habits – Roxy Functional Wellness

Are You Resting—or Just Sitting Down?

October 15, 2026September 28, 2026 by Roxy Functional Wellness, posted in Health & Wellness

At the end of a long day, many of us finally sit down, pick up our phones, turn on the television, and tell ourselves that we are resting. An hour later, we may realize that we have answered several text messages, watched half an episode of something, scrolled through social media, checked our email, read a few upsetting news stories, and somehow feel just as mentally exhausted as we did before we sat down. Our bodies may have stopped moving, but our brains certainly did not. This raises an important question: Are we actually resting, or are we simply sitting down?

Rest is often treated as something we earn after everything else is finished, but for most of us, everything is never truly finished. There will always be another load of laundry, another email, another patient or client question, another household project, or something else we could accomplish. When productivity becomes our default setting, slowing down can even make us feel uncomfortable or guilty. However, periods of genuine recovery are not wasted time; they are an important part of supporting our physical, mental, and emotional health.

Woman wrapped in a blanket holding tea beside an open book in a garden — A woman enjoys tea and a book in a sunlit garden beside a rustic stone cottage.

Your Brain May Still Be “On” Even When Your Body Stops

Modern life gives us very few opportunities to experience true quiet unless we intentionally create them. Our phones provide an almost endless supply of information, entertainment, messages, notifications, news, and social interaction. Sitting on the couch while consuming all of that information may give our muscles a break, but it does not necessarily provide the same kind of mental recovery as genuinely disengaging from stimulation. In fact, research has increasingly examined how constant digital engagement may affect stress, sleep, attention, and psychological well-being.

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Mougharbel et al. (2023) examined social media use and psychological well-being among adults and found associations between excessive or problematic social media use and poorer mental health outcomes. These findings do not mean that social media is inherently harmful or that everyone needs to delete their accounts. Social media can provide connection, education, entertainment, and community, but the way we use it matters. If our primary method of “relaxing” keeps our minds engaged, comparing, responding, processing, and consuming information, we may not be giving ourselves the restorative break we think we are.

Stress Is Normal, but Recovery Matters

Stress is not automatically bad. Our bodies are designed to respond to challenges through coordinated changes involving the nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, helping us respond appropriately to physical and psychological demands. Problems can arise when stress becomes persistent and opportunities for recovery become limited. Over time, chronic stress has been associated with changes across cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and mental health domains (Mariotti, 2015).

This does not mean that every busy day is damaging your health or that you need to eliminate stress from your life. Eliminating stress would be both unrealistic and, frankly, impossible. Instead, we can become more intentional about creating moments when our bodies and minds are not constantly responding to another demand. The goal is not a stress-free life; it is developing a life that includes opportunities to recover from stress.

What Does Real Rest Look Like?

Rest does not have to mean lying completely still in a silent room. For one person, recovery may involve reading a book, while another person may feel restored after gardening, walking through the woods, stretching, praying, listening to music, or sitting outside with a cup of tea. Some people need solitude after spending their day interacting with others, while someone who works from home alone may actually find dinner with friends restorative. Rest is less about one specific activity and more about whether that activity leaves you feeling replenished rather than depleted.

Nature may be particularly valuable in this area. A systematic review and meta-analysis by Nguyen et al. (2023) found that nature-based interventions were associated with improvements in several adult mental health outcomes, including reductions in depressive mood and anxiety. Other research has linked exposure to natural environments with psychological restoration and reductions in stress. You do not need to disappear into the mountains for a week to benefit from being outdoors; spending time in a park, gardening, walking a wooded trail, or simply sitting outside can create intentional separation from some of the stimulation of everyday life.

Sometimes Rest Looks Like Movement

Interestingly, one of the best ways to recover from a mentally stressful day may involve moving your body rather than lying on the couch. Physical activity has consistently been associated with better mental health, including reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety. A large systematic review and network meta-analysis published in The BMJ found that several forms of exercise, including walking or jogging, strength training, yoga, and mixed aerobic exercise, were effective at reducing depressive symptoms (Noetel et al., 2024). The authors concluded that exercise should be considered alongside other established treatments for depression, although treatment decisions should always be individualized.

