Erin O'Hara: Naturopath and wellness expert on setting health boosting habits for 2025

The beginning of a new year is an optimal time for rethinking old habits and establishing new ones - so how can we get ahead in 2025?

Making big new changes can be a daunting process, so experts recommend setting smaller goals to improve your lifestyle and drop harmful habits.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains how we can make positive changes in the new year.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b Natural Path.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Erin O'Hara is with us now to talk wellness. Hello, welcome,
Good to have you back with us at twenty twenty five.
It would be very pleased to know that while I
did over indulge a certain points in the summer and
Christmas and things, I then got very quickly back on
track and sort of myself out and I feel like
I've kind of come out of the holiday period in
a good place. Yeah, not moderation, no better off, perfect,

(00:38):
good place to end, good place end. And now hitting
into twenty twenty five, everyone starts thinking new Year, new you,
but doesn't necessarily even need to be that extreme. But
I think it's a time where definitely we reflect on
our health and our lifestyle and what's been working for
us in the last year and what we need to change,
and it's a good time to do that is really

(00:59):
around creating new habits, finding better ways of doing things,
whether it's dropping things, habits that no longer serve you,
and actually just creating a better balance going into the
new year. I think those sometimes this time a year
can be where we can create sort of extreme health
plans for ourselves, which research shows they don't work.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Is that we kind of get into that start of
the new year and we're like, Okay, I'm going to
go to an extreme diet and all this exercise and
full of motivation. In a couple of weeks into the year,
we're already off the wagon. So it's about creating that
happy balance and trying to not be about creating a
fad diet and a fad exercise routine instead looking at
it as how can you just refine what you're doing

(01:41):
with your healthy habits and how can you keep that
and maintain that balance going into twenty twenty five. Always
with the new year, there's always fad wellness things, which
I always find quite amusing to look at of what's
the latest and greatest thing of what we should be
doing with a health and well being, But just remember
back to basics. Is like, actually it's not rocket science

(02:02):
being healthy, and that we just forget that simple things
make huge changes and keeping ourselves healthy.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's small steps, right, You can have the big goal,
but it's absolutely fine to come to just step it
right back and go Okay, so what is this. What's
a small change I can make which is manageable in
practical and I can fit it into my life and
slowly work towards maybe the goal that you want to
hit to.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
And that's where maybe, like this time of year, it's
more about creating and setting yourself up for the year ahead,
and it might be writing a list of some of
the changes that you want to bring in and incorporate
into your healthy lifestyle and maybe just start with one
or two of them and actually build into the year.
So maybe starting with Okay, I'm going to cut back
on them out at our cool drinking, or I'm going

(02:48):
to prioritize sleep and make sure you're getting enough sleep
in seven hours and creating a circadian rhythm. Or maybe
it's digital detox hours, which we're always on devices at
all moments of all days. So how can we kind
of pull back on there and create more space for
our own self and own our own wellbeing as well.
And I think if we have kind of a list

(03:09):
that we can start to work through, it doesn't feel
so overwhelming and it's not like a big change in
what we're doing and actually create the new habit and
then have it implemented before we bring in the next thing.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I was going to say, you might have a list,
but you should just really focus on one thing, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
One or two things, because then it's actually sustainable. And
I think looking at it as wanting to be the
best version of yourself and having a beautiful, healthy, balanced
lifestyle and not be on a diet or exercise plan,
but instead that being part of your healthy lifestyle, and
that is what's going to be sustainable. And it's not
going to be an all or nothing approach that we're doing,

(03:45):
and instead we're kind of just like, Okay, we can
sustain this, and what can we keep the balance.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
The way the kids write their news resolutions these days
that they have an in list in an outlist betweenty
twenty five. Is it easier to put something into your
life or is it easy to take something out of
your life?

Speaker 3 (04:01):
I'd say bring something in sometimes can be new and exciting. Yeah,
And I think stopping habits that we know are not
good for us are actually harder. So, like if it's
things like stopping smoking, really hard to stop smoking, So
sort of pulling things out or even cutting back on
scrolling on the internet is really hard, so I think
just trying to bring in more healthy things will create

(04:23):
that balance better.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Aaron, great to have you back, Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks THAT'B from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio