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10 Realistic 2026 New Year's Resolutions for a Healthier You

By Ethan Boldt

December 27, 2025

Are you ready to set some realistic New Year's Resolutions when it comes to your health? While some resolutions revolve around our personal habits that we hope to either remove or improve upon, here we're talking about resolutions that directly affect how we look and feel, including having more energy, improving our gut health, maybe losing some weight.

Below are 10 suggested healthy 2026 New Year's resolutions. But rather than presenting some outlandish, unrealistic options that only work in an ideal setting and which you may drop after just a few days or weeks, here are x resolutions that you can realistically work into your daily routine.

Research suggests that it's important to set goals that are both achievable and also motivating. This helps to establish a clear action plan and gives you the greatest chance of hitting milestones along the way that will keep you motivated.

1. Start or increase your strength training

According to the CDC, only about 31 percent of U.S. adults lift weights at least twice a week. And that’s probably generous, with some fitness experts saying the participation is under 10 percent.

The benefits of strength training are transformative for many, including increasing strength and power, improving athletic performance, helping agility, boosting metabolism and supporting healthy aging.

Tips to help you achieve this resolution:

• A beginner workout can be effective in 20–45 minutes, depending on exercise selection, rest time and intensity. You can do it at home or at a gym.

• Work all the muscle groups in one session rather than in two or three separate sessions. This will make it more doable and repeatable.

• Aim for 2 to 3 workouts per week, with at least one rest day in between.

2. Eat more whole foods and fewer processed ones

A stunning sixty percent of the average American diet is made up of ultra processed foods. Instead, upgrade from products like sugary beverages, refined grains, poor quality vegetable oils and processed meats to eating more fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, grass-fed meat, beans and fish.

Tips to help you achieve it:

• Read ingredient labels when grocery shopping so you know what you’re consuming.

• Start cutting out foods with lots of additives, sugar (how much sugar per day?) and preservatives and opting instead for whole, natural foods instead (think things with just one ingredient, like broccoli, almonds or eggs).

• Starting cooking more at home, such as 1–2 hours per week to food prep healthy meals at home. Cooking your own food allows you to better control what and how much you’re consuming, potentially saving you hundreds of calories plus saving money.

3. Add more protein to your diet

Many women and men don’t get enough protein through diet alone, but it's key to staying full between meals, maintaining muscle, boosting your metabolism and losing fat.

In practice, prioritizing protein benefits nearly everyone, from young athletes to busy professionals with limited time to exercise, to menopausal women and older adults who want to remain strong, agile and independent.

Tips to help you achieve this resolution:

• Most people do well consuming about 1–2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (0.45–0.9 g per pound), though research suggests that higher intakes — up to 3 g/kg (1.36 g/lb) — may be appropriate for highly active individuals or those aiming to build additional muscle.

• To maximize protein synthesis and regulate your appetite, it’s best to spread your protein intake throughout the day. That means aiming for high-protein breakfasts, lunches and dinners, even desserts high in protein.

• To easily up your protein intake, consider Ancient Nutrition’s new Multi Protein Animal-Based, Multi Protein Animal-Based with Creatine or Multi Protein Plant-Based. Meanwhile, the gold standard protein remains whey protein, and Ancient Nutrition carries a whey protein with collagen in its formula.

4. Consume more gut friendly foods

Your gut houses between 70 percent and 80 percent of the cells that make up your immune system. It acts like the “second brain,” and, generally speaking, plays a role in weight management and facilitates a normal, healthy response to inflammation.

To maintain overall health, we need to have more beneficial bacteria and microbes in our guts than non-beneficial ones, as well as a healthy gut lining. That gut lining can be compromised as you get older. Therefore, it's smart to get enough collagen, probiotics, vitamins C and D in your diet to promote the health of your gut lining as well as support proper digestion.

Tips to help you achieve this resolution:

• Have more probiotic foods that contain live and active organisms that live in your GI tract and support absorption and elimination of waste. Probiotic foods to eat regularly include yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, cultured veggies and kimchi.

• Soil-based probiotic organisms can also help, as they provide hardy, beneficial bacteria that populate the digestive tract. An easy way to get in these probiotics is taking a SBO Probiotics daily.

• Collagen helps promote the health of the gut lining, which may help promote the health of the rest of the body. Multi Collagen Protein is an easily mixable powder features 10 types of collagen from four real food sources, along with 2 billion CFUs* (*at time of manufacture) of SBO probiotics.

5. Consider creatine, the 2026 supplement

When most people hear the word creatine, they think of strength training, muscle pumps and athletic performance. But creatine’s benefits extend well beyond the gym, with growing research highlighting its important role in brain health and cognitive function.

Studies suggest that creatine supplementation can support short-term memory, working memory and more — particularly during periods of stress. Overall, the findings point to creatine as a promising, multifaceted nutrient for both physical and cognitive performance.

Tips to help you achieve this resolution:

• Looks for products that use effective ingredients and combine creatine with other beneficial nutrients to provide additional benefits, such Ancient Nutrition’s Creatine + Collagen products.

