Post-Holiday Reset Tips for Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

Dr Jedha, Host

Hello wonderful people, Dr Jedha here and welcome to the New Year, 2025. After the holidays, it’s natural to feel a little off track—whether it’s from eating differently, skipping routines, indulging a little too much, or just the overall busyness of the season.

So this is the perfect time for a reset. One thing is for sure, we don’t want to find ourselves in April, still treading water without haven’t started anything at all.

The New Year is a chance to pause and reassess. Instead of approaching it as a punishment or a sprint to perfection, think of it as the perfect time for a reset, an opportunity to take a steady, thoughtful process to realign with your goals. It isn’t about setting massive resolutions or overhauling everything at once. A reset is about starting simple and taking small realistic actions. One thing is for sure: we don’t want to find ourselves down the track in a few months, still treading water without haven’t started anything at all.

02:10

So let’s dive in and take that first small step together.

Let’s start by looking back at the holiday season—because before we can move forward, it’s important to pause and reflect. The holidays are often a whirlwind, filled with food, family, and all sorts of emotions. But they’re also a great opportunity to learn more about ourselves and how we respond to different situations.

One of the things we don’t want to do after all the festivities is beat ourselves up for overindulging, putting on a few pounds, or ‘shoulding’ all over ourselves about how we should have done this, or should have done that. None of that is helpful. Okay, certainly, it can be natural to feel a bit deflated if you didn’t stick to your plan on not to eat too much or you put on a few pounds you didn’t want to, but spiraling downwards isn’t helpful, so we want to kick off the year right by reframing our mindset and resetting a positive perspective.

One of the first things we can do to begin reframing our perspective, is to ask ourselves, alright: What went well this holiday season?

Consider things like, did you make any choices you feel good about? Maybe you prioritized time with loved ones over food, stuck to a morning walk routine, or said no to that second slice of pie when you didn’t really want it. Any teeny tiny thing, focus on the positives and it’s important to celebrate those wins, no matter how small they might seem. They’re proof that you’re capable of making mindful decisions, even during a challenging time.

And sure, it can be helpful to see if you can identify triggers. For example, think about the times you felt less in control. What were the moments that made it harder to stick to your health goals? Was it the endless desserts at family gatherings? The stress of hosting or traveling? Or maybe those moments when someone said, ‘Oh, just one won’t hurt’? Understanding triggers isn’t about blaming yourself or guilt or judgment. It’s about recognizing triggers, as most of us have them and tend to cave under particular triggers, particular situations. When you know what your triggers are, you can plan ahead to handle similar situations differently next time.

The most important thing is, you don’t have to beat yourself up for indulging over the holidays. The holidays are a time to celebrate, to connect, and to enjoy. If you had that extra helping of dessert, ate a bit too much, didn’t keep a tight check on your blood sugar levels, or missed a workout, that doesn’t define you or your health journey.

The key to resetting, is to approach yourself with compassion. Say to yourself, ‘I enjoyed the moment, and now I’m ready to refocus.’ It’s this mindset shift that can make all the difference in how you move forward.

05:25

Okay, so where exactly to start.

One of the best ways to reset after the holidays is to set a few clear, realistic goals. Notice I didn’t say *big* or *perfect* goals—because we’re aiming for progress, not perfection. And we all know New Year’s resolutions tend to fail. Studies have found that only about 9% of people feel they are successful in keeping their resolutions by the end of the year. About 23% of people abandon their resolutions within the first week. That’s right, they don’t even get past the first week of the year. And 43% expect to fail before February. I think we can all relate to this at some point in our lives, but this year, let’s not be another statistic. You can make this year different. The most common reason for failure is the goals are too big, they’re unrealistic and most of the time, any goals wanting to be attained haven’t been approached in a practical way. Before you know it, you’re three months down the track and have done nothing, just back to old habits, or sometimes worse, spiralling backwards.

To reset so that you can build real momentum for the year, you need to start small. That’s what we’re doing with our members all throughout January, we’ve got mini goals for our members to focus on each week, along with weekly group check ins to refocus and for progress reports, so that by the end of the month, everyone will be feeling confident, back on track, and ready to take on the year with a clear plan for their health goals. The Members Post-Holiday Reset Challenge just started yesterday, so if you are a member, login to the members site and head to your dash to get involved.

To reset, small, actionable goals matter, as they’re easier to stick with, which means you’re more likely to succeed. Plus, they build momentum, helping you feel accomplished and motivated to keep going. So if you wanted to get started with mini goals, then think about one or two areas you want to focus on this month. Not ten things. Or like we’re doing with our members, you could set yourself one mini goal each week. The point is, don’t try and do ten things to start, all at once. It never works.

Your mini goals could be any number of things:

• Increasing water intake to help flush out excess sodium and sugar.
• Re-establishing meal timing for better blood sugar control.
• Adding an extra serve of veggies at every meal, or even one meal
• Reducing your late night snacking or even changing what you eat for your late night snack
• Cutting down on your sugar intake that seems to have snuck its way in to your daily eating routine

The beauty of starting small is that even the tiniest actions can make a big difference over time. By focusing on tiny, consistent actions, you’ll start to feel more in control, more energized, and more aligned with the habits you want to create for the year.

When we come out of the holidays, our entire routine can be quite messed up, so remember, you don’t need to overhaul your entire routine overnight. Pick one small step and commit to it. When you succeed with that, you’ll feel ready to tackle the next. It’s all about creating a chain of small wins that add up to big results. Aim to get everything back on track over an entire month, not in one day. And you do this by implementing small steps each week, focusing on mini goals.

So think about it: What’s one small thing can you commit to this week?