This is an important reminder that physical rest and mental rest are not always the same thing. If you have spent eight hours doing physical labor, sitting down may be exactly what your body needs, but if you have spent eight hours sitting at a computer or listening to other people’s problems, movement may feel much more restorative. A quiet walk outside can provide physical activity while simultaneously creating distance from screens, responsibilities, and constant input. Sometimes the thing that feels like effort initially is actually what helps us decompress the most.

Sleep Is Not the Same as Rest Either

Sleep is absolutely essential, but we should not expect sleep to compensate for a day that contains no opportunities for mental recovery. Adults generally need at least seven hours of sleep per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health, although individual needs vary (Watson et al., 2015). Adequate sleep supports cognition, immune function, metabolism, cardiovascular health, emotional regulation, and numerous other physiological processes. Protecting sleep should therefore remain one of the foundations of a healthy lifestyle.

However, we also need moments during our waking hours when we are not constantly performing, producing, solving, responding, or consuming information. Waiting until bedtime to finally stop can make it difficult to transition directly from a highly stimulated state into sleep. Creating an evening wind-down period can help establish separation between the demands of the day and the time intended for sleep. Dimming lights, reducing screen exposure, reading, stretching, praying, journaling, or preparing for the following day can become signals that it is time to slow down.

There Is a Spiritual Side to Rest

For me, conversations about rest are incomplete without acknowledging spiritual health. Scripture does not present rest as laziness or weakness; instead, rhythms of work and rest appear throughout the Bible. In Mark 6:31, Jesus tells His disciples, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (New International Version). These were people doing meaningful and important work, yet rest was still necessary.

The biblical concept of Sabbath also challenges our tendency to connect our value with constant productivity. Setting aside time for worship, family, prayer, reflection, and restoration reminds us that life is more than the number of things we accomplish. Even outside of a formal Sabbath practice, intentionally creating quiet space can provide an opportunity to pray, reflect, practice gratitude, and reconnect with what matters most. Spiritual rest does not eliminate our responsibilities, but it can change the way we carry them.

Try Creating a “Rest Menu”

If you struggle to slow down, it can be helpful to identify several activities that genuinely make you feel restored. Think of this as a personal “rest menu” that you can choose from depending on how much time you have and what kind of recovery you need. Your five-minute options might include stepping outside, stretching, praying, breathing deeply, or drinking a cup of tea without looking at your phone. When you have 30 minutes or longer, you might choose a walk, yoga, reading, gardening, photography, a bath, a hobby, or meaningful time with someone you love.

It can also be helpful to pay attention to how you feel after an activity rather than simply labeling it as relaxing. If 45 minutes of scrolling consistently leaves you more anxious, distracted, or dissatisfied, that information is worth noticing. You do not necessarily need to eliminate the activity, but you might decide that it is entertainment rather than restoration. Once you understand the difference, you can intentionally make room for both without confusing one for the other.

Give Yourself Permission to Stop

There will always be something else you could be doing. The kitchen could be cleaner, your inbox could be emptier, another workout could be completed, and tomorrow’s schedule could be better organized. Productivity can be valuable, but constantly chasing the feeling of being “caught up” can leave us waiting indefinitely for permission to rest. Sometimes we have to decide that enough has been accomplished for today, even when the list is not finished.

Tonight, when you finally sit down, pay attention to what happens next. Notice whether you are actually allowing your mind and body to recover or simply replacing one form of stimulation with another. Try putting the phone down, stepping outside, stretching, praying, reading a few pages of a book, or simply sitting quietly for several minutes. Rest is not the absence of productivity; it is part of what allows us to return to our lives with the energy to be present for the people and responsibilities that matter most.

Written By: Roxanne Oliver, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHHP

*The information contained in this post is for information only. It does not replace routine follow-up and/or care with a certified and licensed medical provider

References

Mariotti, A. (2015). The effects of chronic stress on health: New insights into the molecular mechanisms of brain-body communication. Future Science OA, 1(3), FSO23. https://doi.org/10.4155/fso.15.21

Mougharbel, F., Chaput, J.-P., Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., Hamilton, H. A., Colman, I., Leatherdale, S. T., & Goldfield, G. S. (2023). Heavy social media use and psychological distress among adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders.

