By Schuyler Corrigan

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January 31, 2023

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Now that we’re one month into the new year, let’s check in on your health goals and resolutions. If you made any dietary or nutrition resolutions, how are you doing with those? Do you feel like they are sustainable for you to continue and actually enjoyable to the point where your relationship with food is thriving? Here are a few nutritionist tips for making healthy habits stick this year. 

Top 5 Nutritionist Tips for Making Healthy Habits Stick

1. Focus on longevity – not quick fixes. It’s easy to set a goal for 30 days or commit to a 2-week detox or diet. But any nutrition change you’re wanting to make should be supporting your body for the long haul, not just a month. Ask yourself, what is the end goal for making these changes, and how can you achieve them in a sustainable way?

 

1. Start with the basics, then branch out. We often over-step our very basic nutrition needs and go straight into more difficult diets. Make sure your basic daily needs are met and remain a habit before adding on. These include 
   1. Drinking enough water throughout the day. Aim for half of your body weight (in ounces) each day through filtered water or herbal teas. Read more: ND Lifestyle – water & Hydration 
   2. Consuming vegetables and fruits throughout the day (aim for at least 4+ servings, or 4 different colors every day!) Read more: Eat the Rainbow! Health Benefits of Every Color
   3. Keeping a balanced plate – this means including protein, healthy fat, starchy carbohydrate, and non-starchy carbohydrate with your meals. 
   4. Reduce highly processed foods and added sugars. These are so hard to avoid, and over time make a big difference in our overall health. When we commit to preparing most of our meals at home, and using food-based sweeteners like honey or maple syrup, this significantly reduces dietary inflammation and keeps us feeling our best. Read more: Thoughts on Sugars & Sweeteners 

 

1. Be realistic – your daily diet does not have to be perfect. If there is ONE thing you think you can improve upon, focus on that one thing. This may be prepping weekly breakfasts to make eating breakfast a priority every day; bringing your own lunch to work to reduce getting take-out; Stocking up on your favorite herbal teas to enjoy instead of alcohol at night; keeping healthy snacks available to reduce sugary snack grazing. Either way, choose one thing and don’t overwhelm yourself. 

 

1. Seek accountability if you need it. Tell the people you share a home with your nutrition goals and allow them to support you and keep you accountable. Sometimes nutrition habits work best if you can do them together with a partner. Have your co-workers or friends share a nutrition goal with you, too, and work towards reaching your goals together. 

 

1. Consider staying off of social media. This space is saturated with health and wellness advice and opinions. It is very easy to just hop from habit to habit based on what we hear or see and not settle into our own embodied experience. This is a profound disconnect in recent years and makes it harder for us to make our own informed choices about what our body really needs. This is something your nutritionist or naturopathic doctor can help you develop. 

 

If you need help or support reaching some of your health goals this year, schedule an appointment with one of our naturopathic doctors who will work with you to create a custom care plan to see you through the rest of the year.