Lindsay ZahnerHealth and Wellness Coaching

How to be successful with long-term goals and habit change #healthyhabits

14 Apr 2026 · 2 min

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1:40

In this monologue, the speaker— a health and wellness coach— emphasizes that lasting habit change comes from shifting one’s identity rather than merely counting the days of a behavior. They argue that counting days keeps habits feeling temporary (e.g., “day 25 of no sugar”) and leads to burnout, especially after intensive programs like Whole30 or 75 Hard, which can serve as short‑term catalysts but often end in relapse. The core strategy presented is to reframe habits as expressions of a new self‑identity: repeatedly completing the sentence “I am someone who…”. This identity‑based affirmation makes healthy choices feel non‑negotiable and automatically aligned with one’s self‑concept. The coach reports that clients who adopt this weekly identity exercise show dramatic improvements from week 1 to week 12. The speaker invites viewers—specifically women over 40—to comment with their own identity statements and to follow for more science‑backed health, wellness, and exercise advice.

Chapters

I don't know who needs to hear this, and trust me when I say that I am saying this with love because I want to see you succeed. And please don't judge me on my hair, it's 1 o'clock in the morning. But if you are counting the days that you are doing a habit, whether it's exercise, nutrition, or something completely unrelated to health, you have not yet shifted your identity. And if you haven't shifted your identity, you're going to be constantly in that mindset of this is just a diet or this is just temporary. So doing things like Whole30 and 75 Hard, yeah, they're great, and yeah, they can be a catalyst, but a lot of times you're so burned out by the end of it that you just revert back to the way you were. Only when you shift your identity do you stop counting, because this is just who you are now, and you just do this forever. So if you're saying, oh, I'm on day 25 of no sugar, chances are that habit is not going to stick. Instead, what you should be saying is, I am someone who I am someone who prioritizes my health. I am someone who wants to take care of my body. I respect my body enough to not eat a bunch of processed junk. See the difference? So when you stop thinking of it as something temporary and really focus on this is my life now, that's when everything shifts and you will feel it because it's no longer negotiable. It's just what you do now. So if something doesn't align with your new identity, it makes it easy and automatic to say no. I have my clients do this every single week. They check in with me, and one of the questions is, finish this sentence: I am someone who— and it is incredible the changes I have seen from week 1 to week 12 with some of my clients because they always have that in the forefront of their mind. So finish this sentence for yourself and put it in the comments if you're comfortable, and follow for more science-backed health, wellness, and exercise tips for women over 40.