10:02

Often it’s not even about what we do. But how we think. For instance, mindfulness can be your best tool to get started. As we’ve just established, overhauling everything doesn’t work. So why not start by simply paying attention to where you are right now. Mindfulness isn’t about judgment, it’s about creating awareness, just being aware, starting to take notice of what things may have slipped off track and where we might want to make a few changes. And that awareness is the foundation for building momentum and better habits for the rest of the year.

Think about this for a moment: Post-holidays, many of us find ourselves in patterns we didn’t plan. Maybe it’s eating when not really hungry, choosing more sugary foods, or struggling with cravings. Mindfulness helps you notice these patterns without beating yourself up about them. It gives you the clarity to pause and ask, ‘What do I really need right now?’ Mindfulness can be a good tool to catch those patterns so you can not only catch and change these sneaky little patterns that have crept in, but also to become aware of bigger goals and start to thing of ways you can take small steps toward them.

It may sound like a stupid thing but it’s not. In fact, neuroimaging studies have shown that mindfulness helps to alter brain structures and functions, enhancing areas related to attention, emotional regulation, and self-awareness. Mindfulness helps us become aware of what we are doing. Awareness is the first step to change.

By just being the observer. By observing your habits, like how often you snack, when you get cravings or what emotions drive your choices, you create a map of where you are now. And that map is what helps you decide where you want to go. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by big resolutions, mindfulness allows you to start small and intentional.

Think of mindfulness as pressing the reset button. Instead of rushing to fix everything, you’re slowing down to understand what’s really happening. When you’re mindful, you’re more likely to make choices that align with your goals, not because you’re forcing yourself to, but because you’re consciously aware of why those choices matter.

And it’s scientifically proven to work. Mindfulness has been shown to help us effectively address food cravings and addictions, to reduce binge eating or emotional eating, and promote healthier food choices.

13:00

Right, let’s now take that awareness into a new focus: reintroducing a regular eating schedule. After the holidays, routines can feel completely out of sync, meals might have been skipped, eaten at odd times, or centered around indulgent foods. So a simple step you can take is to bring structure back to when and how you eat.

If your holiday eating was scattered, aim for three balanced meals at consistent times. You can always adjust later if you find you need smaller snacks in between. At each meal, include a good source of protein, healthy fats, and lots of vegetables, which will help keep you full and support steady blood sugar and energy levels. If a full schedule feels overwhelming, focus on getting one meal—like breakfast. Once that becomes a habit, add lunch and dinner into the rhythm. Pre-planning meals or prepping ingredients can make it easier to stick to a schedule.

And this is where mindfulness comes back into play. As you start setting a regular schedule, don’t just focus on the clock, carry mindfulness forward into the present, the mindfulness can help you become aware even more and helps you challenge any obstacles such as cravings, stress or emotional eating, and other food habits.

14:55

Now that we’ve brought mindfulness into our eating habits and started reintroducing a regular schedule, it’s time to take a closer look at sugar. The holidays are often filled with treats, desserts, and hidden sugars in everything from sauces to drinks. While those indulgences are okay once in a while, too much added sugar is not good for our health.

Excessive sugar consumption can lead to elevated blood sugar levels and high insulin levels, increasing the risk of insulin resistance. High sugar diets are linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Sugary foods and drinks are often high in calories and low in nutritional value, leading to weight gain. Excessive sugar intake leads to fat accumulation in the liver, or fatty liver. There are many important reasons to limit sugar in our nutrition plan.

So it’s time to rail in the sugar cravings and cut back on any added sugars. Reducing sugar is more than just a post-holiday fix, it’s a foundation for better health all year long. If you’ve got really bad cravings, the most effective remedy is gymnema sylvestre, a natural herb that cuts cravings directly. The Gymnema Sylvestre leaf extract comes in a tincture or liquid form containing gymnemic acids that stop sugar cravings. When you get a craving, squeeze the liquid tincture into a glass of water and drink it, or you can even drop some directly onto the tongue. And if you know you always get cravings at a certain time, take some before the cravings hit and it can help you get past them. We’ll leave more information about gymnema in the show notes for this episode, so head down to our website to view those. Back in episode 8 we talked about several strategies to tackle the sugar beast, so I’d recommend listening to that entire episode as well.

The key is to focus on that regular eating routine you’ve been working on. Include protein, healthy fats, and lots of veggies in every meal to keep your energy steady and hunger and cravings at bay. Having a good baseline eating plan naturally reduces our cravings for sweets, so make sure you continue to use mindfulness and continue to implement your regular eating routine.

Don’t reach for the ultra processed sugary junk foods, don’t use that sugary sauce on your dinner, don’t have that soda or fruit juice, don’t have that sugary dessert. If you do need something sweet, have a piece of dark chocolate, find a dessert made with safe sweeteners, which we talked about in episode 49, or even better, take the time to make yourself a healthy sweet treat—members you can explore our decadent dessert recipes. You see, it’s never about deprivation, but establishing balance.

18:23

Alright, wonderful people, that brings us to the end of today’s episode. We’ve covered so much ground, reflecting on the holidays with self-compassion, the power of mindfulness, and the importance of setting small, actionable goals to kickstart your post-holiday reset.

As we step into the New Year, I want you to remember that lasting change doesn’t come from perfection; it comes from progress. It’s about showing up for yourself, one small step at a time, and building momentum that carries you forward, not just for the next few weeks but for the rest of the year.

And if you’re taking part in the Members Post-Holiday Reset Challenge, remember to check in with the group each week to refocus and share your progress. There’s so much power in accountability and resetting together. If you’re not a member yet, head over to our website to learn more about how to join us.

Until next time.

Dr Jedha, over and out.