271. End of Year Reflection & Goal Setting Process (Part 2)

In this episode, we continue diving deep into setting meaningful and actionable physical health goals for the new year. We begin by assessing where you currently stand, then guide you through envisioning your ideal health and creating a clear, actionable roadmap to achieve your goals for 2025. With practical strategies and insights, we help you build a foundation for sustained progress and lasting well-being.

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Resources From This Episode

>> Insulin Resistance Diet Blueprint - https://www.zivli.com/blueprint?el=podcast

>> Free Low Insulin Food Guide - https://www.zivli.com/ultimatefoodguide?el=podcast

>> Join the Zivli Program Waitlist - https://www.zivli.com/join?el=podcast

>> Test Your Insulin at Home - https://www.zivli.com/testing?el=podcast

Have a question? Email us at: support@zivli.com

Transcript

One of the best questions that you could ask yourself is what does a 10 out of 10 for my physical health look like?

Hi, I'm Dr. Morgan Nolte, founder of Zivli. As a geriatric physical therapist, I saw the heartbreaking effects of insulin resistance. At Zivli, our mission is to help you prevent and reverse insulin resistance for long-term weight loss and disease prevention through a low insulin and inflammation lifestyle. Each week on this podcast, you'll learn simple, actionable tips to lose weight, keep it off, and get healthy. If you're ready to create a body and life you love,

you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Well, hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Reshape Your Health podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte and today is a follow-up episode about last week's goal setting process. So if you haven't listened to that one, go back and listen to it first. It's a really great new process that I created on how to assess this previous year, like how was 2024 for you in all areas of your life, at least all the areas that you want to assess. So go back and listen to that one, but I wanted to do a follow-up episode

that was a little bit more health centric. So one of the pillars that I assessed in my lifestyle was my physical health. And I gave myself an eight out of 10 on that pillar. So it was not something that was like in the bottom one to three that I'm gonna be focusing heavily on. I'm gonna be more in like a maintenance mode for my physical health in 2025.

But I'm guessing if you're listening to this, physical health may actually be one of your lower pillars and something that you wanna focus heavily on in 2025. So if you're a Zivli member, we are gonna be going through a similar exercise like this at our monthly mindset coaching call with me on December 18th. And then I'm also gonna be referring to a resource that you have available inside our Zivli course. is module seven, lesson two.

So the system for success and then rocks and action items fun sheet. If you haven't taken a look at that one yet or it's been a while, pull that one up. It's a really nice reflection document as we work through this podcast episode and go through that exercise together live in the coaching call. If you're not a Ziegli member, you can infer a lot from this episode and kind of extrapolate on it from there to reverse engineer the process.

All right, so the first thing is if we're talking about physical health, we wanna think about what are the different areas that we're assessing? And I think it's gonna be different for everyone, but one of the best questions that you could ask yourself is what does a 10 out of 10 for my physical health look like? And then I was talking to our members in a coaching call this week, and one of them actually brought up a great point. He said,

I'm gonna ask myself that question, but I'm gonna put a time on it. So what does a 10 out of 10 for my health look like for the next three months, like for the next quarter? He said, because I'm very ambitious and I think a lot of people listening to this podcast are, I am too. And so we tend to be a little bit over optimistic, I guess, in what we can accomplish and then we feel bad if we don't do what we said we're gonna do. And then that's kind of, that's not the vibe that we want, right?

So if we can rephrase that question to like for your physical health, what does a 10 out of 10 look like within the next quarter? So by March 31st, 2025, what's a 10 out of 10 for you? All right. And I would highly encourage you to get a journal and actually write out your answers. That is how you're going to access parts of your brain that you probably can't get to just thinking. Because when you write, you're less distracted. Whereas,

If we're not doing that psychomotor skill of writing what we're thinking, our thoughts are way more likely to get distracted and run wild. So that's the first question to ask. The second question to ask is, okay, if that's my 10 out of 10, what obstacles are present in my life that would prevent me from getting to that 10 out of 10? And I think that that's kind of where this

our system for success comes in and really helps our members give a clear outline on the process because honestly, our obstacles and our limiting thoughts, sometimes they're not so obvious. It's almost like we're a fish in water and we can't really see our own blind spots. So I wanted to walk you through the 10 habits in our Zivli habit hierarchy for those who need a little bit more clarity around, gosh, I don't even know what a 10 out of 10 would look like.

