New year New Me in 2023?
More like new year, same me but we’re going to do 2023 a little differently. I am not setting any weight loss goals or new year resolutions. This year we are going to be focusing on choices. Lifestyle choices, food choices and health choices that support our health goals.
Here we go again …
At the beginning of every year we get bombarded with emails, social media posts and blog posts telling us how to smash our goals and create new habits. I hate it. Mainly because I’ve tried it over, and over (and it never sticks). I also hate that there is so much pressure put on people to transform themselves on January 1st – it’s so arbitrary…there are at least 364 other days of the year that we can make changes!
In fact every new minute is a chance to start again. You don’t have to wait until Monday, or the Full Moon, the end of Mercury retrograde, or the new year. At any moment we have the opportunity to recommit, restart, or start something new.
BOOOOOO TO RESOLUTIONS
I find that resolutions and goal setting is the fastest way to failure. I try not to use the word failure – I prefer to frame it as “something that didn’t go my way that I can learn a lesson from”. It’s a more positive framing, and makes it less intimidating to try and makes it easier to deal with “failure”.
Not failures, lessons learned.
So I am advocating that we throw out the concept of resolutions and goal setting when it comes to things like weight loss. Here’s the problem with weight loss “number” goals. You can’t really control what your body does. You can do everything right, eat all the right foods, get plenty of movement in your day and still not lose anything. In fact you might even gain weight while you lose fat!
Health goals though? Absolutely! Because you can control the steps you need to take to get there again through choices.
Make Better Choices
Choices are a much better approach to weight loss than goals. From my own experience, goals just encourage the toxic diet culture of restriction. After all, we are taught that to lose weight we need to eat less. Not losing weight? You’re eating too much. I wish it were that simple!
Choices give you more choice
Choices give you more options, more flexibility, more…choice! Instead of saying “I’m going to lose 10kg by April” which immediately sets you up for failure (unless you chop off an arm or a leg), say “I am going to choose to eat food that makes me feel good until April” or “I choose to avoid food that makes me feel bad until April”. Doesn’t that feel different?
It’s different because you actually have control over the outcome. You can choose. And ask yourself every time “is this the choice someone who loves themselves would make?”. That question is powerful because it makes you look at WHY you are making the choice you are.
Not making a choice is still a choice so by asking the question you can reflect whether going with the flow in the moment is the right choice right now.
You can still make some goals that do work
Not all goals are a bad thing and I don’t think we shouldn’t set any goals at all. I just believe that weight loss goals are useless and demotivating! Pick goals that you actually have some control over. By focusing on goals that are achievable like “enter & run a 10k by the summer” or “walk for one hour every day” you change the paradigm to one that you are fully in control of.
Then you can work towards those goals by focusing on the choices you make every day towards that goal. Each little choice you make is a step towards your ultimate goal.
Choose goals that stretch you a bit but which you are fully in control of the process to get there.
What 2023 means for me
For 2023 I am choosing to focus on my physical health and my word for the year is Abracadabra. I know that word might sound ridiculous but its origins/translation is “I will create as I speak” – I am all about manifesting my words this year! I am choosing not to have any weight loss goals because I cannot control what my body does (boy have I learned that one especially over the past year). My job is just to eat the right food for my body (ketovore), keep it hydrated with plenty of electrolyte supplementation and take care of my circadian rhythm.
Beyond that, my weight will do what it will. The most important thing for me is that I am healthy, I feel good, I sleep well and I have steady energy. Those are the biggest markers of health in my opinion.
2023 and YOU
You can choose now to reframe your health and weight loss journey, not only for this year but well into the future too. Making good choices today doesn’t seem overwhelming right? Just today, that is all you need to focus on.
Tomorrow when you wake up tell yourself “today I am making good choices” and just keep telling yourself that every morning. Just today, that’s all I need to manage. Just one day. Before you know it, you’ll be racing towards your health goals and weight loss (if that’s what you are after) will come.
Happy New Year!