Nguyen, P.-Y., Astell-Burt, T., Rahimi-Ardabili, H., & Feng, X. (2023). Effect of nature prescriptions on cardiometabolic and mental health, and physical activity: A systematic review. The Lancet Planetary Health, 7(4), e313–e328. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00025-6

Noetel, M., Sanders, T., Gallardo-Gómez, D., Taylor, P., Del Pozo Cruz, B., van den Hoek, D., Smith, J. J., Mahoney, J., Spathis, J., Moresi, M., Pagano, R., Pagano, L., Vasconcellos, R., Arnott, H., Varley, B., Parker, P., Biddle, S., & Lonsdale, C. (2024). Effect of exercise for depression: Systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ, 384, e075847. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075847

Watson, N. F., Badr, M. S., Belenky, G., Bliwise, D. L., Buxton, O. M., Buysse, D., Dinges, D. F., Gangwisch, J., Grandner, M. A., Kushida, C., Malhotra, R. K., Martin, J. L., Patel, S. R., Quan, S. F., & Tasali, E. (2015). Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: A joint consensus recommendation of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Sleep, 38(6), 843–844. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4716or sitting outside with a cup of tea. Some people need solitude after spending their day interacting with others, while someone who works from home alone may actually find dinner with friends restorative. Rest is less about one sp

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Want more practical, evidence-based information about nutrition, functional medicine, hormones, healthy living, and wellness? Follow along on Instagram and TikTok @roxanneoliver_dnp, where I share education, healthy lifestyle tips, recipes, and realistic ways to support your health. I believe wellness should be understandable, sustainable, and something you can actually incorporate into real life.

The 10-Minute Walk: One of the Most Underrated Health Habits

October 8, 2026September 28, 2026 by Roxy Functional Wellness, posted in Health & Wellness

When we think about exercise, we often picture an hour at the gym, a long run, an intense cycling class, or a carefully planned strength-training session. If we do not have enough time for a “real workout,” it can be tempting to decide that exercising simply is not going to happen that day. However, movement does not have to be long, complicated, or exhausting to contribute to better health. One of the simplest habits you can add to your day may be something you have been doing since you were a toddler: walking.

A 10-minute walk may not feel impressive enough to count as exercise, but those minutes can add up over the course of a day and week. Walking requires no gym membership, complicated equipment, or elaborate preparation, and it can be adapted to nearly every fitness level. It can happen outside, on a treadmill, through the hallways at work, or even around a store when the weather is less than ideal. More importantly, research continues to demonstrate that accumulating more steps and interrupting prolonged periods of sitting are associated with meaningful health benefits.

We May Be Making Exercise Too Complicated

Current physical activity guidelines recommend that adults accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, along with muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days (Bull et al., 2020). While these recommendations provide an excellent goal, people sometimes interpret them to mean that physical activity only matters when it occurs during a structured workout. In reality, movement accumulated throughout the day contributes to our overall physical activity. A 10-minute walk after breakfast, another after lunch, and another after dinner adds up to 30 minutes of movement without requiring a dedicated 30-minute block in your schedule.

This distinction can be especially important for people who spend much of their workday sitting. You may exercise for 30 or 45 minutes in the morning and still spend the majority of the remaining day at a desk, in meetings, driving, or sitting at home. Research increasingly recognizes sedentary behavior as an important health consideration in addition to intentional exercise. In other words, your workout matters, but what you do during the rest of your waking hours matters too.

You Don’t Have to Reach 10,000 Steps for Walking to Count

The goal of 10,000 steps per day has become so familiar that many people assume it represents a scientifically established threshold for good health. Research, however, suggests that health benefits occur well below 10,000 steps and that there is nothing magical about reaching that exact number. In a meta-analysis involving 47,471 adults from 15 international cohorts, Paluch et al. (2022) found progressively lower mortality risk as daily step counts increased. Among adults age 60 and older, the association appeared to level off around 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day, while among adults younger than 60, benefits continued to approximately 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day.