I don't know what obstacles might be present for me. So I'm just gonna read you top to bottom the 10 habits in our Zivli habit hierarchy. And this is the order that we suggest to implement. All right, so you're gonna start with number one and then just work your way down the list. So the first is a daily mindset routine, which includes reading your personal faith formula for members. I hope you know what that is. I hope you're using it. The second one is to have a weekly meeting with yourself to set your rocks and your action items.

which are like, are the non-negotiables for the week? And then what are like one to three action items that you're gonna commit to do today to move forward towards that goal that you have set for yourself for the week. And we will kind of get into what those goals are. So after you have established those first two habits, the daily mindset routine and the weekly meetings, then we're gonna move on to sleep. So our goal is for you to sleep seven to eight hours

each night. So if you have to get up and go to the bathroom once or twice, that's okay. But ideally seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Why? Why are those the first three habits? Because if you can nail those, if you have a system for accountability and you're sleeping, you're going to have much like a much higher traction rate of whatever other habit you're trying to implement. So let's keep working our way down the list.

Number four is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day or until your urine is clear or very light yellow. So hydration is next. Number five is to eat at least 30 grams of protein per meal. And this is the minimum guys. So if you're on a plant-based diet, you got to recognize there is a lower bioavailability of that plant-based protein, which means less of it is getting absorbed.

So if you're a vegan or vegetarian, that goal should be closer to 40 grams per meal, honestly. And then if you're an older adult, like 55 and older, I'm sorry to say that. I know, I know. The older I get, the less old that seems. But they should aim for 40 grams per meal because of, it's called anabolic resistance, which means it's just harder to build muscle as you age. So that would be the starting goal for protein.

If you're already getting at least 30 grams of protein per meal, an advanced rock that you could work on or an advanced goal is to get around like one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So you can bump that up a little bit. Number six is to reduce added sugar to less than 24 grams per day for women or 36 for men. And I think Dr. Jason Fung has the quote somewhere in one of his books. It's like added sugar is like cigarettes. Obviously the less the better, but it's a great starting point.

And if you're not familiar with tracking your grams of added sugar, wow, that can be so eye-opening. But we have that as the sixth habit just because if you're doing everything else before that, it's going to be easier to reduce your sugar intake because you'll have fewer sugar cravings in the first place by properly hydrating and fueling your body with more protein. So the next step is to get at least 25 grams of fiber, ideally from whole food a day. But I understand sometimes supplements or

like fiber added in protein shakes can be helpful. That's for women and then 35 grams for men. Number eight is to fast for at least 12 hours a day. And then an advanced rock would be progress your fasting schedule according to your health or weight loss goals and menstrual cycle. So we could play around with fasting a little bit more. But again, fasting is gonna be a lot easier when you have these other habits in place first. And then the next habit is to move your body at least 30 minutes a day.

And you might ask, why is that the ninth one? We kind of focused on nutrition first in these habits. Many, many people want to bump that one up on their list. That is totally fine. If you want to do that, if you feel like that's a better order for you, fantastic. I'm not against bumping up that physical activity goal at all. But a more advanced rock would be strength training all major muscle groups at a moderate to high intensity, two to three times each week.

and then really dialing in the cardiovascular activity that you're doing so that you're getting into the moderate to vigorous zones, not just hanging out in like a light zone all the time. So maybe you're going for a 30 minute walk a day, but you're ready to bump up that exercise routine and start strength training this year. And then the 10th habit is to do all of that while eating mostly whole unprocessed foods. So I understand we really believe in the good, better, best model.

and eating a diet of real like whole mostly unprocessed food, man, that can be kind of hard sometimes. So I would just pick like one staple food in your diet and go from there. So for me, it was like the Kirkland protein bars. I was, I use them as a bridge, like as I transitioned into this lifestyle, I'd say I was having like one a day and now I might have, I don't know, one or two a month. So I've drastically reduced my

reliance on protein bars to meet my protein goals. I just get it from real food. Okay, so I hope that that was a nice overview of the Zivli habit hierarchy. A good reminder if you're a member, that if you're not already doing a daily mindset routine, ideally first thing in the morning, that should be the number one habit. Otherwise you're gonna make all these goals and you're gonna forget about them. Because once you've kind of fleshed out, like what does a 10 out of 10 look like for me?

you're going to have so many different ideas on things that you want to improve, but then you're going to have to go back and you're going to have to pick like the top one to three highest leverage action items that you can do. So a great example that I wanted to give you just from my own process when I went through this was what are the top one to three habits, essentially rocks that I really want to implement to improve my

mental, emotional, and spiritual health in 2025. And the first was an evening mindset routine. So I already have an established daily mindset routine, but I wanted to spend more time with God. Like honestly, just really returning to that relationship. And relationships, they take time and they take effort and I'm ready and I'm willing to put in that time and effort to kind of grow in that relationship with God.

