How I (A Dietitian) Make Non-Diet Resolutions

It’s normal, maybe even central to the best-lived life, to consider what you want to do better, the ways you want your life to be different and closer to what you really want in life. The fact that humans have the ability to do this is actually quite remarkable.

But, as we know, New Year’s resolutions are deeply problematic in diet culture. We’re sold lots of “solutions” to problems we don’t have due to the intersecting issues that exist within the food and wellness spaces. Once you realize that dieting has harmed you and you decide you want to take care of yourself despite it all, you may decide you want to make some intentions to feel better. In this article, I hope to share with you how to make non diet resolutions that align with improving your relationship with food and your body.

The Holidays and Diet Culture Create A Perfect Storm

I like to start each new year by slowing down. I make time for reflection and refresh my journaling habit. This year, the start of 2025, has been about goal-making. In years past, I’ve encouraged clients, my social media following, and my email list to make sure they are not making diet-culture-informed resolutions. But this year I decided to take that a step further and really explore what the alternative is. 

How do we make non diet resolutions? What are some good ones and how do you make them for yourself? And what are the reasons that feels challenging?

Well, for starters, the holidays are complicated.

• The holidays are a time of celebration and we humans do that with food, rest, and good times.
• We also have a tendency (based on the 3 realities below) to feel guilty about enjoying ourselves “too much.“
• Right after that, things slow down and diet companies know how to target your insecurities about “how much you ate” over the holidays.

Plus, these three constant realities in diet culture:

• Women’s bodies (not just women, I know) are held to impossible standards for thinness and beauty, not to mention politeness, humbleness, being happy with low wages. If you’d had a baby recently, this is EVEN WORSE.
• Our food culture is hard as well to eat well within. Life is busy, fast food is cheap, and we are often exhausted.
• The diet and wellness industries are increasingly vulnerable to our click-baity media landscape. Bold headlines get clicks. Clicks make money.

All of this makes wanting to make health goals seem impossible sometimes. That’s why I suggest learning how to make non-diet resolutions. I’ll share my take on why traditional resolutions don’t work and then walk you through the process I use every day with my clients to help them think about and make goals for themselves and their health that are actually possible.

Why New Years Resolutions Don’t Last For Long

There is something baked into the passage of a year and the start of a new one that seems to bring upon a desire to look at ourselves again and ask what we want to change. I think mainstream New Years resolutions typically have a framework similar to any diet or detox or other “go hard for a month” and then stop.

They encourage you to do something dramatic. Always dramatic.

But the truth is that weight loss diets don’t work. People can’t stick to the type of resolutions that create dramatic weight loss because it’s basically impossible. Weight loss leads to weight regain most of the time.

But, my whole schtick is helping people make real change that aligns with their values – change that is realistic and practical and improves the way they feel about themselves.

This is not popular or a good business model frankly, but it’s what I want to do. 🙃

My New Years Reflections & Intentions

I start each new year by slowing down. I make time for reflection and refresh my journaling habit. This year, the start of 2025, has been about goal-making. In years past, I’ve encouraged clients, my social media following and my email list to make sure they are not making diet-culture-informed resolutions. But this year I decided to take that a step further and really explore what the alternative is. 

How do we make non diet resolutions? What are some good ones and how do you make them for yourself? 

That’s because I like to walk my talk, as much as I possibly can. I am still working on my relationship with food and my body (even though I’m pretty proud of it). I love making intentions for the new year. It feels good to remember what I want out of life and ask myself what actions I need to take to get there. 

But one thing I am certain of is that whatever type of goals we make, they should not be rigid and unrealistic. 

So in addition to all of my encouragement for YOU to rethink the health and wellness goals you make for yourself, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about the goals I have for myself in this coming year.

1. I will continue to believe in working hard for a reasonable amount of time each day and week and doing “good enough” instead of perfect.
2. I will call my friends more. Twice a month I will make a phone call to a friend who I love deeply and do not get to see often. If I’m struggling to make this happen, I will text them to tell them I’m going to call them. Good accountability!
3. I will go on walks very often. If it’s been a few days and I know I need one I will push myself to go (if I have the time and physical energy).
4. I will stay committed to open conversations, even if they are difficult, with the people I love. I will not be defensive in these moments, but open to exploding my full self in the name of vulnerability. (this one is hard for me!)
5. I will engage with the community in which I live as a top priority always.