Even more recent research reinforces the idea that we do not have to chase an arbitrary step goal to improve our health. A 2025 systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis found that approximately 7,000 steps per day was associated with substantially better outcomes across several areas of health when compared with 2,000 steps per day. In that analysis, 7,000 daily steps was associated with a 47% lower risk of all-cause mortality, 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease incidence, 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, 38% lower risk of dementia, and 22% lower risk of depressive symptoms (Ding et al., 2025). These are observational associations and do not prove that step count alone caused those reductions, but they provide another compelling reason to make regular movement part of everyday life.

Why Walking After a Meal Is Especially Interesting

If you are trying to decide when to fit those extra minutes of walking into your day, after a meal may be an excellent place to start. When we eat a meal containing carbohydrates, glucose enters the bloodstream, and the body releases insulin to help move glucose into cells where it can be used or stored. Physical activity allows working skeletal muscles to increase glucose uptake, which is one reason movement can be particularly helpful for metabolic health. You do not necessarily need an intense workout to take advantage of this process.

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Buffey et al. (2022) examined the effects of interrupting prolonged sitting with standing or light-intensity walking. The researchers found that light-intensity walking breaks improved postprandial glucose and insulin responses compared with prolonged sitting. This is particularly relevant because many of us do exactly the opposite after eating: we sit back down. We eat breakfast and drive to work, eat lunch and return to our desks, or eat dinner and move to the couch.

Instead of thinking that you need to complete a difficult workout after every meal, consider simply taking a short walk. Walk around your neighborhood, take the dog outside, walk on the treadmill, or take a few laps around your workplace after lunch. Even if you cannot walk for 10 minutes, a few minutes of movement is still movement. The goal is to create opportunities for your muscles to work throughout the day rather than spending hours at a time almost completely sedentary.

Walking Is About More Than Calories

Another mistake we make with exercise is viewing movement primarily through the lens of calorie burning and weight loss. If a fitness tracker tells you that your short walk burned only a small number of calories, it can feel like the effort did not accomplish much. However, the benefits of physical activity extend far beyond the number displayed on your watch. Walking contributes to cardiovascular fitness, metabolic health, mobility, physical function, and overall daily activity.

Research examining step counts and cardiovascular outcomes provides a good example. A dose-response meta-analysis found that higher daily step counts were associated with lower risks of both all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events (Sheng et al., 2021). Among studies using accelerometers, approximately 8,959 daily steps was associated with about a 40% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with approximately 4,183 daily steps, while approximately 9,500 steps was associated with a 35% lower risk of cardiovascular events compared with approximately 3,500 steps. Again, these observational findings demonstrate associations rather than guaranteeing an individual outcome, but they highlight that simply moving more may have benefits that extend far beyond weight management.

Make Walking Fit Into Your Life

The best movement plan is not necessarily the most intense one; it is the one you can realistically repeat. If your schedule makes a long workout difficult, look for smaller pockets of time that already exist during your day. You might walk for 10 minutes before leaving for work, use part of your lunch break to walk outside, take the stairs when appropriate, park farther away from a building, or walk while your child is at sports practice. You can also make an after-dinner family walk part of your evening routine rather than treating exercise as something that has to happen separately from family life.

Walking can also be paired with activities you already enjoy. Listen to an audiobook, podcast, or music, call a friend, pray, take your dog, or use the time to simply be outside without another screen in front of you. On days when you have more time and energy, you can walk longer or increase your pace, but those additions do not have to be requirements. Creating a low barrier to movement makes it much easier to remain consistent when life gets busy.

Start Where You Are

If you currently average 3,000 steps per day, there is no reason to suddenly demand 10,000 from yourself tomorrow. A more realistic goal might be adding one 10-minute walk to your day and seeing how that feels for a couple of weeks. Once that becomes routine, you might add another short walk, take a longer route, or gradually increase your daily step count. The research on steps and health consistently suggests that moving from very little activity toward more activity matters, even when you have not reached the numbers frequently promoted on social media or fitness trackers.

