Creating Lasting Habits for the New Year: Free Program

Welcome to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. The website, this show, and our newsletter all focus on making the science of advanced nutrition and greater overall health accessible to everyone. Buckle up for our latest episode to get ideas, tools, and practical knowledge you can use to improve your health and move towards your perfect version of ultimate wellness. The Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast Cheryl McColgan shares interviews with nutrition experts, health researchers, and everyday people that have changed their lifestyle and nutrition to support greater health. You'll learn how to implement lasting change and create new habits that support greater wellness and a happier, healthier life. Please visit healnourishgrowpodcast.com for full show notes and links to our guests.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. If you can tell a little bit of difference in my voice, I've actually had a cold for a bit and I'm just now to the point where my voice is somewhat normal and I'm not sniffling and sneezing and being totally obnoxious. So I really wanted to go ahead and record this episode to share several things with you and to wish you happy holidays. Um, where I am right now in the US, it is currently Christmas Eve, so I have actually still got a lot of things to do today. Um, we're actually having lasagna for dinner. The boys are both home for Christmas, So, um, that is their request. So I'll be making some homemade lasagna tonight, and then tomorrow we will be enjoying a roast beast, which I always kind of laugh when I say that because it's from, uh, the Grinch movie, I believe. They always call it the roast beast. So just, um, a roasted prime rib roast. And, uh, yeah, so looking forward to sharing the holiday with my family and just catching up on some things, quite honestly, because the last several weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. And with me not feeling as I have, I'm behind on some things that I need to record and share with you. So, so we'll just get right into it. The first thing I want to talk about is building habits in the new year. So we're getting ready to come into that time. And if you followed my content for a while, you've heard me talk about it before is whenever we come to this time of year, people make a lot of New Year's resolutions. And typically what happens is by sometimes even before the end of January, people have already given up. On their resolutions, or they— what usually happens actually is they've bitten off more than they can chew. They've made these kind of resolutions that are just too big without taking the steps they need to do first to build up to that. And so I always like to encourage you to take small little steps towards habits. That's really how you create lasting change. If you go to my YouTube channel, if you're listening to this on audio, um, if you're watching a video, you're already on YouTube, and I will try to link the video here if I can figure out how to do that. But I have a video on 5 things you need to create create better habits, and that was covered by Authority Magazine. I think it's— maybe it was in 2019 or something like that. So this is certainly something that I have been focused on a long time in my content and in my own personal life, trying to create better habits, new habits, as I go throughout the year. I really don't wait until January. I'll pick something up whenever it occurs to me that I really need it in my life. So right now, uh, I've got several things that I'm working on. A lot of it related to work, But the one thing I kept thinking about this, and I've thought about doing this for years and sharing this with you, and it really wasn't until this year where I was able to conceive of it in a way that I can bring it to fruition and really deliver it in a way that I think will be useful to everyone. It's 100% free. So I'm really excited about that because I just want to share information that will help you live a happier, healthier life. And, you know, Heal Nurse Ro has been around for, I believe it's going to be 8 years this coming summer. I'll have to go back and look when I actually launched it. But my about page that I wrote way back then is— I've never changed it because it still just holds the same meaning to me, what I want to share with people, how I want to help them be healthier, share information that's based on the latest research. You know, I've certainly changed my mind about several things over the years, and I think it's important to, you know, be able to do that when presented with new information. So anyway, what this is all about, it's a 30-day challenge, but it's not the kind of challenge you're thinking about, the kind that you've tried before and you weren't able to get through it because it's too crazy, or 75 Hard, which is just an insane amount of things you have to do on a daily basis. And it really just sets people up for failure in my opinion, because in its— well, I guess it's named properly, right? 