Reflecting on a Year of Healthy Living: Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned for the Future

In this article:

• The end of the year is a good time to reflect on health and weight loss journeys.
• Here are 10 mistakes people often make in their journeys, and lessons you can learn.
• Make small changes, focus on your own path, and ask for help reaching your goals in the coming year.
• Lark can support your goals and help you stay motivated as you make progress towards your health and weight loss goals with or without GLP-1s as you log food, get tips for eating healthier, and make small changes that can turn into healthy habits.
  

The end of one year and the start of another offers a good time for reflection, including on your wellness journey. Everyone makes mistakes while losing weight or chasing other health goals, but each mistake is a learning opportunity.

Here are 10 common mistakes and how you can learn from them to make more progress in the new year.

1. Comparing yourself to others

It's tempting to compare yourself to others. It can be motivating, for example, to think about how much weight you might expect to lose based on someone else’s weight loss, but comparing yourself to others can lead to unrealistic expectations. In turn, you could feel like giving up if you fail to meet those expectations.

Here are a few reasons why others may lose different amounts of weight than you.

• Different starting weights
• Different metabolism and other physiological factors
• Different eating patterns and exercise programs
• Different support systems, lifestyles, and other commitments
• The possibility of using weight loss medications or having a different response while taking them

Comparing your health progress to other people can be dangerous because everyone is different and have different strategies that work for them.

Consider these examples.

• Some people prefer a low-carb diet, while others may like a Mediterranean diet, while others may prefer to focus on portion size only
• Some people prefer to satisfy cravings with a single bite, while others are better off avoiding that food entirely
• Some people like to vary their workouts to prevent boredom, while others like to do the same thing most days to avoid stress from searching for new activities.
  

The most productive way to be healthy is to make healthy choices for yourself and not to base your choices on someone else.

New strategy: If you’re scrolling through social media and you see that someone has posted enviable before and after pictures, focus on your own behaviors and choices. Remind yourself that you’re doing your best and your body will respond in its own way.

2. Trying to do it all at once

Lots of people dive into their weight loss or healthy journeys wholeheartedly. They may decide, for example, to eliminate added sugar and refined grains from their diets, go to the gym six days a week, cut fast food, plan and cook meals, and meditate daily.

These are great intentions, but here are some reasons why they can fall short.

• It takes a lot of time to plan meals and save time for the gym and meditation
• It can be physically exhausting to start an intense exercise routine
• Abruptly eliminating treats like added sugars and refined grains can lead to feelings of deprivation
• It can be mentally and physically tiring to identify and prepare alternatives to sweets, refined grains, and fast food
  

It can be easier and more sustainable to make just 1-2 changes at a time, and wait until they become habits before adding more changes.

New strategy: For 2 weeks, swap in a whole grain instead of one of your regular refined grains, like making toast on whole-wheat bread instead of white bread. Also try increasing your weekly workouts by 1 session. In a couple of weeks, if those changes seem sustainable, try cooking a meal at home instead of choosing fast food once a week.

3. Eating too little

Losing weight requires a negative calorie balance. You can reduce your calorie consumption simply by cutting portion sizes, but that may not be sustainable. You may end up feeling hungry,

deprived, and irritated. Instead, as you reduce portion sizes of high-calorie foods, also serve yourself larger portions of low-calorie foods to stay full and satisfied.

New strategy: Cut high-calorie foods in half and serve yourself bigger portions of low-calorie foods. Here are some examples.

• Eat half of a bagel with cream cheese, and add 1 cup of fresh fruit
• Serve 1 cup of pasta instead of 2 and 1 slice of garlic bread instead of 2, and add 3 ounces of skinless chicken or fish and a side of vegetables or a side salad with vinaigrette dressing
• Have a half-cup of ice cream instead of a full cup, and add a half-cup of berries or sliced banana
  

4. Confusing harder with better

You might assume that the harder your journey is, the better your results will be, but that’s not the case. Your results depend on the choices you make, not on how hard or easy it was to make them.

Here are some examples of harder choices being confused with better choices.

• Thinking that a lot of sweat means you had a good workout. It could mean that the room was hot, you were overdressed, or the weather was warm. Better ways to measure workout success are things like duration, intensity, heart rate, how you feel during and afterward, soreness, or fatigue.
• Only recognizing complicated recipes as healthy meals, when in reality, something simple like a piece of salmon baked in foil with vegetables and potatoes can be just what your body needs
• Feeling guilty when you take time for a workout or meal prep. In reality, your body gets the same benefits no matter how hard or easy it is to get active or eat well.
  

In the coming year, try making healthier choices easier.

New strategy: Put simple meals and snacks on the menu. Here are some examples.

