It’s the middle of January and you’re a couple of weeks into your New Year’s resolution. While we’re all about BIG goals around here, we’re also about finding effective and sustainable ways to improve your overall health, beyond only losing weight or going for PRs in the gym. With years of experience working with hundreds of clients, our coaches have A LOT of experience supporting others in all areas of their health and nutrition. For this week’s post, our team pulled that expertise together with this list of unexpected ways to improve your health this year and continue to work towards your body composition and fitness goals in a sustainable way. It’s a culmination of our work with our clients as well as our own personal journeys as nutrition coaches. We’re sharing how getting in touch with different aspects of your health will allow you to look and feel your best not only this year, but for years (and years!) to come.

When it comes to coaching our clients, we’re committed to focusing on each client’s specific goals. Your big goals are important to us and health and nutrition is a very personal thing;  it’s very rare to find a one-size-fits-all approach. Our KLN team is great at helping you tackle those BIG goals and while doing so, we are also helping you create improved overall health and supportive habits in the background that will allow you to maintain your progress with your specific goals.  We believe that nutrition is all-encompassing, so while we talk to our clients about food a lot, we also talk about things like sleep, stress, relationships, exercise, work-life balance and sometimes even things going on in the world.

Each of these pieces is part of our mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health and plays a role in our body’s ability to function, look and feel its best. 

When we understand that we’re a whole person with a great, big life (beyond just food or a focused aspect of a specific goal, like a number on the scale) then we can work to align all areas of our health and the results end up being much greater than we could have imagined.

With that in mind, check out our list of things to focus on this New Year as you pursue your nutrition and health goals. Pick one or try them all and see if you notice a difference in how you feel or how you approach chasing down your goal(s).

5 THINGS TO FOCUS ON FOR IMPROVED HEALTH IN THE NEW YEAR

GET ANNUAL BLOOD WORK

This may be something you already do, but no matter your age or your goals, getting annual blood work is a great way to get a baseline of what your internal health looks like. Most insurance plans cover a baseline panel at least once per year, so even if your doctor doesn’t offer it to you, you can ask for it just to have it for your own purposes. When you call to make your appointment, just let them know that you’d like to get a baseline blood panel and they should be able to schedule that in for you. This is one way to learn about your body in an objective way, which can help with things like informing intentional supplementation and aiming to eat certain foods with specific nutrients that you may have lower values of. And even if everything comes back in normal range, you can still learn about what some of those values mean and how to ensure you continue to keep them within normal range by maintaining positive habits and nutrient-dense food choices.

BUT FIRST, WATER

If you’re someone who MUST have coffee or caffeine immediately upon waking up, I challenge you to keep water on your bedside table and drink some water first AND then go for your caffeinated beverage of choice. Aiming to “hydrate before you caffeinate” is certainly not a sexy goal, but it is one that your body will thank you for and it can also be a better way to manage your hunger throughout the day, which is beneficial if you’re working towards weight loss goals. Make it easy by keeping water next to your bed (and probably right next to your phone) and aim to make that the first thing you do when you wake up (even before checking your phone, double challenge!). Getting ahead on hydration for the day will allow you to better assess your hunger cues and teach you how to not so heavily rely on that caffeine pick me up to start your day. If you’re really into it, then I challenge you to eat before you caffeinate and try to work in some sunlight exposure first thing in the morning to see if that helps, too. Caffeine isn’t bad and it’s totally ok to enjoy, whatever your drink of choice is, but working towards making it less of a codependent relationship and integrating some other positive habits is going to be more supportive of improved long-term overall health. After some time and practice, you’ll feel much more refreshed and alert in the morning and you’ll be more in tune with your body’s hunger cues and energy levels, too.

SPEND TIME IN NATURE AND SOAK IN SOME SUNLIGHT

On that note, let’s talk about nature and sunlight exposure. This one may not be totally unexpected, but it’s something that research shows is integral to improved overall health - physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually. If you’re working on cultivating a practice of gratitude this year, spending time outdoors is a great way to celebrate just freaking being alive and well. Aim to take a walk first thing in the morning, during your lunch break and/or at the end of the day. 

