Why the New Year Doesn’t Need to Mean a “New You”
Your body is not a problem to be solved. Let’s reclaim the new year from diet culture and the wellness industry.
Like clockwork every January, we’re inundated with a lot of noise about diets, exercise, and wellness. It’s time to resolve to make this part of your body smaller, they say, while someone else makes sure you know: This other part should be bigger, more muscular, more “toned.”
This noise is always there, of course. But right now, the volume is turned way, way up and every gym ad, “cleanse” kit, and before and after photo is designed to make you feel like you and your body are a problem to be solved – for a price.
So, as a health care provider, I want to share a few reminders for January to help you turn the volume down on diet and wellness culture and take back the new year.
1. You are allowed to take up space with your body and needs
In 2026, confidently occupy the physical (and metaphorical!) space you take up without apology. Even if you are working towards making sustainable, healthy changes in your life (whatever those may be), give yourself permission to be seen and heard as you are today. Assert your needs, ideas, and presence without shame.
We live in a society that puts a tremendous amount of moral judgement on bigger bodies and social pressure to take up as little space as possible. But, as Sonya Renee Taylor writes in The Body is Not an Apology, “Our unapologetic embrace of our bodies gives others permission to unapologetically embrace theirs.”
2. Losing weight is almost never an emergency
Many of the ads on your feed are probably telling you that if you just pay for this subscription, equipment, or product, your body will look totally different in just a few weeks or months. But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! This time of year, it’s especially important to be critical of anything we see on social media and online.
If a company is promising rapid weight loss, they are likely peddling a product or program that isn’t healthy, safe, or sustainable. Many of these companies are promoting extreme food restriction or other types of disordered eating. I emphasize it with my patients all the time: Having a consistent eating schedule is vital for your physical, emotional, and mental health. Regular meals stabilize your blood sugar, give you ample opportunities to get the nutrition you need, regulate your digestive health, and more. Your body needs fuel and you don’t have to “earn” it.
It’s okay to want to lose weight, but be kind to yourself and remember that it’s not an emergency. Slow and steady weight loss (around 1 to 2 lbs per week at most) is safer and more sustainable.
Related:
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3. Companies are making money off making you feel bad about your body
The wellness industry rakes in an eyewatering $6.3 trillion every year – and that number climbs all the time. The entire industry relies on fear and manipulation to make you feel bad about some aspect of your appearance, using buzzwords and pseudoscience to sound like health experts.
We’re going to look back on many of the wellness and diet trends of today with the same eyerolls that we give the ones of decades past – like the absurd egg and wine diet of the 1970s. It recommended dieters subsist on a few eggs, an entire bottle of wine, coffee, and 5 oz of steak every day. That’s clearly absurd! But diet culture hasn’t stopped putting out absurd “tips” in the decades since.
So remind yourself that your body is not a problem to be solved, least of all by the diet industry. It’s a powerful act of resistance to refuse to let them line their pockets while making you feel bad about yourself.
4. It’s okay to follow the rhythm of the season
It’s true, the beginning of the new year feels like a fresh start. A clean slate after the holidays. But we are in some of the coldest and darkest months of the year, so “perhaps January is not the time for reinvention, but radical rest” that’s more in line with the rhythms of the season.
So instead of jumping right into big, drastic changes to your lifestyle, make a few small steps towards healthier habits. Maybe try to establish a consistent sleep schedule, commit to taking a short walk every day (or another type of movement that creates joy), or eat less processed food during the week. Focus on the basics rather than the extreme.
5. Health is far more than a number on a scale
Diet culture has tricked us into believing that health can be boiled down to the size of our bodies, rather than genuine wellbeing. In fact, studies show that weight is not the full picture and can be an unreliable indicator of overall health – despite how much emphasis our society puts on it. Health is multidimensional, and true wellbeing takes into account the health of your body, mind, and spirit.
There’s a reason I named my practice Whole Person Well Care – I am focused on your whole self. We don’t just focus on symptoms or what the scale says: we look at sleep, nutrition, boundaries, stress, and relationships too. I believe healing happens when all parts of you are invited in.
If you’re looking for a new primary care provider in Washington to kick off the new year, I would love to walk with you on your health journey! At Whole Person Well Care, your lived experience, voice, and autonomy are not just respected. They are at the center of everything I do. Schedule a visit or a free virtual meet-and-greet today.
And whether or not you become a patient at my practice, I hope you will be gentle with yourself this January. The new year doesn’t need to mean a “new” you – you are worthy of respect and love just as you are.
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