A new year, a new you? Throw away your diets and follow these 7 steps for lasting change

The new year is around the corner and for many of us, it’s a time to reflect on the previous year. We often think about our successes, losses, and what we still want to change. It could be discouraging for some to see another year come and have the same health goal as the previous year. Or maybe what you set a goal around actually got worse. Whether you’re in a place celebrating your successes or brainstorming new (or continuing) resolutions, New Year’s has a way of naturally giving us a reset. It’s a formalized new start that can come with new hope for healthy change.

I honestly believe that deep down inside, we all want to be better and healthier. I don’t think we just wake up in the morning and think about wanting to gain weight, about increasing our risk for cardiovascular disease, living sedentary lives, or increasing our risk for illness. I think we all want to be healthier, but we face daily barriers and have life circumstances that get in the way of weight loss, physical activity, better sleep, more energy, improved eating habits, stress management, and even losing a few holiday pounds.  

Weight loss and nutrition seem to be the most common New Year’s resolutions, so many of my examples will be about these, though you can interchange the steps below with other goals (stress management, time management, eating habits, muscle toning, gratitude focus, etc.). I spent many years working as a health coach walking clients through their health goals, usually weight loss, nutrition, and stress management. Now I have the privilege of teaching graduate and undergraduate courses such as Health Behavior Theory and Lifetime Wellness where I educate students on how to improve their own health and how to help others set realistic health goals for lasting change. 

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a fresh start, improving yourself, and setting goals to be healthier.  In fact, the mark of a new year or new month is a great place to start. The problem isn’t wanting to change or wanting to become healthier; it’s having unrealistic expectations and setting goals for quick change rather than goals for lifestyle impact. Some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions are focused on fad diets and instant results, which usually fail around February. Ohio State University studied this and suggests that only 9% of people (less than 1 in 10) actually complete their New Year’s resolutions.  Almost 1 in 4 people (23%) quit their goals after the first week. Nearly 43% of people quit by the end of January!

How can we be part of the 9% who succeed?  Better yet, how can we all improve our lifestyle changes so we can increase that 9% and decrease the failure rate together? We are going to walk through 7 simple steps to set realistic health goals for the new year so that when February comes, you’ll still be on track for lasting change and do not feel discouraged! I’m going to share a real-life client example in each step so you can have a tangible example to visualize how each step builds (the client gave me permission to share anonymously). 

1. Defining Your Target 

Take a moment and think about what you want to improve.  Is it your weight? Strength? Toning? Eating less of something bad? Stress management? Better sleep? More time for yourself? Step 1 is clearly defining exactly what you want to change. If you can’t define what you want to change then you can’t create realistic goals.

Client Story: My client had a soda addiction. He came up with a clearly defined target of decreasing soda intake.

2. Length of Struggle

After you can articulate what it is that you want to change, think about how long you’ve wanted it to change. Have you been at an unhealthy weight for 1 year, 5 years, or more? How many years have gone by where you want to be stronger and more toned? How long have you felt like you wanted to get better sleep? Step 2 is identifying how long you’ve wanted or needed this specific change. If you’ve struggled with your weight for 5 years, that timeline is important because you can’t expect to shed off those pounds in a month or even a few months. The length of time you’ve struggled with this goal should influence your expectations as you set a realistic goal.

Client Story: My client drank soda daily through his late teens into early adulthood. He had developed an addiction to flavor, caffeine, and sugar. It was clear that his goal could not be a quick fix or even achieved in a few weeks. We discussed how his body would need to go through a weaning process from the caffeine and sugar.

3. Why Change?

There are two primary forms of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation comes from external observations or influences. Those can kickstart change but usually don’t last as long. Intrinsic motivation comes from within a person; it’s that motivation for true change. Why do you want to change? What is driving you? If it feels like it is extrinsic, maybe sit with that question a bit longer and think about what is deep within you driving you to change.  

