Reflection and hope should be incorporated into everyone’s daily routine – however, the end of the year is a time that we can celebrate progress we’ve made over the last 12 months. We reflect on the positives and also on things that didn’t go as planned. We make resolutions that will guide us to what we want to work towards the next year through our thoughts, actions and goals.
Due to our culture’s unhealthy obsession with being thin, a high percentage of goals related to healthier habits in the new year involve diet, exercise and weight. This can bring on an eating disorder (ED) and also trigger any of those who have an ED. The constant talk around diet can make one with an ED feel as they need to do “better at their ED.”
Try to challenge the ED thought – “I can improve my recovery by not falling back into unhealthy eating patterns and behaviors.”
It is important to focus on goals that you can work towards year round – this will enhance your lifestyle and well-being. Be flexible with what your expectations are. This can decrease any guilt you have with meeting these goals. Setting measurable goals is also helpful as this can keep you accountable and help you recognize where you’ve made progress.
Examples of healthy goals:
- Walk away from conversations about goals or resolutions that are not healthy for you
- Set measurable goals- see examples at next bullet
- I want to add in at least one snack during the day
- I want to eat one extra meal a day
- I want to challenge myself to a “fear” food at least ___x/month
- I want to have dinner with my family during the week
- Acknowledge accomplishments and progress
- Build a support system
- Work towards avoiding negative self talk
- Look at your eyes in the mirror and say one thing you love about yourself every morning
- Incorporate at least 30 minutes/day for self care
- Work on a sleep schedule to help increase quality and quantity of sleep
- Work towards having 8 cups of water daily
- Stop negative body image talk
- Decrease social media time to ____ minutes per day
- Avoid negative or toxic relationships that are not healthy
- Incorporate music therapy after meal time – this can help reduce anxiety
- Recognize the positives daily
Talk to your Registered Dietitian and Therapist about your healthy New Year’s resolutions. They can help support you with these goals and work towards meeting them.
Behavioral Therapy Services
Dietitians at Behavioral Nutrition specialize in working one on one with our patients to help find healthy eating strategies personalized to their body and preferences. We understand that everyone has different foods they enjoy and work hard to develop eating behaviors that will allow our patients to Build on Habits worked on during therapy. This new year, take some time to reflect on all you have accomplished, and all that you would like to accomplish. Contact Behavioral Nutrition to learn more about how our Behavioral Therapy Services can help you prevent disordered eating.
We hope everyone has a healthy and happy New Year!