• Scrambled eggs with frozen spinach and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast
• A peanut butter and sliced banana wrap on a whole-grain tortilla, with baby carrots and grapes for lunch
• Brown rice, black beans, low-fat cheese, and grilled vegetables in a “naked” burrito bowl for dinner
• Simple snacks like air-popped popcorn, brown rice cakes, low-fat string cheese sticks, whole fruit or grapes, nuts or peanuts, and hard-boiled eggs

5. Not asking for help

Many people make the mistake of thinking they can make lifestyle changes on their own. This can lead to unnecessary struggles, extra effort, and feelings of isolation.

You’re more likely to stick to your healthy intentions if you take advantage of help that’s available. Help can come in many forms, from physical assistance to moral support.

Here are some ways that people can help you make healthy choices.

• Agree to keep tempting, low-nutrient food outside of your home, or to wrap it up and store it out of sight
• Allow you to place your workout clothes and shoes in the entryway of your home overnight so you can quickly go for your walk first thing in the morning
• Ask you how you’re feeling and how progress towards your goals is going
• Make you laugh or have fun to relieve stress

You can also seek support from trusted online communities.

New strategy: Tell people about your intentions and how they can help. People don’t always know that you’re trying to live healthy or what they can do to help. They may appreciate you telling them so that they can feel and be useful.

6. Having an all-or-nothing approach

An all-or-nothing approach says that if you’re not perfect, there’s no point in trying. People who think this way are at high risk of giving up because everyone makes mistakes sometimes. When you fall short, having an all-or-nothing approach may lead you to give up.

Here are some examples.

• Having less time than you’d expected, so skipping your workout entirely
• Ruining your “perfect” day by eating a doughnut, so eating badly the rest of the day
• Skipping your workout for two days, so deciding to skip the whole week since it’s not a perfect streak

This year, try to remind yourself that every little bit counts.

New strategy: Ask yourself what the best decision is right now, regardless of what happened in the minutes, hours, or days leading up to now. Whether you ate too much or are running short on time for a workout isn’t the focus. The focus is on what you can do now to be healthier. It might be to stop eating, to drink water, to shop for vegetables, or to go for a short walk, for example.

7. Depending on workouts to overcome poor eating

Exercise burns calories, but it’s unlikely to lead to weight loss without making dietary changes too. If you’ve been exercising without hitting your weight loss goals, it’s possible you need to take a look at your nutrition.

New strategy: Keep working out for physical and mental health benefits related to mood, blood sugar, ability to focus, heart health, and more. Also, use workouts as a tool to monitor how your body feels. At the same time, design a meal plan with portion control, lots of vegetables and fruits, and more whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins compared to processed foods.

8. Being impatient

Expecting results unrealistically fast can lead to disappointment and giving up. When talking about weight loss, for example, a very reasonable half-pound of weight loss per week can take many people years to reach their goal weight. That’s okay! As your weight drops, you can feel better, improve your health, and establish new habits that can help you keep weight off

long-term.

Patience helps in other areas, too. There may be times, for example, when you forget to prepare vegetables so you’re stuck without a healthy snack option. Or, you might have setbacks when exercising, such as skipping days here and there because it still feels like a struggle to get active.

New strategy: Try to keep a long-term perspective. Think about how your weight may be dropping slowly, but it’s lower now than at this time last year, for example. Or, consider how you’re overall more active or eating better than before.

9. Focusing only on weigh-ins

Weigh-ins are a great tool for measuring progress but they have drawbacks. They’re not always predictable, as you may notice when your weight fluctuates on a daily basis despite a consistent diet and exercise program. They can be discouraging if you hit a plateau or your weight goes up unexpectedly.

Here are some other ways to measure progress.

• How you feel physically and emotionally
• Health measures like blood sugar, blood pressure, or cholesterol levels
• What you eat overall, like having more vegetables or fewer sodas than you used to
• How active you are

New strategy: Keep weighing yourself because it keeps you accountable, but add other goals besides weight. Keep your goals action-oriented and within your control, like having 3 servings

of whole grains for 5 days a week for the next month, logging your meals for a week, or adding 60 minutes of activity to your previous weekly total.

10. Separating healthy living from life

Some people see healthy choices as separate from their “real” lives. They may feel that healthy choices are only for a short time, or that they need to keep their healthy lifestyle to themselves while making their old choices in social settings.

It’s more effective to integrate healthy choices into your “regular” life. This may mean making healthy restaurant choices like skipping dessert, sharing an appetizer, or moving social time to a park for a walk instead of meeting friends for ice cream. Similarly, going to bed on time and managing stress can become everyday activities.

New strategy: Think of yourself as a healthy person, and act that way in as many settings as you can. Let your family and friends know which healthy choices you plan to make so they’re aware and so you’re committed. Create a healthy environment for yourself at home with reminders to start your bedtime routine, leakproof containers to pack leftovers and healthy lunches, and candles if you like aromatherapy for relaxing, for example.

How Lark Can Help

As the new year approaches, you can take lessons from the year that is closing to support your future success. Lark can help you work towards your weight and health goals by making small changes. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications.

Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!