It is also important to remember that walking does not replace every other form of exercise. Strength training remains important for maintaining muscle, bone health, function, and healthy aging, while more vigorous cardiovascular activity can provide additional benefits when it is appropriate for the individual. Walking is simply one accessible piece of a well-rounded approach to movement. For people who have been inactive, have chronic medical conditions, or experience symptoms with exercise, an individualized plan should be discussed with an appropriate healthcare professional.

Smartwatch displays MON 23, 10:11 AM, 14,582 steps, 9.9 MI, and 659 CAL. — A hiker checks a smartwatch showing 14,582 steps during a forest trek.

Ten Minutes Still Counts

We often underestimate health behaviors because they seem too small to make a difference. Ten minutes of walking does not look dramatic on social media, require expensive equipment, or leave you lying on the floor after a workout. What it can do is help break up hours of sitting, increase your daily movement, and create a behavior that is realistic enough to repeat almost every day. When you repeat that 10-minute walk consistently, it stops being a workout you have to convince yourself to do and starts becoming part of how you live.

The next time you finish a meal or realize you have been sitting for several hours, resist the urge to think that you need an entire workout for movement to be worthwhile. Put on your shoes, step outside, walk around your workplace, or get on the treadmill for 10 minutes. You do not have to hit 10,000 steps, close every ring on your watch, or break a sweat for your movement to count. Sometimes improving your health really can begin with something as simple as taking a walk.

Written By: Roxanne Oliver, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHHP

*The information contained in this post is for information only. It does not replace routine follow-up and/or care with a certified and licensed medical provider

References

Buffey, A. J., Herring, M. P., Langley, C. K., Donnelly, A. E., & Carson, B. P. (2022). The acute effects of interrupting prolonged sitting time in adults with standing and light-intensity walking on biomarkers of cardiometabolic health in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 52(8), 1765–1787. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4

Bull, F. C., Al-Ansari, S. S., Biddle, S., Borodulin, K., Buman, M. P., Cardon, G., Carty, C., Chaput, J.-P., Chastin, S., Chou, R., Dempsey, P. C., DiPietro, L., Ekelund, U., Firth, J., Friedenreich, C. M., Garcia, L., Gichu, M., Jago, R., Katzmarzyk, P. T., … Willumsen, J. F. (2020). World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(24), 1451–1462. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955

Ding, D., et al. (2025). Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40713949/

Paluch, A. E., Bajpai, S., Bassett, D. R., Carnethon, M. R., Ekelund, U., Evenson, K. R., Galuska, D. A., Jefferis, B. J., Kraus, W. E., Lee, I.-M., Matthews, C. E., Omura, J. D., Patel, A. V., Pieper, C. F., Rees-Punia, E., Dallmeier, D., Klenk, J., Whincup, P. H., Dooley, E. E., … Fulton, J. E. (2022). Daily steps and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. The Lancet Public Health, 7(3), e219–e228. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00302-9

Sheng, M., Yang, J., Bao, M., Chen, T., Cai, R., Zhang, N., Chen, H., Liu, M., Wu, X., Zhang, B., & Liu, Y. (2021). The relationships between step count and all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events: A dose-response meta-analysis. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2021.09.004

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Your Health Doesn’t Need a Complete Overhaul: The Power of Small Daily Habits

October 1, 2026September 28, 2026 by Roxy Functional Wellness, posted in Health & Wellness

If you have ever decided that Monday is the day you are going to completely change your life, you are definitely not alone. Monday is when you are going to start eating healthier, exercise five days a week, drink more water, stop eating sugar, go to bed earlier, take all your supplements, meal prep, and somehow still manage your job, family, house, and everything else life throws at you. For a few days, you may even feel motivated and excited about your new routine. By Wednesday or Thursday, however, you may find yourself exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why maintaining a healthy lifestyle feels so difficult.

One of the biggest misconceptions about improving our health is that we need to completely overhaul our lives to see meaningful results. In reality, some of the most important changes in our health can come from much smaller behaviors practiced consistently over time. These small behaviors may not seem particularly exciting, especially when compared with dramatic diets, challenges, or wellness trends, but they are often much easier to maintain. You do not need a perfect routine; you need a repeatable one.

