5 Ways to Set Achievable Healthy Eating Goals for the New Year

The start of a new year can bring about a lot of changes and resolutions, one of which may be wanting to eat healthier. Setting healthy eating goals can be a great way to improve your overall health and well-being. However, it’s important to make sure these goals are achievable and sustainable long term. In this post, we’ll go over some tips for setting healthy eating goals that are realistic and actually attainable.

1. Identify Your Starting Point

Before setting any goals, it’s important to take stock of where you are right now. This includes examining your current eating habits and identifying areas where you could improve. Take note of the types of foods you tend to eat, your portion sizes, and any habits or tendencies that may be hindering your progress. This will give you a starting point to work from and will help you create actionable goals. Check out this free food tracker to help you get started.

2. Make Your Goals Specific and Measurable

One of the biggest mistakes people make when setting goals is being too vague. Simply saying “I want to eat healthier” doesn’t give you a clear direction or plan of action. Instead, try making your goals specific and measurable. For example, “I want to eat at least two servings of vegetables with every meal” or “I want to limit my fast food intake to one meal per week.” These types of goals give you a clear plan of action to follow. Use this SMART goal template for more help.

3. Be Realistic

It’s important to set goals that are challenging, but also realistic. Trying to completely overhaul your eating habits overnight is unrealistic and can lead to frustration and failure. Instead, set goals that align with your current lifestyle and habits, and slowly work towards more challenging goals as you go. For example, if you currently never eat breakfast, aiming to have a healthy breakfast three times a week is a more realistic starting point than trying to eat a healthy breakfast every day.

4. Create an Action Plan

Setting goals is only the first step – you also need a plan of action. Once you’ve identified your starting point and set goals, create a plan for how you’ll achieve them. This could include things like meal prepping, finding healthy alternatives to your favorite foods, or learning to cook new and healthy recipes. Make this plan as detailed as possible so you know exactly what you need to do to reach your goals.

5. Celebrate Your Wins (Even Small Ones)

Finally, it’s important to celebrate your wins along the way. This can help keep you motivated and encouraged to keep going. Even small wins like choosing a salad instead of fries or cooking a healthy dinner at home instead of ordering takeout are worth celebrating. Give yourself a pat on the back and recognize your progress, no matter how small.

Wrapping Up

Setting healthy eating goals is a great way to improve your overall health and well-being. However, it’s important to make sure these goals are achievable and sustainable long term. By identifying your starting point, making your goals specific and measurable, being realistic, creating a plan, and celebrating your wins, you can set yourself up for success and create healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.