A daily dose of sunshine is really important, especially during the winter months when vitamin D is in short supply due to lack of sun exposure. Getting outside when you can during this time of year is important, but if that’s not an option, you can also aim to sit near a window as much as possible or open the blinds or curtains throughout your house or office. Soaking in some sunlight is also something that helps significantly when it comes to supporting the natural rhythms of our body by syncing your internal clock with the external world. 

Daylight exposure is how the body knows what time it is and that’s what informs things like helping you wake up feeling rested and alert in the mornings and supports things like the release of melatonin to help your body start preparing for rejuvenating sleep at night.

BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT SCROLLING

There’s more and more research coming out frequently around our relationship with our phones, social media and technology in general. We all know that eliminating social media is not a realistic option, though it sounds ideal at times. Social media has many benefits and we love it for work, maintaining long-distance relationships, and sharing life milestones. I’m certainly not here to tell you to get rid of it but I am here to encourage you to be intentional about it and aim to make it a mindful practice versus something you use to “decompress” or mindlessly scroll throughout the day. 

One way to do this is to be very choosy about the accounts you choose to follow by engaging with ones that align with your goals. And in the same vein, aim to decrease the comparison game by unfollowing accounts that make you feel bad or inferior for any reason at all. (You can apply this same advice to real life relationships, too, and I would encourage you to do that as well! Being choosy about who you spend your time with and what relationships you choose to put effort into this year is important to protecting your peace AND making sure you’re surrounding yourself with those that support you in a positive way.) Just like you would unsubscribe from an annoying email marketing list, commit to unfollowing accounts that are bringing you down.

 When you are consistently seeing positive, uplifting and supportive messaging, you’re more likely to feel excited, motivated and focused on YOUR goals. And when you’re intentional about your time spent online, you can also be more intentional about making time to do things that are in support of your goals instead of wasting time mindlessly keeping up with things or people that aren’t helping you do that. Speaking of which…

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE AND HAVE SOME FUN!

It’s no secret that your emotional health plays a role not only in our physical health, but also in any aesthetic goals we may have. When we are consistently in a positive mood, we feel more satisfied with our efforts and we often have a more positive relationship with our bodies and oftentimes with food, too. When we’re happy, we have less of a tendency to turn to food to fulfill us or to “find happiness” in food. In other words, if you’re someone who is a stress-eater or you find that you have a tendency to negatively use food to cope,  you may notice that this decreases when you’re happy and fulfilled by spending time doing things that make you feel that way! 

One way to do this is by learning a new skill or a new hobby or revisiting an old one that you used to love (especially when you were a kid). Stretching your mind in different ways and getting out of your comfort zone can be really rewarding and fun!

Another way to do this is to practice a mindset of abundance over scarcity. This one goes back to the old adage of seeing the glass as half full versus half empty. A few examples of where you might notice yourself leading with scarcity:

-Body checking every time you see or pass your reflection in the mirror and instantly looking for flaws or things that need to be “fixed”

-Clenching or squinting your eyes when you look at your bank account or credit card statements or avoiding looking at them all together

-“Saving” your macros each day or only eating certain foods for fear that you’ll run out of food if you “spend” them on foods that you enjoy

Bringing awareness to your mindset and aiming to shift from one of “not enough” to one of “there’s always enough and I am supported” can be a game changer in how you not only approach your goals but also how you look for and measure progress.

Whether you’re working towards specific weight loss goals, faster times, heavier lifts or feeling and looking your best, taking an approach that encompasses all areas of your well-being is where it starts and how it continues. We hope that this year, you are intentional about your work towards your big goals in ways beyond the quick fix and even beyond just food and exercise. Taking care of yourself and spending time and energy on what matters is what it’s all about!

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