Almost everyone makes New Year’s goals or resolutions in one form or another. But, more often than not, most people do not achieve what they set out to achieve.
If your New Year's goals or resolutions involve becoming healthier, losing weight or being fitter, you need to understand that:
- These big goals are broken down into lots of smaller lifestyle changes.
- Making lifestyle changes a reality is actually really difficult.
- You will need more support than what you realise.
Now in order to achieve these big goals there are some evidence-based principles and processes that, as a Dietitian, I use for all my clients to help them reach their goals.
Unfortunately, the weight loss and 'dieting' industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry that essentially sells us a lie. All those 'magic' quick fix diet books, pills, and shakes do not work long term, and often make us worse off physically, emotionally, nutritionally and health-wise.
Because our diets are such an integral part of our health and everyone is an individual with different health needs and lifestyles, the best thing you can do for your health is to work with a Dietitian to successfully achieve your goals.
Unfortunately, seeing a Dietitian often comes with some resistance. This may be because people think we are the ‘diet police,’ or eating is such a personal thing to talk about and can be too difficult to address. People often think they know what to do but can’t actually do it (the biggest thing we help with) or people just do not know how we can help.
Most people who come to see me want to improve their energy levels, feel better about themselves, and become healthier. This is where I got my slogan from ‘Feel healthy, healthy and vibrant!’ I want everyone to be clever about their eating and health so they can live life to the fullest. I highly recommend everyone at some point in their life, engage with a Dietitian whom they feel they get along with to keep their healthy eating in check regularly, which might be every 6-12 months, just like your dental or skin check.
If you have not seen a Dietitian before here is a brief summary of how we can help.
First, we assess your whole situation- food nutrition, medical and social factors. We see if you are meeting your body’s nutritional needs and what areas you will need to work on to achieve your goals. Then we break down the issues and focus on one area at a time. All these changes will add up to affect your overall diet and then health and in turn how your body functions physically and mentally. Each session or two will often focus on different topics such as:
- Understanding how food impacts your body and health.
- Keeping a food diary and learning about food portions
- Being mindful of your eating
- Making better food choices and reading labels
- Being aware and getting back in control of your natural hunger signals
- Tackling emotional eating and sugar cravings
- Increasing metabolic rate to burn fat
- Meal planning and organisation
- Managing eating away from home
The biggest thing we help most people with is making changes that stick. We do this by providing a great amount of education in context to your individual situation, help you to make achievable plans that you can follow, provide support and guidance, as well as problem solve to work through the barrage of barriers with you. We also help you to find your motivators and help you stay motivated.
It may seem like a long, slow process but this is what works and it is definitely possible for anyone who has the commitment to see results. Slow and steady wins the race!
Little by little, all these small changes will add up and by the end of 2025 you will have achieved so much, made new habits more normal and feel so much better and even be quite proud of yourself.
So, here’s to you this 2025!
