Setting Sustainable Nutrition Goals for 2024 in 3 steps
Anti-diet dietitian approved!
Photo by Paico Oficial on Unsplash
Got something nutrition-related you want to work on, but have no idea where to start without succumbing to the dreaded “New Year” diet culture onslaught? Thanks in large part to diet culture, most goals made at the New Year are short-lived. Diet culture is a billion-dollar industry that creates an enticing image of what achieving nutrition goals looks like (and most of that image includes thinness, whiteness, and wealth) and creates many alluring shortcuts to get there.
Here’s the thing though - shortcuts, especially when it comes to your health, don’t work. Here are 3 steps to get started down a sustainable route for goal-setting:
Ask yourself if the goal you want is realistic based on your current lifestyle
This is killer. Thanks to the seductive language created by diet culture (think “fresh start” “lifestyle change” or any rule telling you to completely “cut out” one thing) we are sold this idea that we can’t make meaningful changes without changing everything. While this often works in the short term, rarely does this strategy have long-term success. Why? Because the routines and habits you have spent years or even a lifetime developing don’t just disappear overnight.
Yes, making smaller adjustments isn’t as sexy as throwing out everything in your pantry and fridge or planning a refresh on Monday, but they are key to sustainable change.
An example: Let’s say you want to try to lower your cholesterol via your food choices (note: sometimes you can do everything “right” in your eating and still have high cholesterol/blood pressure/etc… more on that in another post). A common dietary change to help with cholesterol is to increase fiber intake. An example of a sustainable change you could make would be choosing to swap a higher-fiber food with something you’re already eating (ex: a higher-fiber bread for your breakfast toast).
Find the middle ground between expectation & reality and get ready to be flexible
Got your small sustainable change? Good. Now be ready for it to fail.
Even when you feel like you picked the most manageable goal there’s a chance it might not fit. A sign your goal is too ambitious is that it is just not happening despite your best efforts. I already hear a “But what if I’m just not trying hard enough??” coming and here’s my answer: it’s your life and this is your goal. Your goal needs to fit into your life. You are a human focusing on a million things a day, doing the best you can with what you have. It’s okay to need to make changes. In fact, that should be an expectation - you’re going to need to make changes.
What about if the goal is too easy? Figure out the next little step to make it more challenging. But keep in mind the next step.
Know when to stop or when you can say “This is enough”
Nutrition is a marathon, not a sprint. There are rarely nutrition goals that have a clear endpoint. Why does having an endpoint matter? Because without one you run the risk of always feeling like you’re failing or not doing “enough.” But goals around nutrition need to be sustainable, adaptable, and, yes, endable. Okay, maybe more “set it and forget it” endable but you know what I mean.
Without an ending, you will forever be on the hamster wheel of trying to find the “perfect” way to eat. And, I’m sorry to tell you, there is no perfect way. Our bodies are not perfect systems. They all have flaws and faults that sometimes cannot be prevented despite all of our efforts. Sadly, we have to be the ones to say that we’re enough and that the choices we make are enough too.