Fresh Year, Fresh Habits
Eat For Life Dietetics
The New Year is a time for a fresh start, to put everything that happened the year before behind us and move forward with a new mindset, a new outlook on life and become a new you! (I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes while typing that)
Eye rolls aside, that all sounds great, right?
The New Year also comes at a great time, at the end of the Christmas period when we might be feeling guilty about the food we have consumed, stressed because of all the planning Christmas involved (and money spent), lazy because of the lack of movement and completely exhausted from the lack of sleep and late-night present buying and wrapping marathons. To top it off we are surrounded by messaging telling us to finish the year strong, keep going because it’s almost over!
It’s no wonder why we get to the New Year and feel like we need to make a change!
Enter, New Years Resolutions.
In 2022 Australia’s top 3 New Years resolutions were:
- Improve fitness
- Eat healthier
- Lose weight
Research Suggests that 20% of resolutions will have been abandoned by the end of the first week of January with 70% or more being abandoned by the end of the month. The reality for most New Years Resolutions is that they don’t actually lead to any sustainable or significant change.
Why don’t they work?
New Year’s resolutions are much like diets, they fail because we set resolutions that are unsustainable for our lifestyles. They often involve rigid rules that leave little to no room for error. We might also blame ourselves when our fitness, weight loss or nutrition goal fails. The diet industry does a great job of teaching us that you failed at the diet or exercise program rather than letting you see that the diet/exercise program failed you!
Ready to make a change?
The good news is that there is another way to create some fresh habits. Try,
- Showing yourself kindness coming into the end of the year, allow yourself to rest, challenge the guilt you may feel around food or movement and remind yourself that you don’t have to do it all, so that you can come into the New Year from a place that feels good rather than a place that you feel you need to change.
- Reminding yourself that change doesn’t have to happen on a certain day, New Year can be a great time for reflection but if you want to make a change it can start anytime.
- Reminding yourself that change doesn’t have to happen all at once.
- Setting intentions for the year that focus on what you want to add to your life rather than what you want to remove from it.
- Using language that is flexible, kind and curious.
- Giving yourself permission to learn from both success and failure to learn what works for you and to have compassion for yourself during times that things don’t work the way you had hoped.
- Ditch dieting resolutions and try out a Non-diet resolution! (check out some non-diet intentions below)
Non Diet New Years Resolution Inspiration
- I would like to work on exploring forms of self-care that make me feel good.
- I would like to work on prioritising my own self-care so that I can continue to support the people around me.
- I would like to learn how to set healthy boundaries for myself at work/with family/with friends.
- I would like to explore ways of including more colour in my diet.
- I would like to learn to move my body in ways that feel good to me.
- I would like to learn how to give myself more permission to eat flexibly.
- I would like to invest in clothes that fit my body now.
- I would like to learn to show my body respect and find peace with where I am at now.
- I would like to learn how to have a better connection to my body, and to start a journey of learning and unlearning so that I can learn what truly makes me feel good.
Remember, if you need some support to make a change now or in the New Year, Eat for Life Dietetics is here to help. Get in touch or make an appointment online.
