15 healthy habits for 2025
Last updated 1/1/2025
Is Your New Years Resolution To Be Healthier In 2025?
I am a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist seeing clients through my business Family Nutrition and Strength. I help women live healthier lifestyles to meet their health goals and to feed their family healthy. In today’s blog post I want to kick off the New Year with my top 15 healthy habits for 2025!
15 Healthy Lifestyle habits to start today
1. Drink Enough Water!
Water is usually one of the first things I focus on with my clients in my private practice. Why? Water helps support your metabolism, it helps to eliminate waste, lubricates your joints and helps prevent constipation. If you’re breast feeding, you absolutely must be drinking enough water to support milk production as well!
How much water should you drink? Aim for half your body weight in ounces. For breast feeding mamas it is good to aim for around 16 cups a day.
2. Exercise in ways you enjoy
Long gone are the days we are committing to exercise we hate. This sets you up for failure as it is hard to stay consistent when you absolutely loathe the way you are exercising. Instead, find exercise you enjoy and that you look forward to! Some ideas are: weight training, dancing, hiking, bike riding, Pilates, Yoga, etc.
This year start small and work your way up to at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week. According to the CDC this amount provides a variety of health benefits including: decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, as well as promotes healthy bone mineral density. 150 minutes a week translates to roughly 21 minutes a day, 7 days a week or 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
If you’re finding yourself unmotivated because you feel intimidated in the gym or exercising with weights at home, it can be worth the investment to hire a personal trainer to teach you proper form. After you know the basics, Personal Trainers can also write your exercise programs for you to do on your own to help you achieve your goals.
3. Eat More Vegetables With Your Meals
Vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals our bodies need to thrive. They can add to the visual appeal of a meal by increasing color variety and help you meet your daily fiber goals. Fiber is essential for feeding your gut microbiome, supporting normal bowel movements, balancing your hormones and lowering cholesterol levels. Try including a serving of vegetables with most meals in 2025.
4. Eat More Protein
Women need different amounts of protein depending on their life stage: adolescent, menstruating, pregnant, breastfeeding, perimenopause and menopause. Other factors that influence how much protein you might need is level of physical activity and fitness goals: weight loss, weight maintenance or muscle building. This range looks something like aiming for 0.8 grams/kilogram of body weight all the way up to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For a more individualized nutrient need analysis, you can meet with a Dietitian. Apply to work with me here.
5. Eat The Rainbow
This might be one of the most underrated healthy habits for 2025 in my opinion. Ensuring you are eating fruits and vegetables of all colors will help to give your body a wider range of nutrients that it needs to thrive.
Each color produce indicates that there are specific nutrients in it. For example, red produce typically contains a powerful antioxidant called lycopene, which helps protect cells from damage. Another example is of purple cabbage or blueberries, which both contain the antioxidant anthocyanin. Research has found normal consumption of anthocyanin has been linked to a decreased risk for dementia and vision loss.
6. Focus On Whole Foods
Focusing on whole foods like protein, beans, legumes, fruit, vegetable, whole grains and healthy fats will give your body the nutrients it needs to thrive. Whole foods are one ingredient foods that, when combined can make healthy meals and snacks. By adding in more whole foods you will likely be subtracting ultra processed foods naturally, which of course is beneficial for your body and overall health.
7. Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is a strategy that I teach my nutrition clients, as it helps us to slow down and be more present with our meals. It can help promote better digestion and you tune into your hunger and fullness cues.
8. Cook From Home More Often Than Not
Cooking at home can be overwhelming at first. but learning cooking basics to feed yourself or your family at home more often is time worth investing. When we cook at home we can control the ingredients we are putting in our meals and can decrease our consumption of ultra-processed foods. Not to mention, you will be saving money by cooking homemade meals versus eating out.
9. Meal Prep Breakfast and Lunch For The Work Week
Learning to take food from home has the same benefits as tip 8, like saving money on takeout and controlling the ingredients that are going into your meals. You are also more likely to stay on track for your health goals and less likely to be tempted to consuming ultra processed foods.
10. Focus on Quality and Quantity of Sleep
Sleeping can be difficult during some stages of life, like newborn stages for a new mama. However, if it’s within your range to focus on sleep this year, a good goal is to aim for 7-9 hours a night with minimal waking in between. When we sleep, our body goes into rest and repair. This can positively benefit our mood, energy and metabolism!
If you have a hard time falling asleep at night it can be helpful to get into a good sleep routine. My recommendations are shutting off blue lights an hour before bed, taking time to journal or read and going to bed at a consistent time daily.
11. Improve your Relationship With Food
Instead of going all in this New Years, perhaps you work on having a healthier relationship with food. This is, of course, individual to each person. However, I find that as a women we are particularly hard on ourselves when it comes to food and what we “should” be doing. A healthy relationship with food for me looks like nourishing myself well a majority of the time because it gives me energy, fuels my body, and helps me to feel my best. Simultaneously, if I want to grab a burger and fries or an ice cream out with my family occasionally, I am not beating myself up for that. It’s all about balance and enjoying everything I eat. As well as working on healthy habits!
12. Support Your Menstrual Cycle
As women, we have been conditioned to believe that our menstrual cycles are painful and should be that way. If you are having intense symptoms of dysregulated menstrual cycles like: tender breasts, mood swings, bloating, insomnia, painful or extremely heavy flows, etc please take the time to learn how to naturally support your menstrual cycle through diet and lifestyle changes. Again, this is individualized, so you should seek 1:1 nutrition support with a Dietitian and also consult your OBGYN about any concerning symptoms.
13. Eat 2 servings of seafood per week
Including 2 servings of seafood per week is known to decrease inflammation and provide benefits for heart and mental health! Research says if you include fish 1-4 times a week you are less likely to die from heart disease. If you’re a Vegan or Vegetarian, plant based omega three sources are less bioavailable. You will likely need to supplement with an omega three supplement like algal oil, which has both DHA and EPA.
14. Eat The Right Kind Of Carbohydrates
It’s no lie that carbohydrates have been shamed by most diets. Perhaps you’ll be surprised to learn that our bodies predominantly run off of carbohydrates! Choosing the right types of carbohydrates is key. Opt for whole grains, legumes, bean, fruits and vegetables to make up most of your daily carbohydrates. Additionally, pairing your carbohydrates alongside some protein and fat can help to stabilize blood sugar levels.
15. Get Your Steps In
Walk more through out the day or go for walks after meals. This helps to support your metabolism, stabilize blood sugar (along with nutrition strategies) and strengthens your bones. Walking is especially great if you have a weight loss goal, aim to get in 7,500 to 10,000 steps per day.
Tips on How to Incorporate These Healthy Habits For 2025
Start small. If one of these steps seems overwhelming, begin with the tips that seem more approachable to you. You’re likely not going to change everything overnight and stick to it 100%. Give yourself grace when things fall through the cracks and try to avoid the all or nothing mindset.
Need more support?
If you want some support in making these habits a reality in 2025, I do accept insurance in several states and cash pay clients USA wide. You can apply to work with me here.
Until next time,
Charity
