Disclaimer: I have teamed up with Johnson & Johnson in support of this campaign. We received compensation for participation in this campaign. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Make Small and Sustainable Changes to Look and Feel Your Best

Let’s face it: we all have that thing we’ve been dying to change in our lifestyle to help us look and feel our best. No matter how many resolutions, major diets, seminars and gadgets I’ve gone after, I’ve felt like I run into this wall every time where I decide it’s too much of an overhaul and realize I can’t live like this.

After too many failed overhauls, my husband and I have decided to try something different. Instead of finding the latest and greatest life-changing new health discovery that will change our lives “again,” we’ve started to focus on the little things. We are no longer looking for miracle fixes but are trying to just learn how to apply the little things we know, in very little ways. And I have to say, I feel great! The pressure is off, and little by little, we are embracing a new healthy lifestyle that’s really sustainable.

Here are a few of our small changes:

Set Shorter Workouts for Longer Commitment
I’ve gone on tons of different workout kicks, from jogging and kickboxing videos to dance aerobics, sports teams and everything in between. I’ll feel like I’m starting to get into a rhythm, but as soon as I get busy or a crisis happens, my momentum wanes and I’m back to square one. I don’t feel like I have the capacity or the time for a 45-minute workout, so I end up not working out at all. When we decided to shoot for small and sustainable, my husband found the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout (available in the iTunes App Store and Google Play), and it’s been perfect for us. It’s just enough to really get our hearts pumping first thing in the morning. We’ve felt a huge difference in our endurance since taking on this workout and feel it’s a huge accomplishment to have sustained it for a whole year. This really beats all of the different 45-minute workouts I’ve done for a month before burning out, because I’m not just working out, I’m creating a new life pattern.

Schedule Regular Dates to Freshen Relationships
Dating is important in every relationship, but it can be so easy to put it on the backburner when things get hectic. Sometimes it’s hard to schedule a couple of two-hour dates in a given week. My husband and I have taken on small and sustainable dates to make sure we are taking the time to invest in our marriage. We’ve scheduled a 20-minute tea date every morning to give us time to share our hearts, dream, plan, resolve conflict and just enjoy being together. We have our tea date out in the open air during a brisk walk to give us a little extra exercise while we are at it.

Skip Crash Diets in Favor of Real Lifestyle Changes
We’ve given up on crash diets, because I’ve found that all I do is crash, and I’m usually worse off than where I started. Instead, we’ve started to take on one small change in our diet at a time. These changes are not short-term diets but an introduction to a new way of eating. Some of the small changes we’ve taken on in the last year are: switching from refined sugar to agave nectar, from processed foods to raw foods (local and organic when affordable), and not bringing junk food into our pantry.

With these small changes, we are really starting to look and feel our best.

WIN: 24/7 MOMS and Johnson & Johnson are giving away an assortment of  Johnson & Johnson Products –  $50 Value.

Enter for a chance to win using the Rafflecopter entry form below. For every entry you do it’s an extra entry to win.

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US entries only and one entry per person. Winner will be chosen on December 27, 2014.