This Trick Could Help You Set Healthy Habits You'll Actually Stick To, Study Finds

If short-lived New Year's resolutions have taught us anything, it's that setting new goals is easy, but actually following through with them can feel pretty challenging. Luckily, a study published in JAMA Cardiology found the key to creating lasting habits: It's all about setting your own exercise goals and engaging in them ASAP1.

The four-month-long study included 500 participants from lower-income neighborhoods, who either had a cardiovascular disease or were at an increased risk of developing one. They were all given wearable trackers to monitor their physical activity levels, then split into a control group or a gamified group. 

The lesson from all of this? Find the exercise that works for you! If running makes you miserable and hurts your joints, don't make it your goal to run a mile every morning. If you need loud music and fast-paced cardio to get you through your workout, it's probably not wise to invest in that yoga subscription. 

Certified Pilates instructor Helen Phelan refers to this as intuitive exercise, which is all about "finding an exercise modality that brings you joy and paying attention to how your body feels when you're moving." And just as the study reinforced: "Using that mood, energy, and confidence boost as your motivation will help foster a much longer-lasting habit," Phelan said of setting healthy goals.