Overcoming the New Year’s pressure to diet

“New Year, New you”

I hear this every year… sadly usually with some new health trend that (warning) is probably doing more harm than good. This time of year can be so hard due to marketing going to an absolute high in the diet/fitness industry. How are you preparing for a new year?

Instead of trying a new diet or one that has “worked” for you before. Consider this:

What has dieting ever really given you?

Maybe some things that sounded good at the time like weight loss, a schedule, something to shift your focus to

But what did it take?

If you are starting a new diet again, the last however many must have failed. Did you gain more weight back than you lost in the first place? Were you not actually as satisfied with your body as you thought you would be? Did you isolate yourself from friends or family? Did it really improve your body image like you thought it would?

What about… did you become obsessed with food? Can you not “trust” yourself to keep certain foods in the house, or feel guilty for eating?

So what can you do to combat this New Year’s pressure? 

Shift your focus, find your priorities and prepare mentally ahead of time!

Now I don’t think you have to wait until a certain date to start implementing change in your life, but there can be a lot of pressure for goals and change this season. So what else can you focus on instead? Maybe the opposite and working on your relationship with food and your body or something else in your life like cultivating more joy, starting a new hobby or making new friends. There is a list below of alternatives to starting a new diet this upcoming year. 

Focusing on “health” can be dangerous if we are not in check with what we view health as. Check out this post about redefining health to a more holistic view that aligns with what you value!

Find your priorities. If you are reading this, you probably don’t want to prioritize weight loss/dieting as much as you feel like you have to. I find it beneficial to sit down and look at what you prioritize and shift those to where you want this next year to go.

And that leads me to preparing mentally ahead of time. If you struggle with your relationship with food and your body, you probably find it difficult to just reprioritize your life. That sounds fine and dandy but how can you shift mentally? Address those thoughts as they come into your head and balance your self talk with positive (but believable) thoughts. 

We are often guilty of just letting our mind just run a muck. What I mean by that is if you let your self talk become negative without limit it can basically create that mean girl from high school all over again. We do have control over how we treat ourselves, but it does take practice. Here is a link to a podcast episode on neuroplasticity to explain why this isn’t just a quick fix!

So creating a space for more positive or neutral self-talk can look like stopping yourself when those thoughts arise and reframing them to align with your values, but also something you can believe at the time.

Here are some ideas of how to motivate your new year INSTEAD of starting another diet:

Set realistic and attainable goals that align with your values

Check out this list of values here. From this list narrow down your top 3-5 values that you want to live your life by. What goals can you set to help you improve on those values in your life? 

Create goals that are attainable and measurable to some extent. Set a date to check in on yourself and reevaluate how you can improve. 

A year can be a really long period to keep motivated, keeping 30,60 or 90 day goals can be more helpful to create sustainable change when creating new habits to align your life better with your values.

Instead of a list of accomplishments set a word of the year

Goals are great, but my favorite way to look at a new year is to set a word of the year. I choose a word I want to live by and try to remind myself frequently. 

For example, one year I gave myself the work “uncomfortable.” This whole year I reminded myself that it is okay to feel uncomfortable and worked to push myself out of my comfort zone. Having known that that was the word I wanted to live by that year made it easier for me to try new things and sit in the uncomfortable. I believe there is a lot of growth in being uncomfortable, it was a great experience!

Create a list of things to look forward to this next year or a bucket list

What are things you really want to do this year? Make a list and check them off as you go! This can help you prioritize joyful activities and give you ideas later in the year of what you can do. I like to make some very simple like: go get an ice cream cone. I actually make a lot very simple because I love checking off the list, it feels like a nice act of self care!

So how are you preparing for a new year and getting past this pressure for change?