75 Hard, because it is very challenging. But this challenge is really all about creating better habits. At the very beginning of the challenge, you'll set some intentions around things you might wanna change. But really, it's an— every day is going to be a short podcast, a video, and an email that you get in your inbox. And it just gives you a small habit that you're gonna try that day. And it only takes about 5 to 15 minutes each day. One of the things is daily movement, but it's— you get to choose whatever it is that speaks to you. What, you know, if it's joyful movement, you get bonus points for that. Maybe some kitchen dancing, something. Um, but if you're already on an exercise program, it's just going to have you, you know, you can make it it into something that's a little longer for you, or maybe try a different thing for that 30 days. But that's one of the main components, because I do believe that moving your body every day, if you're not in the habit of it, bringing some more awareness around that and just committing to doing that, you will feel so much better by the end of 30 days. And if you're already moving, you are going to get to try all these little habits that I have planned out for the 30 days. And if it's something that speaks to you, once you try the habit, hopefully I'm thinking that you'll, you know, you'll try to implement it every day of the challenge. But if it didn't speak to you, if it didn't resonate, or something that you already do, you're kind of just going to, you know, leave that behind. You're going to take from this what you need from it. And it'll be, you know, all of it has research links every day. So if you're interested in spending more time on this particular habit, you can read about why it's good for you or how long it might take to implement it, that sort of thing. So it's really been a lot of work. And I actually, because of being a little bit sick, I haven't recorded the rest of it at this point, but, um, I got a little bit more to do. I've got the emails set up for the daily emails. And, um, now it's just a matter of recording the rest of the content so that when you are on that day with the habit, I'll be right there with you. I'll be talking about it. I'll be sharing about how I use it in my daily life and, uh, maybe some more of the research. So it'll be in an audio format where, uh, if you're in the car going to work or something, like I said, the habit itself, whatever you're gonna try, is only gonna take 5 to 15 minutes for that day. But if it's one of the habits that you're more interested in, you'll get to hear more about it and, uh, learn more about it. And hopefully it you know, learn that it's something that you could really use in your life and that might really help you. So that is a challenge. I would love for you to join me. Like I said, it's 100% free and you can just go sign up right now. It's at healnourishgrow.com/habits. So please, please do this. Share it with your friends because you always are more successful creating new habits when you have friends involved. You can talk about the different ones together, what's, what's working for you, what's not. It's just, it's just more fun when you have more people involved. So And you know, I always greatly appreciate it if you share the podcast or share my content with others, because that's the easiest way that people find me. It is getting so much more challenging on the internet these days with AI to, uh, find people that resonate with you, to find real people that are doing work in the space and in any space really. It'll be interesting to see really how that evolves over the next several years for sure. But if you would share it, I'd be very grateful. healnourishpro.com/habits. So that's how you sign up. Uh, the second. The last thing I wanna share with you, and it's another resource for the new year, it is a summit that I've been involved with in the past and they reached out to me and asked if I could share about it again. And I said, of course, cuz it's something I really believe in. They always have great speakers. It's another thing that's 100% free and that is the Quit Sugar Summit. And it's not, it's interesting cuz even if you don't wanna totally remove sugar from your life or if you already have a healthy relationship with sugar, it doesn't bother you, you don't have diabetes, those sorts of things. The speakers are all just really excellent speakers in this health space. And I think whether you really want to quit sugar or not, you will still get some great knowledge from that and maybe get some tips and tricks and different things that you can, like I said, implement into the new year and just learn about. And so that is healnourishgrow.com/QuitSugarSummit. So super easy to sign up for that, free as well. It starts, I believe, January 12th. So you've got a little bit of time, but if you go ahead and sign up for it now, they'll send you some reminders about when it's going to start because you do need to watch it on the days that they send it out because that's That's how they make the summit for free, basically. So that content will be available on the day that it is registered to run. And then after that, unfortunately you won't have access unless you choose to pay for it, but it's a really great way to get some free content. Watch the ones you can, or watch just the ones that you're interested in. You'll get the names of them beforehand. So that's another great resource for the new year. And then the last thing that I'll talk about today, I'm going to keep this relatively short because I'm sure that my voice is a little bit annoying with the hoarseness that I still have left from my little, uh, cold or whatever it was, is that this is another resource that I've been wanting to create for a long time. And it really came to me when I was doing my, uh, contest prep for the bodybuilding shows and doing some serious, uh, dieting, which I still need to share all of that with you, kind of some lessons learned and some thoughts around that. Because doing this at 52 and still being able to lose weight aggressively was really interesting. And I think it just goes to show you that it's definitely possible. There just might be some things in your head that you have to get past a little bit, or habits that you might need to change slightly to make that still available to you and your body. So if that happens to be a goal for you in the new year, to lose weight or, or work on your relationship with food, uh, have some content coming around that. But the one that I really wanna create, and I think is useful for anybody no matter what your goal is, cuz it's also useful if your goal is to build muscle or to gain weight. And that is macros.

