Article by Aoife Burns

The beginning of a new year offers the chance to start fresh and create some new health habits. Key to this is to set some aspirational goals that are also achievable. Aiming to improve your nutrition is an excellent goal, getting the right nutrients from your diet can not only help to reduce your risk of disease but can also improve your overall wellbeing. We’re hoping this article will help you to keep these habits up, not just through January but for the whole year.

Before choosing a goal take a moment to think about what might be realistic for you. Is there anything that might stop you from reaching your goal? This could be that you are very busy with work or family life and so will need to plan in advance what meals you’re going to have and when you’re going to do your food shop. Also have a think about why you are doing this and what value achieving this goal will add to your life.

Set Specific Goals

Instead of choosing a goal that’s too broad like “be healthier” set one that is action based, for example “ walk for 30 minutes a day” or “eat 30 plant foods a week”. This will mean you’ll know if you have made improvements even if you can’t see changes straight away. When it comes to our health every little helps.

Break It Down

If your overall goal is to eat 30 plant foods a week it will be easier to achieve if you break it down into smaller measurable steps. Begin with the goal of eating 10 plants a week then 15, 20 and so on. Don’t put pressure on yourself to reach these mini aims within a certain time frame, instead just celebrate when you manage to hit your target in your own time.

Prepare for Ups and Downs

Remember the road to our goals is rarely a straight one and you’ll likely hit a few bumps in the road as well as wonderful highs. It’s a good idea to recognize this may happen, so that if it does you can acknowledge it and then move on. When a set back occurs it’s also a good idea to reflect on whether there is something you can do differently to prevent it happening again. Life can sometimes throw a spanner in the works so if you miss a step know that it’s okay, adjust your approach and keep moving forward.

Keep a ‘Small Wins’ Journal

Usually when we do one thing well it spurs us on to continue doing what we are doing. It’s great to keep a note of all your little achievements so you have evidence to look back on that shows you can do it! This could be in the form of a habit tracker either, making a note each time you hit your daily target, so that when you look back over a week or month you can be proud of the all the times you choose to act in a way that will help you reach your goals.

Habit Stacking

Habit stacking can be an excellent tool for implementing new changes to your life. It involves pairing a new habit with an existing one to make a change easier to adapt into your life. By anchoring a health goal, such as drinking a glass of water, to an established routine, like having your morning coffee, you can seamlessly integrate positive changes into your daily life. The key is to make the habit small and build it onto something that’s already consistently part of your routine. This should help you to add the change with limited thought or effort.

Nutrition related Goals and Meal Planning

Watch out for trends and fad diets that we often see in January, there’s one every year be it juice cleanses or ultra low fat foods. These diets often make extreme claims and focus on unbalanced nutrition, which can lead to nutrient deficiencies, low energy and potentially health issues. Instead of following the latest instagram trend, aim to adopt a balanced diet, mindful eating or regular physical activity.

When it comes to setting nutrition related goals focusing on what you can add-in to your diet instead of trying to restrict foods you enjoy, is often the best way to go about making changes to your diet. Many studies have found that restriction isn’t sustainable in the long run. Adding nutritious foods to your diet will help to achieve a lot of health goals. Set simple goals like having beans in at least one meal per week, it doesn’t matter what type cannelloni, butter, kidney or black beans, or trying a new wholegrain once a month so that by the end of the year you have 12 new wholegrains in your diet.

A great way to get excited about making changes to your diet is to explore new recipes. Choose a new ingredient to try and look up different dishes it is used in. Pick one that you think looks tasty and enjoy the experience of trying something new. Taking the mundane out of it might even make the change enjoyable.

Meal planning and prepping can be a game changer when it comes to maintaining a healthy diet. Plan a menu for the coming days and then make a shopping list to ensure you have everything you need and to avoid impulse buys. Consider batch cooking or making a base, for example, could you batch cook some roast vegetables at the start of the week so that you can then easily add them to salads or enjoy with some salmon and couscous as a quick dinner. It’s also a great idea to make an extra portion of dinner to enjoy for lunch the next day or freeze to have a quick backup meal. Another simple way to make the healthy option the easy choice is to pre-plan your snacks, pick up a bag of apples when you’re doing your shopping or bring a small portion of nuts in your bag.

Take Home Message

Whatever your health goal is, remember you are making the change for you, build up to bigger goals if needed, you can always start again or change the goal as you go.

References

Clear, J. (2020) How to Build New Habits by Taking Advantage of Old Ones, James Clear Available at: https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking [Accessed 18 December 2024]
Flore et al. (2022) Weight Maintenance after Dietary Weight Loss: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Effectiveness of Behavioural Intensive Intervention. Nutrients. 2022; 14(6):1259. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14061259

Aoife Burns is a Registered Associate Nutritionist and holds a BSc in Nutraceuticals in Health and Nutrition and a MSc in Human Nutrition. She is passionate about helping educate people on all things food and nutrition, and does so through her work and instagram page; @aoifebia.

Setting Sustainable Nutrition Goals for the New Year