Why We Struggle With Healthy Habits

Knowing what is healthy and actually doing it every day are two very different things. Most of us already know that vegetables are good for us, exercise is important, sleep matters, and drinking water is probably a better choice than another soda. The real challenge is figuring out how to fit those behaviors into work schedules, family responsibilities, children’s activities, vacations, social events, and everything else that makes up real life. When healthy living becomes an enormous checklist of things we are supposed to accomplish every day, it can quickly become overwhelming.

This gap between knowing what is healthy and consistently doing it can be seen in national physical activity data. The World Health Organization recommends that adults accumulate approximately 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week and participate in muscle-strengthening activities at least two days per week (Bull et al., 2020). However, data from the National Center for Health Statistics found that only 22.5% of U.S. adults age 25 and older met both aerobic and muscle-strengthening recommendations in 2022 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2024). These numbers do not necessarily mean that people do not care about their health; instead, they demonstrate how difficult it can be to consistently translate health recommendations into everyday life.

Woman journaling beside coffee in a bright kitchen — A woman journals beside her morning coffee in a bright, plant-filled kitchen.

Small Habits Really Do Add Up

There is a reason I prefer sustainable changes over extreme resets. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis examining health-related habit formation found considerable variability in how long behaviors take to become habitual, challenging the popular idea that a new behavior automatically becomes a habit after 21 days (Singh et al., 2024). Habit formation depends on several factors, including the behavior itself, the individual, repetition, and the environment in which the behavior occurs. This means that needing reminders several weeks into a new routine does not mean you have failed or that the habit is not working.

The goal should not be to make ten major changes simultaneously and hope that motivation carries you through them. Instead, choose a behavior that is small enough to repeat consistently until it begins to feel like a normal part of your life. Once that behavior becomes easier to maintain, you can build another healthy behavior on top of it. Over months and years, those seemingly small choices can create a lifestyle that looks dramatically different from where you started.

What Does a “Small” Healthy Habit Look Like?

A healthy habit does not have to be impressive to be beneficial. It might mean drinking a glass of water while your coffee brews, adding a source of protein to breakfast, walking for 10 minutes after dinner, or putting your phone down 30 minutes earlier at night. You might step outside for a few minutes in the morning, prepare your lunch the night before work, or commit to strength training twice per week instead of promising yourself that you will exercise every single day. These behaviors may feel almost too simple to matter, but their simplicity is often exactly what makes them sustainable.

Consider walking as an example of how small amounts of movement can matter. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that interrupting prolonged sitting with light-intensity walking improved post-meal glucose and insulin responses compared with remaining seated (Buffey et al., 2022). More recent evidence has continued to examine regular activity breaks as a practical strategy for improving postprandial glucose and insulin responses (Gale et al., 2026). You may not always have another hour available for exercise, but finding five or ten minutes to move after a meal may be much more realistic.

Let Go of the “All-or-Nothing” Mentality

One of the biggest obstacles to sustainable healthy living is all-or-nothing thinking. You miss a workout and decide the week is ruined, eat pizza on Friday night and tell yourself you will restart your diet Monday, or skip a planned meal and decide the entire day is a loss. You may even have 15 minutes available to exercise but decide it is not worth doing because you cannot complete your usual 45-minute workout. Unfortunately, this mentality allows one imperfect decision or unexpected event to turn into several days of abandoned healthy behaviors.

Health does not work that way, and your body does not require perfection to benefit from your choices. The vegetables you ate on Tuesday still provided nutrients even if you had dessert on Saturday, and a 10-minute walk still provides movement even if you did not complete a full workout. Going to bed on time four nights this week is still an improvement over staying up late every night. The World Health Organization specifically emphasizes that some physical activity is better than none and encourages inactive individuals to begin with small amounts before gradually increasing their activity over time (Bull et al., 2020).

Build New Habits Around Things You Already Do

One of the easiest ways to incorporate a new behavior is to connect it to something that already happens consistently in your day. You already brush your teeth, make coffee, eat meals, drive to work, and get ready for bed. These existing routines can become natural reminders for new behaviors because you do not have to create an entirely new schedule around them. The goal is to make the healthy choice fit into your life rather than constantly reorganizing your life around the healthy choice.