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The power of macros. I have been tracking macros way back since when SparkPeople was still around. It has gone out of business a long time ago, but that was one of the first trackers before MyFitnessPal, before any of that. Uh, when I was back when I was a runner, I would often track my macros or anytime that I needed to lose a couple pounds, that's what I relied on. And macros gives you so much more flexibility than a diet plan, than a strict, you know, whether it's a vegetarian diet or keto diet or Whole30 diet. It, it gives you so much more flexibility than any of those options because you simply learn how to track your food. And what it's about. And so the plan for that one is to kind of do a Macros 101 class for you and just share, you know, first of all, what are— if you're— I mean, at this point I feel like everybody has heard this term, but I quite often realize that I'm a very— I'm in a very specific space where I, uh, read, listen to, consume this kind of content all the time, and it's basically my work life, right? So it's something that I'm very educated on. And so I kind of forget sometimes that there are people that don't know some of these terms. And I'd be curious, comment below if when I said macros you knew immediately what it was, or if you're like, what the heck is this? Because I'd just be curious. But I think most people do know at this point. But anyway, macros are fat, carbohydrates, and protein. Alcohol is kind of considered a fourth macro in a way, and I will definitely talk about that in the Macros 101 class. But I wanted to save that for when my voice is actually fully back and I'm not still stuffy so that it's— because it's going to be a long-term, I think, great piece of evergreen content, and I want it to sound a little bit better than I'm sounding right now, if that's possible. Um, so that's coming as well. So that's kind of what's been going on over here and the reason that I have been a little delayed. I do have an interview with a guest that is already prepped that will be coming up, and it's a really interesting, uh, guest that went through a lot of personal challenges and just kind of sharing some of her insights and ways that she was able to overcome those things and some projects that she is personally working on to create some experiences for people that I think could be really interesting to a lot of my audience. And that is, you know, groups of women and they kind of go out into nature, into the wild, and just learn skills around being outside and reconnecting with the outdoors. And so I'm really excited to share about that coming up too. But anyway, that is all I wanted to say for today. So again, if you could go pop over and sign up for the challenge. It's healnourishgrow.com/habits. And I hesitated to even call it a challenge because I don't— I don't honestly don't think it will be too challenging. And that is the beauty of approaching habits in this way. And when you go— if you go listen to the thing, the 5 things you need to create healthy habits, it's really about starting small and building on that. And, you know, doing things like habit stacking, Everybody, you brush your teeth every morning and every night, right? You always do that. So if you need to do a new thing, like take a new supplement or something, you know, putting it right next to your toothpaste, that's a great way to do that. So habit stacking is also something that we'll chat about in the challenge, but I really think it's like a reset and it's a, a way to try new things. So that's how I'm looking at it. That's how it'll be, uh, I'm be approaching it with you. And again, I hope you will sign up for that. Join me, share it with your friends and family so they can join you too, and we'll all get healthier in 2026. Like I said, I've Definitely got some new goals and I'm working on some things for myself and I'm going to be doing each of these habits each of the days that they go out as well, um, because I want to learn from it and I want to see, you know, which ones resonated with me or is there anything that I'm doing in my daily life that I should have shared that could have been a better habit to share with you to try. So yeah, so we'll all be doing it together and I'm really excited about it. Like I said, I've thought about doing this a whole bunch in the past and I just haven't found a way to deliver it and to really map it out the way that I have this time. So I would love to have you along for the ride. But anyway, until next time, which will hopefully be much sooner here now that I am well and back to recording. And oh, the other thing I think I mentioned with the challenge is there will be the audio component. It'll be like a special podcast episodes for a series for a while. And so if you're catching this later and you missed signing up for the challenge, once it's out January 1st, you can actually start it at any time and the The beauty is I think you should be able to start it over as well. Um, so if you really enjoyed it, you get off track for a little while, you want to come back to it, you can always just start over the 30 days, kind of like an evergreen thing. So no matter when you hear this in the future, this will be available to you. So that's all for now. And I hope you have happy, happy holidays, however you're celebrating. Um, enjoy your time with friends and family, and then let's all get ready for 2026 and creating some new awesome habits. So see you next time.

This has been the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. Again, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. You can find show notes for this episode at healnourishgrowpodcast.com. If you have feedback on today's episode or questions about the content, please email us at podcast@healnourishgrow.com. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to sign up for our email list at healnourishgrow.com and subscribe to the show with your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Join us next time for more information that helps you live your best and healthiest life. Thanks for listening. Content on the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast does not constitute medical advice. Content contained in the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment. Neither the company nor its owner, Heal, Nourish, Grow LLC, nor any of the company's employees, agents, or guest speakers provide medical advice. The content provided on Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your medical provider with any questions about what health practices are right for you.