• You can also consider Multi Protein + Creatine, an all-in-one formula delivers 26 g of complete protein (made from grass-fed whey, bone broth, A2/A2 milk protein, collagen peptides and colostrum), a Protein Digestion Blend and 5 g of creatine monohydrate per serving to support your muscles, joint health, post-workout recovery and cognitive health.

• Some studies suggest that caffeine may interfere with creatine’s effectiveness when taken together. If you consume both, it may be best to space out intake rather than combining them at the same time.

6. Drink more water and other healthy beverages

Staying hydrated is important for so many bodily functions, including promoting healthy digestion, energy levels, cognitive function, muscle health and skin health. People often confuse thirst for hunger, too, so having more water can support healthy weight management.

Tips to help you achieve it:

• Drink a glass of water when you first wake up, then have one at least every other hour plus with your main meals.

• Aside from water, incorporate other hydrating drinks like seltzers, bone broth, herbal teas and fresh pressed juices (organic coffee is fine in moderation, too).

• Make sure to drink even more fluids if you’re very active, sweating a lot, etc. To also get a healthy boost of electrolytes, check out Ancient Nutrition's Multi Collagen Advanced Hydrate in berry and lemon lime flavors.

7. Incorporate micro-movements

As many people continue desk work or sedentary lifestyles, 2026 can be a rise in “movement snacks." These are short bursts of movement, stretching or mobility scattered throughout the day. This counters prolonged sitting, supports joint health and keeps metabolism active, a more sustainable alternative to long, infrequent workouts.

Tips to help you achieve it:

• Micro-movement snacks are short, intentional bursts of physical activity — typically lasting 30 seconds to 5 minutes — that you sprinkle throughout the day to counteract prolonged sitting and keep your body active without a formal workout.

• Examples of micro-movement snacks include 10–20 squats or sit-to-stands, 30–60 seconds of brisk stair climbing, a 2–3 minute brisk walk or mobility flow, etc.

• Micro-movement snacks are especially popular in workplace wellness and longevity-focused fitness because they’re low barrier, sustainable and inclusive.

• They complement Zone 2 cardio and strength training rather than replacing them — making movement a natural part of everyday life instead of something reserved for the gym.

8. Consider going sober for a month

A wellness trend that picked up steam in 2025 was going sober for a period of time. More people — especially younger generations — are rethinking their relationship with alcohol as part of a broader focus on health, mindfulness and overall wellbeing.

Many people are choosing to cut back on or stop drinking not because of addiction issues, but for health reasons such as better sleep, improved mood, weight management and clearer thinking. This mindset is part of the “sober curious” movement, which encourages mindful decisions around alcohol rather than automatic drinking.

Tips to help you achieve it:

• Try a temporary challenge like Dry January or “Sober October." It doesn’t necessarily mean permanent sobriety — many people do it simply to see how they feel without alcohol, and a month “break” makes it seem very doable.

• If possible, clear alcohol from your home or move it out of sight. Reducing friction helps you stay consistent, especially in the first week. It obviously helps to have the rest of your household on board for this sober experiment.

• Stock up on non-alcoholic alternatives — sparkling water, flavored seltzers, herbal teas, mocktails, kombucha or zero-proof spirits — so you’re not caught off guard when cravings hit.

9. For better fat loss, front load the day

It’s a fat loss idea that doesn’t get discussed enough: Front load your day calorie-wise.

The average person tends to eat their biggest meals at night, often late. It’s a recipe for disaster, as our body doesn’t have the opportunity to burn it off and instead we go to bed with a stuffed tummy. Your metabolism naturally slows at night, so your body is less efficient at handling carbs and sugar.

In addition, our hunger hormone (ghrelin) increases at night, especially if we’re tired or stressed. This makes it more likely to overeat and crave high-calorie, high-sugar foods.

Tips to help you achieve it:

• Have more sizable breakfasts and lunches but smaller dinners, with half being protein and the rest veggies in that final meal of the day.

• Save most of the carbs for the first two meals. Execute on this idea, and you’re going to see results.

10. Go to bed earlier for more day energy

Thanks to 24/7 technology, it's never been easier to stay up late, but this can take a toll on your health. Getting adequate sleep is now considered to be an essential component of wellness. That’s because sleep is needed to maintain a healthy metabolism, upbeat mindset, healthy immune system, sharp mind and much more.

Tips to help you achieve it:

• Aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. Try sticking to a regular sleep-wake schedule to normalize your circadian rhythm (your “internal clock”).

• Eat more foods that help you sleep, like bananas and almonds.

• Avoid use of electronics within 2–3 hours of bedtime. Instead, read a book, journal, stretch, shower or do other relaxing activities. If you are going to use electronics at night, turn on filters that decrease blue light or wear blue-light blocking glasses.

• If you have trouble dozing off, try botanicals like lavender, ashwagandha, kava kava, valerian root and magnesium, all of which have calming and soothing properties. You can also try Ancient Nutrition's Sleep supplement, with lavender, ashwagandha and reishi mushroom.