Client Story: My client wanted to be healthier for his family and to pass down good habits to his kids. He also had a blood pressure scare and threat of medication if it wasn’t under control. His intrinsic motivation was for his own health, to be an example for his kids, and to avoid taking daily medication.

4. Goal Setting

Once you’ve identified what you want to change, how long it has been a struggle, and your motivation for change, then you can begin to develop a clear goal. I always suggest working within the framework of SMART goals, because the format provides measurements for success or adaptation.

We live in an instant-result world. We can literally Google something and have thousands of answers in a fraction of a second. We can watch TV and movies without commercials. We can even order most items on Amazon and get them the same day. Culture has conditioned us to want instant results. That is also true for health behaviors we’ve been trying to change for years, but our bodies don’t work that way.  Our bodies are not Google, Amazon, or on DVR, so we need to shift our thinking from instant results to long-term health habits. Using the acronym below can help us set goals we can achieve and build upon over time.

S: Specific. We already touched on this in Step 1. Define your target whether it is to lose weight, cut back on soda, or increase your vegetable intake.

M: Measurable. Take that specific goal and make sure a number is tied to it such as lose 10 lbs, cut out one soda per week, or increase your vegetable intake from 2 to 4 per day. If your goal doesn’t have a specific number tied to it then it is harder to measure. If you can’t measure it then you don’t know if you have had success or not.

A: Attainable. Is your goal attainable? If you are a sedentary person and you set a goal of running a marathon next month, is that really attainable? Probably not. A more attainable goal would be walking (specific) for 20 minutes a day (measurable) three times a week. Make sure that your target isn’t too high as you start. Remember that if you reach your goal or it is easier than you thought, you can always adapt and make it more challenging. It is much easier to gain an easy win and build rather than be defeated and have to start over. Start small and build.

R: Realistic. Is your goal realistic in this season of life? Let’s go back to the marathon goal. Maybe you are a runner and want to set a goal of running a marathon. That would be attainable if you’re already in the habit of running, but maybe your job is demanding and you don’t have enough hours in a day to actually train for it. It would not be a realistic goal in this season. Make sure that your goals can be accomplished within the boundaries of your life.

T: Time-Sensitive. It is important that you not only have a number to measure success (M), but you must also have a start and end date for your goals. If we use the goal of walking (specific) for 20 minutes a day (measurable) three times a week (attainable/realistic), then we want to add an end date such as for the next four weeks (time-sensitive). That end date gives you a pause point to reflect and see how you are doing with your goal. After four weeks maybe you realize that you built strength and want to set the next goal as walking 20 minutes a day four times a week (instead of three) for the next four weeks. Or maybe you have health conditions that make walking difficult and didn’t quite meet that goal. Then you would want to adapt and cut back to either 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes or cut down to two days a week instead of three days and see how that goes.

SMART goals are a simple yet powerful way to move forward toward a health goal.  They help you track your progress, adapt when necessary, and celebrate wins along the way. As I mentioned above, I would not develop any goals around fad diets or anything that promises quick results. Those are not sustainable over time and do not follow the SMART goal framework. Also, be cautious with any diets that tell you to remove an entire food group (unless recommended by your physician for medical purposes). Many trending diets promise quick results by literally starving your body from a food group, which places you at risk for malnutrition and can be a form of an eating disorder (orthorexia). We need all food groups in healthy forms (carbs are a good thing!).

Client Story: My client was so ambitious and wanted to cut soda out of his diet all at once. Be cautious because once you find an intrinsic motivator (or three in his case), you may feel all-in and want to set an extreme goal. Keep yourself grounded with the SMART goal acronym so you can slowly continue progress and see lasting change. I am pretty sure that he would have been in the statistic of 23% of people who fail their resolutions in the first week if he had gone cold turkey.  We walked through the SMART goal exercise together. His goal was to cut out one soda per week for two weeks, and then cut out another for two more weeks, and so on until he was down to one soda per week. He didn’t think that was a goal at first because he couldn’t believe he could still have 6 sodas per week! It was a slow progression, based on the amount of time he had been drinking soda, and it allowed his body to slowly adapt to the new sugar and caffeine amounts.

