Here we are at the start of another new year. 2023 and Me are going to get along really well together. I am not setting any weight loss goals or new resolutions. 2023 and Me are going to be focusing on choices. Health choices, food choices and lifestyle choices that support my health goals.

I am bringing you the lessons I learned from being a Ketogenic Nutritionist for weight loss for the last 5 years and working with hundreds of people. I have learned a lot about weight loss mindset and how to frame the journey to your health goals in a way that makes it not only achievable but fun too.

That Time of Year Again …

The beginning of every year we are bombarded with emails, social media posts and blog posts telling us how to smash our goals and create new habits. I hate it. I hate that there is so much pressure put on people to transform themselves on January 1st. 

It’s not only because my philosophy is that each new minute is a chance to start again. You don’t have to wait until Monday, or the start of the month, or the new year. 24/7 we have the opportunity to recommit, restart, or start something new.

Down with Resolutions

I find that resolutions and goal setting is the fastest way to failure. Normally I don’t use the word failure – I prefer to frame it as “something that didn’t go my way that I can learn a lesson from”. This more positive facing framing, makes it less scary to try and makes it easier to deal with apparent failures.

Not failures, lessons learned.

So I am recommending that we throw out the concept of resolutions and goal setting when it comes to weight loss. Setting weight loss goals might seem like a good idea but here is the problem with that. 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.

Health goals? Absolutely, you can control the steps you need to take to get there again through choices.

I always tell people who want guarantees that the only way I can guarantee weight loss is if we chop off a limb. Not many people take me up on that. So throw out the weight loss goal and instead switch to choices.

Choose choices instead

Choices are a much better approach to weight loss than goals. From my experience, goals 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. Ah but it were that simple.

In my Facebook group of more than 650 people (at the time of writing this), the story is the same:

• Started keto 
• Lost weight
• Felt great
• Weight loss slowed
• Added fasting
• Felt great
• Weight loss slowed
• More fasting
• Felt worse
• More restriction
• Felt even worse
• No weight loss
• More fasting
• More exercise
• Weight gain

If this sounds familiar then come and join the Facebook group as we work to regain our health after toxic diet restriction. This story is so familiar because of the toxic diet culture of restriction for weight loss. Yes it works at first and you might feel great … until you don’t. 

Watch the video here

Choices give you more choice

Choices give you more than goals do. 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 a limb), 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 a woman who loves herself 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 is the right choice right now. Sometimes it’s ok but other times your success requires you to make a definite decision. Your choice.

Some Goals that Work

I don’t think that all goals are a bad thing or we shouldn’t set any goals at all. I just think that weight loss goals are pretty useless and demotivating. Pick goals that you actually have some control over. By focusing on goals that are achievable like “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. You also have no idea of what changes will take place in your life, your health and your body.

Choose goals that stretch you a bit but which you are fully in control of the process to get there. 

2023 and Me

For 2023 I choose to focus on physical health and my word for the year is play. I am choosing not to have weight loss goals because I cannot control what my body does. My job is just to eat the right food for my body (keto, of course), 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 big markers of health in my opinion. Take a look at the main markers of good health and focus on just one. 

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 will come.

Happy New Year, dear friend.