What If Your New Year's Resolution Is Wrong?

The New Rules of 2026: OUT: Optimization IN: Self-Awareness 🎉

ICYMI 👉

• Your Holiday Survival Guide

• Is Dry January a Good Idea?

• How to Manage Anxiety When It Feels Like the World is Falling Apart

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Wednesday is New Year’s Eve, and if you’re anything like the 60% of Americans setting health resolutions for 2026, you’re vowing to get your act together starting on Thursday. More exercise. Better eating. Less screen time. Finally making the medical appointment you’ve been putting off.

All of those are great goals. I, myself, am vowing to attend two (2!) yoga classes per week and to remove addictive apps from my phone (The Real Real, I’m looking at YOU!)

But here’s my contrarian take as we close out 2025: your resolutions might be backwards. The problem isn’t that you’re setting the wrong goals. It’s that you’re approaching health like a problem to solve rather than a process to live.

The Resolution Paradox

Every January, my practice fills with patients armed with ambitious health plans. They’re “cleansing!” They’re engaged in Dry January! They’ve downloaded new apps, joined gyms, and committed to cutting out entire food groups! But by February, most of those resolutions have unraveled—not because patients lack willpower, but because they’ve only scratched the surface of what “health” actually requires.

Research shows that only 9% of resolution-makers keep their commitments all year. What do the ones who succeed share in common? Two things:

• They don’t try to overhaul their lives overnight. They make tiny, consistent changes that build momentum without triggering the brain’s resistance to deprivation.

• They’ve asked themselves more than just, “What health goal should I set?” Instead, they’ve asked two critical questions: “What am I avoiding?” and “Why am I avoiding it?”

What Your Body & Mind Want From You

For me, I escape my never-ending to-do list by mindlessly watching Instagram reels or surfing for deals on The Real Real. But it only makes things worse! So my new goal isn’t just to delete the apps—it’s to get clear on my vision for 2026, and to be more intentional about time.

Similarly, the patient who resolves to lose 20 pounds may be avoiding a deeper conversation about why they use food for emotional regulation. The person committing to daily workouts might be running from accepting that their chronic pain requires medical attention, not just more “willpower.” The nature enthusiast swallowing fistfuls of supplements is often seeking control in the face of anxiety they haven’t acknowledged. (Read more on how to manage anxiety during especially anxious times HERE.)

The upshot: Health isn’t about checking boxes. It’s a process that comes from self-awareness, acceptance of what you cannot control, and agency over what you can change.

How to Action Self-Awareness

If you’re inclined to set a health resolution for 2026 (and stick with it), start with curiosity about yourself. I don’t mean curiosity about the latest longevity hack or Instagram wellness trend. I mean curiosity about your own patterns, your relationship with your body, and what actually makes you feel well versus what you think should make you feel well.

This might look like:

• Tracking not just your steps but how you feel after different types of movement

• Paying attention to which foods actually energize you versus which ones you eat only because they’re deemed “healthy”

• Noticing what triggers your anxiety and what soothes it

• Noticing what triggers your urge to grab a [drink/cookie/smoke/Dopamine hit off your phone apps] and what slows or stops that reflex

• Asking yourself what aspects of your health and wellness routine are enhancing your life versus controlling it (Read my article on deciphering if you’re wearing your health tech device or if it’s the other way around HERE.)

The goal isn’t optimization, it’s self-awareness as the ground game for improved health.

This Newsletter: What’s Coming in 2026

Before we close out this year, I want to thank you. Every week, you show up to read these newsletters. You send thoughtful questions that push my thinking. You share your own stories that remind me why this work matters.

Your willingness to engage with health topics and to sit with nuance and uncertainty gives me hope that we can move toward a healthcare culture that serves people better.

In 2026, I’m excited to give you a SNEAK PEAK of my forthcoming book, Beyond the Prescription: A Doctor’s Guide to Taking Charge of Your Health (Simon & Schuster, August 11, 2026. Pre-order it here!) I’ll bring you more evidence-based guidance on the topics you’ve asked about: hormone health, medication decision-making, mental health integration, and navigating our fragmented healthcare system. I’ll be launching podcast content that goes deeper on these themes. And I’ll be sharing some personal stories I haven’t told before—including the rather messy path that led me to be a better, more empowered patient myself. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a straight line!)

Most importantly, I’ll keep showing up to have honest conversations about health that acknowledge both the science and the very human experience of living in a body that doesn’t always cooperate with our plans.

Your Action Step

If you take nothing else from this newsletter, take this: before you set your 2026 health resolutions, spend some time asking yourself what you’re actually seeking. Is it health? Or is it control, certainty, or relief from anxiety?

There’s no wrong answer. But knowing the difference changes everything about how you’ll approach the year ahead.

Be well, and see you in 2026.

❤️Lucy

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