For example, instead of simply telling yourself that you need to drink more water, decide that you will drink a glass of water every morning while your coffee is brewing. If you want to walk more, make a 10-minute walk your normal routine after dinner rather than waiting for the perfect time to exercise. If you frequently forget supplements that are intended to be taken with breakfast, place them somewhere visible near something you use every morning, while still following storage requirements and keeping them safely away from children. When a healthy behavior has a predictable cue and requires less decision-making, repeating it consistently can become much easier.

Start With Your “Big Three”

If you currently feel like your health needs a complete overhaul, resist the temptation to start with a list of 15 goals. Instead, choose two or three behaviors that are realistic for your current season of life and focus on repeating them. Your priorities may look different from someone else’s because health goals should account for your schedule, medical needs, family responsibilities, and current activity level. What matters most is choosing behaviors that you can realistically continue after the initial motivation has worn off.

One possible starting point is to focus on protein, movement, and sleep. Including adequate protein throughout the day can support muscle maintenance and help create satisfying, balanced meals, while daily movement can support metabolic, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal health. Sleep deserves equal attention because it plays an essential role in physical and mental well-being, and emerging research suggests that sleep regularity may also be an important marker of long-term health rather than focusing solely on total sleep duration (Windred et al., 2024). Once these foundational behaviors begin to feel normal, you can gradually add other goals that are important to you.

Woman slicing vegetables at a kitchen island with a habit book nearby — A woman prepares fresh vegetables while building healthy daily habits at home.

Consistency Beats Intensity

We live in a culture that loves dramatic transformations, including 30-day challenges, detoxes, extreme diets, complicated supplement routines, and highly structured morning schedules. These approaches can feel exciting because they give us the sense that we are taking immediate action, but health is not something we practice for only 30 days. The routines that matter most are the ones that can continue through ordinary Tuesdays, busy work weeks, family vacations, holidays, stressful seasons, and unexpected changes in our schedules. A sustainable lifestyle has enough flexibility to accommodate real life without making you feel as though every deviation requires starting over.

There will be days when your carefully planned dinner becomes takeout, your workout gets interrupted, or your bedtime routine disappears because life simply happens. Those moments do not erase the healthy choices you made before them, nor do they require punishment, restriction, or a dramatic reset the following day. The most useful response is often simply returning to your usual healthy habits at the next available opportunity. One meal, one missed workout, or one difficult week is only a small piece of a much larger picture.

If you have been telling yourself that you need to “get it together,” perhaps you do not need a complete overhaul after all. Choose one or two things that would genuinely improve your health, make them small enough to fit into your current life, and practice them consistently before adding something new. A year from now, several small habits that have become part of your everyday routine may have changed your health far more than another dramatic plan that you could only maintain for a few weeks. Healthy living does not require perfection; it requires enough consistency to keep moving in the right direction.

Written By: Roxanne Oliver, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHHP

The information contained in this post is for information only. It does not replace routine follow-up and/or care with a certified and licensed medical provider

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). QuickStats: Percentage of adults aged ≥25 years who met the 2018 federal physical activity guidelines for both muscle-strengthening and aerobic physical activity, by educational attainment—United States, 2022. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 73(22), 521. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7322a3

Gale, J. T., Martin, H., Haszard, J. J., & Peddie, M. C. (2026). The acute effects of interrupting prolonged sitting with regular activity breaks on postprandial glucose and insulin in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.70152

Singh, B., Murphy, A., Maher, C., & Smith, A. E. (2024). Time to form a habit: A systematic review and meta-analysis of health behaviour habit formation and its determinants. Healthcare, 12(23), 2488. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232488

Windred, D. P., Burns, A. C., Lane, J. M., Saxena, R., Rutter, M. K., Cain, S. W., & Phillips, A. J. K. (2024). Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: A prospective cohort study. Sleep, 47(1), zsad253. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad253

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Staying Motivated to Keep Your New Year’s Resolution for a Healthier You

January 1, 2025December 28, 2024 by Roxy Functional Wellness, posted in Health & Wellness

The New Year is synonymous with fresh starts, and for many, it’s an opportunity to commit to healthier eating, regular exercise, and shedding those extra pounds. Yet, research tells us that nearly 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February, leaving many people feeling discouraged. Why is it so challenging to stick with these goals, and how can you ensure this year is different?