Non-Diet Resolutions Are Imperfect, Inconsistent, And Loving

And that is what I want for you too.

Given all of this, and that I help people make real change to their health habits as a full-time job, I thought I’d tell you what I actually guide my clients to do when they want to make shifts with food and exercise.

Tips for Making Non-Diet Resolutions This Year

I’ve come up with 5 things to keep in mind when making health goals that won’t leave you out in the cold in February.

1. Do not commit to consistency. Commit to inconsistency.

This means doing the thing when you want to and not beating yourself up if you don’t do it every day. Not doing it everyday is LITERALLY the point. It’s okay if you go 3 times the first week and don’t go at all on week 2. It’s okay if you only go once a week for the whole freaking year. Once a week is a hell of a lot more than none.

If your goal is “exercise more” and you’re currently not exercising at all, consider:

I will exercise when I feel my body wants to.

I will not force myself to go every day, or maybe not even every week.

I will not beat myself up when I don’t do it as often as I “think I should”.

The goal is to enjoy it when I do go, simple as that.

The reason this works: We do not build new habits by starting out at 100% and easing off from there. We build new habits by starting small and building up over time. Start small. Don’t make it something you’re going to want to quit.

Stop the magical thinking. You do not want to go to the gym 6 days a week, right?

2. Do not blame yourself if you’re not doing your goal as much as you hoped

This is the whole point. Doing things less than ALL THE TIME is good for you. It’s based in reality. It takes your actual life into consideration.

And that’s what you’re living in. REALITY. Your real life is busy and does not likely have capacity to hold 6 day a week workouts, perfect meal planning, and a perfectly consistent morning routine.

So, get used to not doing it all the time. Do it when you feel called to from the inside, and let go of the blame and shame about “not enough”.

3. Make resolutions that fit into your reality, not a fantasy world

This is one of my favorite things to help people with. Not only because it lets us off the hook a little, but because you get to decide how much time, energy, and capacity you have to do each one of your health goals.

If you’re working 5 days a week, have 3 kids that you pick up from school, have lots of social engagements and hobbies on the weekend, you have a limited amount of time. Do not expect yourself to prioritize your meal plan over your children.

Regardless of your circumstances, make sure you’re looking at your real life. How do you feel when you get off work? Are you energized? Do you travel a lot for work? I suggest you take a look at your schedule and ask yourself: what do I realistically have time for?

And then consider that the maximum you can do. Back off a little on the consistency and go from there.

4. remember you can build on non-diet goals in time

I know it is hard as hell to make progress this way when you’re used to seeing “results” immediately. You need to think about this plan differently than you would a diet or detox or doing something “hard core”.

This is so not hard core.

Remember that children learn by starting small and inconsistent. Potty training – inconsistent. Liking new foods – inconsistent. The alphabet, sharing, walking. You name it. Some days go great and others, not so much.

Be like a child.

5. Use curiosity and compassion

If I could narrow this down to 2 things, it would be #1 and #5. Curiosity is an incredibly helpful tool when learning anything new, especially something you’ve had loads of negative self-talk about for years. It’s helpful when working on your finances and it’s helpful when working on health and well-being goals.

You want to get utterly curious about what you need, what you like doing, what you enjoy eating, and how it all feels to you as you go. If you make a goal to walk more and you notice after a couple weeks you aren’t doing it at all, ask yourself why instead of berating yourself for it.

Do you even like to go walking? Is the weather appropriate? Do you feel comfortable out in the public in workout clothes?

Are you still stuck in the mindset of believing that walking isn’t good enough?

Recap on Making Non Diet Resolutions

To sum up: it’s normal, wonderful even, to look at your life and decide you want to improve it. But there are just so many messages in our culture telling us that going hard, and sticking to it, and using more self-control and willpower and consistently are the way to enlightenment.

But I’m not buying it.
It doesn’t work for me and it doesn’t work for my clients.

Working on your relationship with food is hard work and it must include reevaluating why the diets have not worked for you in the past. You haven’t not stuck to them because you’re lazy or stupid. It’s because they were the wrong goals for you.

So get curious about what you need, go easy on yourself, and try out inconsistency for a change.

If you want some support on the path of healing your relationship with food, I’d love to help! My 4 month Intuitive Eating coaching program, Love Food Again, is here to hold your hand as you walk toward finding a balanced and peaceful relationship with food while also learning how to prep, shop, and prepare foods in ways that honor your health and your life. Enrollment is open now.

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