Seemingly little things like getting up early in the morning and daily schedules make a big impact in helping to insure the success of your health goals.

Healthy habits create an environment for achieving your healthy lifestyle.

Make a commitment. Write it down, and tell your friends and family and make it public. Ask them to keep you accountable, support your goals, and join you as you build better habits.

Schedule it. Don’t expect exercise time to appear by magic. You have to make time for it, just like you would a dentist appointment, pedicure, or business meeting. Program it into your day planner. Schedule a couple weeks worth of exercise slots in advance so you can plan for it.

Do it first thing in the morning. If fitness is part of your morning routine, you’ll have it over and done with and won’t let anything else that comes up get in the way.

Do it at work. Give up your lunch-hour fast food run and hit the gym, bike trai,l or local track instead. Ask coworkers to tag along. Or, add “fitness” to the end of your workday and exercise on your way home.

Make no excuses. Even if you’re exhausted, bored or feeling lazy, honor your exercise commitment to yourself. You don’t have to do a full-court press every time. If your energy level is low, do something easy like a walk instead of a run. If you’re bored, do something different like a bike ride instead of running on treadmill. Any exercise you do counts as part of your new habit.