5. One Change at a Time

Many health behavior changes are interconnected with other aspects of life. Weight loss is tied to nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and so much more. It is natural to want to set many goals in all of those areas that are connected. Some people may be able to do that, but I have found that clients who set one goal at a time are far more successful in lifestyle changes. I can’t tell you how many times I have sat with clients who have failed because they have a goal of changing nutrition habits, starting to exercise for the first time, and incorporating new stress management techniques. Once you get one goal down as a new healthy habit, then you can tackle another area. It is ok to even map that out and have a plan for a nutrition goal first and then move to incorporating a physical activity goal once the nutrition goal is solid. Habits take a while to develop, so get one down before you move on to the next.

Client Story: My client had several goals he wanted to tackle, but he only focused on soda for the first few months. Then he moved to reducing fast food intake after his soda intake was decreased. He waited until a new habit was developed so he didn’t have to think about it anymore as he faced his new challenge.

6. Celebration & Grace

Always make sure to celebrate the small wins along the way.  Use your T (time-sensitive) portion of your goals to check progress and celebrate your wins. Mark your calendar for weekly celebrations if that is helpful. We are quick to see our failures and get discouraged, so we need to build ourselves up as we make progress in the right direction. If you are starting a New Year’s resolution in January, then I would suggest marking February as a moment to recognize your progress, even if it isn’t in your timeframe. 

Along with celebrating wins, you need to give yourself grace to learn and adapt. In the time-sensitive example above I mentioned cutting back a walking goal from 20 minutes a day to 15 minutes a day. It is ok to adjust goals along the way, especially if you need to recalibrate what attainable means to you. Don’t view adapting as a failure, but rather as readjusting so you can continue to build.

Client Story: My client celebrated his wins every other week when he was successful at cutting out one more soda. He looked at how many grams of sugar he was cutting out of his life. 

7. Never Compare Your Goals to Others

Every person is different and has unique health needs. Nutrition and physical activity levels change based on gender, lifestyle, age, metabolism, health conditions, and so much more. Don’t compare your goals and progress to others, because what you need is likely very different from what they need. Celebrate your own progress and adaptation within your own timeframe. There isn’t a perfect manual or cookie cutter plan for this, because each person has unique needs. Keep your eyes on your own goals and encourage yourself along the way.

Client Story: My clients did not know each other’s goals so they could never compare. Reducing soda intake was my client’s specific goal like a narrow tunnel, and that allowed him to focus on his own steps to improving his health. 

Whatever your health goal or New Year’s resolution is, I am cheering for you! I applaud you for wanting to make a health behavior change for the better. We will never be perfect, and seasons of life change requiring us to adapt our goals. We won’t fail if we keep taking just one step at a time toward health. 

Client Story Results: My client went on to only have one soda a week for a couple of years. Then he reduced his intake to once a month for a year. To this day, my former client only has a couple of sodas a year! It took time, but think of the health benefits he’s now reaping from that one change. A large soda like my client drank had 94g of sugar (FYI- the added sugar intake limit for men is 9g per day). That means in his first year he went from having 34,216g of soda sugar (75.4 lbs) down to 7,614g (16.8 lbs). Remember, he only cut out one soda every two weeks. In year two, he was down to one soda per week, which was 4,888g (10.8 lbs) for the year. Then when he moved to one soda per month he was down to only 1,128g (2.5 lbs) per year. It is pretty incredible that he slowly accomplished this goal and reduced his annual sugar intake from 75.4 lbs down to 2.5 lbs! What an inspiration to show how one small goal can make a lasting health improvement. He no longer suffers from caffeine and sugar addiction, and he never needed to go on blood pressure medication. If he can slowly make that much progress, you can too!