The Anti-Resolution: Listen to This Before You Make Your Resolutions
January has a way of making everything feel louder.
The pressure to start over, “fix yourself”, and come back “better” than before. If you’ve ever felt that quiet panic underneath all the New Year motivation, this episode is for you.
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Instead of making a New Year's Resolution, we’re making an anti-resolution.
We slow things down and question the idea that January requires a dramatic reinvention. Especially if you have a complicated relationship with food, body image, or control, resolutions can feel less like hope and more like a trap dressed up as self-improvement.
We talk honestly about why resolutions feel so tempting, how shame and pressure sneak into food- and body-based goals, and why that “clean slate” fantasy rarely delivers what it promises.
This isn’t about giving you another rule to follow. It’s about helping you choose something that actually supports you. You’ll hear a gentler, more deliberate way to think about change, grounded in values rather than fear, and how to tell whether a resolution will make your life feel bigger… or smaller.
This is a grounding start to the year that reminds you: you don’t need a new you to be worthy of change.
In this episode, I’m talking about…
Why January creates so much pressure to make resolutions, and how cultural expectations fuel urgency rather than clarity.
The “clean slate” fantasy of the new year and why it feels so compelling, especially for diet-minded or disordered eating patterns.
How resolutions around food and body are often rooted in shame, guilt, fear, and comparison, and why that foundation rarely leads to lasting change.
Why feeling pressured to change doesn’t mean a resolution is right for you or that you need one at all.
Three grounding questions to evaluate a resolution: whether it’s rooted in care or shame, whether you’d choose it without an audience, and whether it makes your life bigger or smaller.
Shifting from goal-obsession to values-based change and how values can guide more meaningful, sustainable resolutions.
How to use SMART goals in a supportive way, focusing on small, achievable, and flexible steps rather than rigid perfection.
Why consistency, softness, and “good enough” are more powerful than intensity and dramatic reinvention.
Letting go of “new year, new you” and remembering that you are already good enough.
Tweetable Quotes
“When we're under pressure, it's kind of impossible to make deliberate decisions and to really feel calm about it.” - Rachelle Heinemann
“You don't need a dramatic reinvention to be worthy of the start of the year or even a ‘fresh start’.” - Rachelle Heinemann
“A lot of food-related resolutions or like body-related resolutions are rooted very much in shame, guilt, comparison, anxiety, fear of not being in control.” - Rachelle Heinemann
“If you're thinking ‘I need to change because there is something terribly wrong about me as a person’… even if it is the best resolution in the world, that is never gonna hold up.” - Rachelle Heinemann
Resources
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Related Episodes
Episode 89. Finding Your Why with Alana Van Der Sluys
Episode 35. Finding Joy in Your Relationship with Food with Yaffi Lvova, RDN
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Hey there! I’m Rachelle, the host of the Understanding Disordered Eating Podcast. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, I work with clients to make sense of life’s messy emotional experiences.
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