By Jenni Wolf
The New Year buzz is in the air.
I can feel it—fresh starts, new beginnings, changes all around.
We don’t need to wait until the New Year to reflect on and assess how we are living our lives and taking care of ourselves.
But if you are part of the roughly 75% of the population setting health-focused goals and making changes to improve wellness in 2025, here are a few options to consider that—shocker!—have nothing to do with dieting:
Eat at the table.
Make it a priority to eat one meal at the table each day. No matter the meal or who you are with, take time away from your desk, the TV or your to-do list to sit and enjoy a meal undistracted.
This will help support more mindfulness and connection to your body, allowing for more intuition and balance around food choices and intake, thus supporting your overall health.
Ditch the scale.
I know this will seem controversial to many but hear me out.
How much you weigh is only one potential contributor to your health. There are many other factors at play, and frequent weighing can increase the risk of disordered eating patterns, poor mental health outcomes and weight-cycling.
Instead of housing a scale in your bathroom, pack it away in a closet and spend the year noticing how your body feels, emotionally and physically, without the number on the scale affecting your assessment.
Join in open rec.
Check out your local recreation center or community education program listings to find open gym times for group sports and activities.
This is a fun and easy way to be active as an adult and support your physical health, while also supporting emotional and mental wellness by connecting socially and building community with others.
Opt outside every day.
Yes, every day; even in the cold.
Even just for a few minutes.
No excuses.
This is an action step that has a very low physical hurdle and one with a high potential payoff. Getting up and out not only supports an active lifestyle, it also helps reduce isolation that, in turn, can support an improved mood.
And when we are feeling well, we tend to make choices that better support and are in line with our body’s needs.
Review your social media.
Unfollow, unfriend and unsubscribe from content that is not serving you.
And do this regularly!
Set a time each week to audit your feed and time spent on socials and consider setting a boundary around usage. Doing this can help pull you back into present life—the here and now—and keep you from avoiding reality.
It can be easy to get stuck in “all-or-nothing thinking” around health and wellness when consuming content. Not to mention, it is hard to stay focused on your health goals and wellbeing if you are distracted and living in social media land!
We all know that much of what we see online is not real and that this can be easy to forget.
So, pick one goal, one habit, one action to start slowly with, remembering you can always add on more as the year goes. In fact, maybe I’d better plan for a check-in column mid-year!
Jenni Wolf, a registered dietitian, writes about food and nutrition for the Bugle.
Photo cutline: Getting outside, even in winter, can help boost your mood, awareness and activity level. Photo by Jenni Wolf.
