New Year, New Me? Working Towards Sustainable Nutrition Goals
If you feel that 2025 is already speeding by, you’re not the only one. With January already been and gone, it’s hard to not feel that time is slipping away, along with any goals that you may have been thinking about. The new year always brings about reflective thoughts of what the year was like, what you achieved and what you wanted to. New year’s resolutions come in with the best of intentions that this year will be different, or now is the time to make that change. And goals are great! They are important to help motivate us and can give us a sense of achievement. They can however, bring feelings of disappointment, failure and guilt if we do not acheive our goals.
Success of new year’s resolutions
Research on success rates of new year’s resolutions are limited, however generally estimates sit between 8-20% of people achieving their goals. In addition to these small success rates, a global study by Strava indicated that January 12 is the date most people are likely to stop pursuing their new year’s resolutions. With the majority of new year’s resolutions tending to be weight loss or eating habits focused, we see the impact this has on clients. It’s a cycle of being “good” and following the diet or goals set, then breaking them and feeling bad, guilty or lazy and having a “F&%k it” mentality and eating whatever they want. This leads to more feelings of guilt and shame with the intention that next Monday or next month will be different.
Now this blog isn’t designed to blame clients for not meeting their goals. We know it is so much complicated than that and lot of diets are set up for failure (see our blog posts on fad diets). But if this cycle resonates with you, then maybe it’s time to try something different. And one way is by reassessing your goals.
Rethinking nutrition goals from a Dietitian
So how do we make achievable and sustainable changes? Well first we need to really think about our goals. Here’s a list of 5 things to consider, to help you with your nutrition-related goals:
Make your goals behaviour-focused
Behaviours and outcomes are two very different things. Behaviours are things that we can change e.g., meal planning, eating habits, physical activity levels, etc. Outcomes are the consequences of that change e.g., more energy, feeling stronger, better concentration or (potentially) weight loss or stabilizing weight. We want to work towards behaviour-focused goals because that is something we can change.
It is very common for people’s overall goals to be outcome-based. But again, that does not help identify what needs to change. In addition, some outcome-based goals can be misleading. For example, if you have a goal to lose weight, it is a lot more complicated than just making changes. Factors such as genetics, medication, hormones, stress, age, menopause, sleep and many more all play a part in what weight your body prefers to sit at (its set point). This may seem disheartening, however if you’re looking at losing weight for health reasons, what we know is that the health behaviours are more important than the number on the scale! A study by Mattheson et al 2012 showed that if you followed four health promoting behaviours- eating 5 or more fruit and vegetable daily, regular exercise, not smoking and minimal alcohol intake, despite being in a higher body weight, risk of death was significantly decreased regardless of weight on the scale. Letting go of weight goals does not mean “letting go” of yourself, and again, if it hasn’t worked before, why not try something new?
Find your reason
Our reasons to make change vary, and it’s important your reason is something that will be enough to motivate you to change. Our reason can also help us choose our behaviour-focused goal. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, why is that? If it’s to have more energy, then it’s more important to look at if you’re eating enough foods regularly that give you sustained energy. Generally, to lose weight means following a restrictive diet, which in the long term, can significantly impact energy levels. If your goal to lose weight is based on wanting to do a specific movement or event, then your goal probably needs to be more focused on training for that event, than weight loss itself.
Consider your capacity to change
You hear all the time that there is never a right time and although this might be true, it’s still important to consider how much time you can put towards your goals. For example, if your goal is to “eat healthier” and you plan to cook from scratch most nights to achieve this, do you have time for that? Even aiming for something as simple as eating one piece of fruit a day or including a vegetable with lunch is going to make a big difference in the long run, and will likely be more achievable. Then, later on, you could always build up on that goal e.g., aim 2 pieces of fruit a day.
Don’t start on a Monday
Ok, you can start on a Monday, but what I mean by this is we don’t need to choose the start of a week or month or year to start a goal. Doing this can contribute to an ‘all or nothing’ type of thinking, where if we break the goal, we may wait until the next week to start again. Instead, try and acknowledge that for some reason it didn’t work that day. Reflect on what that was and move on. Try again tomorrow. It’s ok that we don’t meet our goal 100% of the time, because there is no such thing as a perfect day of eating. A sustainable goal is one that we can follow most of the time, and be ok that some days it doesn’t work out.
Work with a Dietwise Dietitian
Our team at Dietwise are all about long-term sustainable changes. We want to help promote a positive relationship with food, finding the balance between your goals around health, lifestyle, enjoyment and anything else you want to fulfill. It can also allow you to find out what is possible. We’ve had many clients who have thought they couldn’t possibly feel good in their body, not eat certain “bad” foods without feeling out of control or trust their body that it will tell them what it needs, but then they find that they can! Yes, it’s scary and probably the opposite to what you’ve been told your whole life, but our team can help guide and support you.
If you’ve been stuck in the same redundant cycle of setting goals only to unravel after a short time, why not try something different? What have you got to lose? If you want to learn more reach out today to our Dietwise Care Coordinators to get started by contacting us on – 08 9388 2423 or reception@dietwise.net.au. You can even contact us through our website here. We are open 6 days per week for in-person and Telehealth appointments including both after-hours and Saturdays.
Written by:
Accredited Practising Dietitian
Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician
Accredited Nutritionist