Why Do New Year’s Resolutions Fail?

Most New Year’s resolutions fail because they are:

Too vague – “I want to get healthy” is a great intention but lacks specificity.
Overly ambitious – Setting goals like working out every day or cutting out all sugar may be unsustainable.
Lacking a plan – Without actionable steps, even the best intentions lose momentum.
Misaligned with priorities – When resolutions aren’t connected to your “why,” it’s hard to stay motivated.

The Science of Habit Formation

Forming a habit takes time and consistency. According to research published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit, but this can vary depending on the complexity of the habit and the individual. Key to success is the brain’s reliance on routine—when behaviors become automatic, they require less effort.

Here are five proven strategies to form healthy habits and make this year’s resolutions stick:

1. Start Small and Be Specific

Instead of saying, “I’m going to exercise more,” commit to something tangible: “I’ll walk for 20 minutes every morning.” Starting small builds momentum without overwhelming you. Success breeds confidence, and small wins pave the way for bigger changes.

2. Pair Habits with Existing Routines

Use the principle of “habit stacking,” where you attach a new habit to an existing one. For instance:

While brewing your morning coffee, do 10 squats.
After brushing your teeth, pack a healthy lunch.

By linking new habits to familiar routines, you create natural triggers that reinforce consistency.

3. Focus on Progress, Not Perfection

Many resolutions fail because people give up after a single setback. Remember, progress is not linear, and slip-ups are part of the process. Embrace the idea of “progress over perfection” and give yourself grace. Even one healthier meal or one extra workout is a step forward.

4. Make it Enjoyable

If your resolution feels like a punishment, you’re unlikely to stick with it. Find ways to make healthy living enjoyable:

Explore new, flavorful recipes for healthy meals.
Choose workouts you genuinely love, like dancing, yoga, or hiking.
Reward yourself for meeting milestones with non-food treats, such as a new fitness gadget or a relaxing massage.

5. Build a Support System

Accountability is powerful. Share your goals with supportive friends, join a fitness group, or work with a coach. Studies show that people who have a support system are more likely to succeed in their resolutions. Surround yourself with those who uplift and encourage you.

6. Keep Track of Your Progress

Track your goals using a journal, app, or calendar. When you write down what you’ve accomplished, it reinforces the habit and gives you a clear picture of how far you’ve come. Celebrate milestones along the way to stay motivated.

A Lifestyle, Not a Fad

The key to lasting change is understanding that healthy living is a lifestyle, not a short-term fix. Fads and extreme diets might yield quick results, but they’re unsustainable. Real transformation comes from steady, consistent efforts.

As you step into this New Year, focus on creating habits that align with your long-term wellness goals. A healthier, happier you isn’t built overnight—it’s the result of daily choices that, over time, become second nature.

Your journey is worth it. Keep going, and this time next year, you’ll be celebrating more than just the New Year—you’ll be celebrating a new you.

Think about it…

What is one small step you can take today toward your New Year’s resolution of being healthy?

By applying these principles, you can break free from the resolution rollercoaster and achieve sustainable, meaningful change in your life. Remember, it’s not about being perfect—it’s about being persistent.

Happy New Year and cheers to a healthier you!

Written By: Roxanne Oliver, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC

*The information contained in this post is for information only. It does not replace routine follow-up and/or care with a certified and licensed medical provider

References

Norcross, J. C., Mrykalo, M. S., & Blagys, M. D. (2002). Auld Lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year’s resolvers and nonresolvers. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(4), 397–405. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.1151

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit-goal interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Prochaska, J. O., & DiClemente, C. C. (1983). Stages and processes of self-change of smoking: Toward an integrative model of change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51(3), 390–395. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.51.3.390

Kwasnicka, D., Dombrowski, S. U., White, M., & Sniehotta, F. F. (2016). Theoretical explanations for maintenance of behavior change: A systematic review of behavior theories. Health Psychology Review, 10(3), 277–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2016.1151372