3 things that you are thankful for each day for 7 days can lead to increased happiness for 6 months after the fact.
Once your mindset is in the right place, implementing habits that propel you to your goals will come more easily.
Did you know that 80 percent of our lives are spent on autopilot? This means that the majority of our lives are spent engaging in our daily habits or routines.
If you consider your daily habits and routines, are they pointing you away or towards the direction of your goals?
If we simply cut out the negative habits rather than replace them, they will sneak back in and take us even further away from our goals.
When we think about habits, we have to consider the Cue, the Routine and then the Reward.
For example, a common goal is to lose body fat. 
It is easier than you think to add unnecessary calories through alcohol consumption. Here are average calories in common mixed drinks.
Although people may be trying to lose weight, at the end of their day they are having 2 drinks. Doing this occasionally is okay, but on a daily basis this can add up to 2100 extra empty calories over the course of a week.
In this case, the cue is the end of the day, the routine is drinking, and the reward is the feeling of satisfaction for receiving a treat after a long day. However, this habit is one that pushes us away from our goals.
The key is not to cut out the routine, but to replace it with another one that gives us a similar kind of reward.
On weeknights, replace your two alcoholic drinks with a glass of kombucha, sparkling water or tea and continue to have a couple of drinks on the weekend nights. By trying to remove that habit entirely from your life, you are more likely to fail but by replacing it with a healthier alternative, you can still enjoy the same feeling of satisfaction without adding extra calories.
These new routines that we implement can have the power to bring us closer to our goals while making us feel just as good. It could be watching an episode of your favorite show, going for a walk, meditating or anything else that helps you unwind at the end of the day.
With the proper mindset and healthy actions set up as habits rather than daily tests of willpower, you can set yourself up for the greatest possible success.