Written by Lauren Dorman, Registered Dietitian
Lauren Dorman is known as a game-changing Registered Dietitian. She is the founder of Don't Diet Dietitian and Schools, Master Food and Mood. She is a speaker, and expert in Nutrition, Food Psychology, and Emotional Eating. She developed The Nine to Nourished Experience, 9 core strategies to refuel one's relationship with food, body, and brain.
If you really want to make 2025 the year that you stick to habits — this time for good — there’s no better time to hop aboard than right now! Changing your habits is the only proven solution to achieving long-term results. But healthy habits do not have to be hard. Breaking it all down simply will make new habits sustainable for life.
If someone were watching you right now and knew your values, would your habits reveal what you truly value? If the answer is no, that is okay; accepting where you are right now is also an important part of creating habit change. You might have lost touch with your values and are now learning to understand where you are now vs. what you value, what you consider important. And with this curiosity, you can start to align more of your actions with your values.
You can start to treat yourself as if you already know who you would like to be, which trains your mind and body to realize what is possible and who you are becoming. How you see yourself and your future vision shapes your attitude, actions, habits, and behaviors.
Thoughts
Thoughts create feelings, actions, and results. It all begins with our thoughts about a particular circumstance or situation. These are the things that you tell yourself about the situation. Those thoughts trigger emotions and influence the way that you feel. Depending on the thought, a positive or negative emotion is produced. That emotion you feel drives your actions, which may or may not support and align with your values, vision, and goals. The actions that you take will determine your results. Positive actions will drive you toward your goal, while unsupportive ones will hold you back, keeping you stuck and preventing you from moving forward.
New thoughts will create new choices and decisions to improve your total well-being. You can’t just jump from a seed to a flower. First, you must plant the seed, which will bud, sprout, and then become a flower. Just as that does not happen overnight, it will take time for you to slowly bloom into the person you wish to become.
An important question to write down and deeply think about is If you were consistent with your health habits, what would you be thinking, doing, and feeling?
Screen time
Given the constant distraction from today’s cellphones and other modern devices, nutrition, sleep, and movement have generally become less of a priority. In fact, a study surprisingly reported how reducing social media use by only 15-40 minutes a day had an average of 15% improvement in immune function. Other research on decreased social media usage revealed a 50% improvement in sleep quality, with 30% fewer depressive symptoms.
How do you feel when you get a break from your phone? Or do you have a difficult relationship with it in terms of attachment? Would you prefer to step back and give yourself a little screen-free time to enjoy some other activities? Think about what those might be. Movement, nature, reading, meditation. What else might you like to do that does not in any way involve being on the phone?
It does not have to be a drastic change. If your current screen time is 7 hours, you can try for just a half-hour less, so 6.5 hours. It’s your choice, of course. But you’ll likely see how you can benefit from time spent away from your phone and will probably notice an improvement in how you feel both mentally and physically. Although it may be hard at first, you are bound to appreciate having more time to spend really enjoying your life.
Movement
Developing a healthy relationship with movement is an essential ingredient to taking care of yourself and meeting your body’s needs. When it comes to movement, what do you really want? What types of exercise will keep you coming back again and again? (Think about what feels good to you!)
So many harmful messages and pressures from our culture promote exercise as something that we should be doing to attain a specific — yet unattainable and unrealistic — body appearance. Many view exercise as a way to burn calories and compensate for indulging in “bad” foods or eating “too much.”
In the book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, author John Medina writes, “The benefits of exercise seem nearly endless because of its impact systemwide, affecting most physiological symptoms. Exercise makes your muscles and bones stronger and improves strength and balance. It helps regulate your appetite, changes your blood lipid profile, reduces your risk for more than a dozen types of cancer, improves the immune system, and buffers against the toxic effects of stress. By enriching your cardiovascular system, exercise decreases your risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. When combined with the intellectual benefits exercise appears to offer, we have in our hands as close to the magic bullet for improving human health as exists in modern medicine.”
Prior to doing so, expect not to necessarily feel a desire to exercise; however, once you make the effort to start moving and do it consistently, pay close attention to how you feel immediately after and the rest of the day. This process will help you rewire your brain.
Nourishment
Think of your meals and snacks as a pattern, and over time consider whether you are getting enough nutrition. So, for instance, assuming that you have 3 meals and 2 snacks per day…during a period of two weeks, you have about 70 chances to eat. Of those 70 meals/snacks, were most of them nutrient-dense? Did they make you feel your best physically as well as mentally? If you start to give yourself power, not just food, there will be no more “I messed ups.”
I strongly favor these 4 strategies to simplify nutrition. Which one can you start with?
Nourish your body every few hours with meals and snacks. (Think of your body as a racecar with pit stops throughout the day; do not go longer than 4 hours without nourishing.)
Instead of restricting, focus on what foods you can add that will provide both antioxidants and variety (think of a colorful plate!).
Eat sufficient fats (omega-3 and omega-6) for hormone health, such as olives, walnuts, avocados, nut butter, flax seeds, chia seeds, and salmon.
Whenever possible, engage in mindful eating; remove distractions (for example, turn off your cellphone) and tune into your senses: smell, look, taste, and feel. Slow down and savor each bite of your meal or snack.
Journaling
Taking the time to jot down our thoughts — on actual paper — can lead to a better mood, improved sleep, more self-confidence, and a stronger immune system. You can begin to write 2-3 minutes a day and increase to any amount that fits into your lifestyle. You can write about any and all things in your life, as if it’s a “brain dump”; however, focusing on gratitude in your life will help the brain shift toward looking for more of the good in the future. Life will always have its ups and downs. You are constantly changing, shifting, and evolving. Labeling emotions and acknowledging specific events have been known to have a positive effect on people. It frees the brain from the enormous job of processing experiences and provides peace of mind to allow for better sleep. So, this tool is quite valuable, not to mention cost-effective!
If you only brushed and flossed your teeth once a week but expected to have healthy teeth and gums in 6 months, that would be silly and unrealistic. Well, the same goes for your health habits and life expectations. There is no quick fix. Each day we must chip away, building these lifelong skills. It is important to show and remind yourself that you can stick to a step-by-step process toward change rather than making huge changes all at once, which just isn’t practical. THINK: You are doing this one day — one habit — at a time!
A great question to ask yourself each morning is what is one thing that I will be proud about tomorrow?
If you’re interested in learning about the 9 Core Ingredients to refuel your relationship with food, body, and mind, you can download my free game-changing Guidebook here.
Lauren Dorman, Registered Dietitian
Lauren Dorman is a dedicated Registered Dietitian, helping both children and adults to address the real root solution that enables them to feel more calm, confident, and empowered around food, body, mind, and self. She is the creator of the Nine to Nourished Experience, 9 effective ingredients that lay the foundation to create a satisfying relationship with food that will allow you to thrive. For those who think they have "tried everything," healing at the root cause can shift all areas of life. Her mission: sustainable success is all about tending to a process that feels good to you.
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