aqua background with navy letters reading: Baby Steps over Big Changes: The Key to Keep a New Year's Resolution

Baby Steps Over Big Changes: The Key to Keep a New Year’s Resolution

ByKELhouston1013

Just one day until 2026! New Year, New You… right? 

If your first thought is a drastic overhaul to every aspect of your life, let me stop you right there.

I get the reasoning. After a month of “December eating”, plus this past week in the void that is the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I think we’re all ready to get back to a more structured, routine weekly rhythm. 

A big sweeping change is not a great way to keep a new year’s resolution. Here’s why.

With major drastic changes, those will usually fizzle out within a few weeks for one of these three reasons:

  1. The changes are too vague OR your resolution is an OUTCOME vs an ACTION that will help you get the desired outcome.
  2. There are too many changes happening at once.
  3. The change was way too drastic or intense and doesn’t have space to fit in your normal life.

In order to keep your resolutions going into February and the rest of the year, let me encourage you to start small.

For example, if the outcome you’re aiming for is to lower your A1c, here are how these three examples might work: (Please note that these are examples and not medical advice.)

  1. Too vague → “I’m going to lower my A1c.”
    • You have your desired outcome but no actual action plan to get there.
  2. Too many changes at once → “I’m going to exercise 30 minutes a day, get 10,000 steps per day, avoid all sugar, log my food, and get 8 hours of sleep each night.
    • Sure, all of these actions might help lower A1c, but if you’re not currently doing any of these, it’s not super realistic to think that you’ll be able to adjust every aspect of your life for any extended period of time and still keep your sanity.
  3. Too intense → “I’m going to cook every meal at home and exercise for 60 minutes each day.”
    • Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these goals, but if you’re hardly cooking at all right now and not exercising, there are a few potential flaws with this.
    • What happens if you leave for work without your packed lunch? Will you just go without? Eat something out? Will that be a failure?
    • When will you prepare these meals? Have you accounted for the time in your daily or weekly schedule? Do you have other people living in your house that you typically prepare meals for? Will they eat the same meals as you? If not, how will they get their meals?
    • Remember that cooking at home isn’t actually just cooking – it’s planning what you’ll cook and making sure you have it on hand. Are meal planning and shopping accounted for in your schedule?
    • If you’re not exercising at all right now, when will you fit in your 60 minutes? Morning, afternoon, evening? What type of exercise will you do? Do you have an indoor space (at home or a gym, etc…) for movement if the weather is poor? 
    • What if you’re sick or tired or are up with a sick kiddo all night or traffic was bad coming home from work, which ate up an extra hour of your evening?

Here’s what I’d recommend instead to keep a New Year’s resolution:

Choose one to three mini habits that will be realistic to stick to 90% of the time. You could technically do up to 5 if you’re very conscious of the time and mental energy they would take, but 1-3 is usually ideal.

For example, with the A1c example, here are some examples (again, not medical advice):

  1. I’ll get in 10 minutes of movement each day.
  2. I’ll cook 3 dinners at home each week.
  3. I’ll prep and bring my lunch for work 3 days a week.

Then, assess at the end of each week how often you’re able to do these goals. Is it working well with your actual life demands? Does anything need to change? 

Remember, changing your plan doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re being realistic and adjusting to make things doable for you. 

It might not feel like you’re doing a lot to start, but small behaviors compound on themselves to create big impacts.

Once these mini-habits are flowing well for you, you can decide if you want to deepen these current habits OR keep those as-is and start adding more mini-habits.

I’d love to hear what New Year’s Resolutions you’re making for 2026. Drop them in the comments!

If you’d like some help with setting or keeping goals to improve your health, minimize symptoms around eating, or feeling well overall in your body, I’d love to meet with you. You can reserve an appointment here.