And I felt like an evening routine would be the best way to do that. The highest leverage action item aside from my morning routine that I already had because it serves as a reflection point for the day. It serves as almost like a for the day after the kids are in bed. I've been doing it. It's been wonderful. I think especially just for me personally.

having two times a day to really unwind and connect with God is needed in this busy season of my life. And then the other one that I picked was sabbathing. We're pretty good, like regular church attendees, but I'm going through a course and I listened to a podcast just about like, what does it mean to really rest and enjoy a Sabbath? And like, what are the components like that I should try to be? I don't wanna say aspiring to, because it's not like,

I'm being legalistic about it. It's just, I'm being a lot more intentional to, you know, get stuff done on Friday and Saturday so that when Sunday comes around, that's a family day that we can really rest and enjoy each other's company, not do a ton of meal prep or grocery shopping or running 10 different errands. So I think like a day of rest instead of just like a day of going to church and then getting everything else on my to-do list done around the house, I think that will really benefit my mental and emotional and spiritual health as well.

So those were the top two highest leverage action items that I came up with after journaling through like, what does a 10 out of 10 look like? What are the obstacles, et cetera? So I hope that the Zivli habit hierarchy at least gave you some ideas on like, what could a 10 out of 10 look like? What are some things that I could be focusing more on to improve my physical health? Okay. And then once you get there, like for example, I'm only gonna do this example on the first habit of the daily mindset routine.

when we're talking through what obstacles are in the way of me doing that, right? So that is where this fun sheet comes in for our Zibli members. Again, it's module seven, lesson two. And what we've done is beneath each of those rocks, like we have given example action items. So for the first one, a daily mindset routine, the example rock could be, this month I will do my mindset routine each morning.

including reading my personal faith formula, so that I can increase my self-confidence to follow through. I think that the so that are maybe the two most important words in that sentence. Your brain needs a reason to do something. So please, when you're riding these rocks, when you're riding your goals, don't just be like, I wanna lose 30 pounds, or I wanna improve my water intake, really give it a so that so it's more meaningful. So then we gave you three example action items.

One of which is habit stacking, which is a concept from many different people, but I got it from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. So the example action item for that rock. So if you're focusing on that for the month, your action items are those weekly things, right? This week, I will do my mindset routine, including reading my personal faith formula every morning with my cup of coffee.

So you could find an established routine that you already have, such as you're always eating breakfast, or you always get up and have a cup of coffee, or you turn on the news. So you find a habit and you stack your morning mindset routine either with that habit or like the news example would be right before that habit. Another one is if you're like, well, I don't get up early enough. I have 40 minutes in the morning and I gotta get out the door. So the obstacle is time.

Right, so this week I will set my alarm 20 minutes earlier so that I can get up earlier and do my daily mindset routine. And that might have to push into your bedtime routine too. You might have to adjust that to be able to get up a little bit earlier. The last example action item is this week I will set a recurring alarm on my phone to remind myself to do my mindset routine every morning at 7 a.m. because new habits

man, like they can, we are forgetful beings. You could have the best intentions on Monday and then you could do it Monday, Tuesday and then completely forget about it by Wednesday. So if you have a new habit that you're really trying to implement, use technology to your benefit, set some alarms, some recurring reminders until you are, until you're used to it. So that would be an example of how we flush out, like what are the highest leverage action items I can focus on for my health.

I just gave you 10 really good ideas. And then how do you flesh out your action items? So my purpose of this podcast is don't just set New Year's resolutions. Don't just set New Year's goals. We have to be more tactical and action oriented. need like goal achieving action items to actually reach your goal. Otherwise it's like a book. It's just gonna sit on your shelf.

It's like a decoration in your mind that is bothering you because you're not reaching it. I hope that that was really helpful. I hope that you extrapolate on that for whatever area of life you're wanting to focus on. I'm going to do just a really quick recap. So the first from a physical health standpoint, we're assessing the physical pillars, right? In my mind, there's nutrition, including what you eat and when you eat. There's physical activity. There's stress. There's

sleep and those are all on the foundation of mindset. So that's why we have that zivli habit hierarchy that starts with mindset and incorporates all of those other pillars. Now you can use that as a reflection tool to say, okay, what are the highest leverage action items I can do? The first is a daily mindset routine. So if you're wanting to lose like 30 pounds, I know it's super tempting to jump ahead to like number six,

reduce added sugar or number eight, fast at least 12 hours a day or number nine, move your body at least 30 minutes a day, but put first things first. Get that daily mindset routine started first, okay? I think that'll really help offer some clarity on what the most effective goals might be for your physical health moving forward. But everyone's different. I want you to at least use this process and reflect. Don't just like.

set this arbitrary goal and then not give yourself a plan, a tangible plan of action to reach it. So anyways, I know Christmas is coming up and at the time of this recording, I have how many more days of work before Christmas break? I think eight, eight more days of work before the kids are out for Christmas break. And my team and I try to take a couple of weeks off over the holidays. So we'll see how ambitious I get and if I can record a couple of episodes.

episodes ahead of time for you to enjoy over the holiday season. I will, but if not, then tune back in on January 6th where we're going to resume that regular rhythm for the Monday mindset episodes. So can't promise anything at this point in time for the 23rd and 30th, but I will be back on the 6th. And with that, I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah. Whatever you celebrate, I hope that it is filled with joy and peace.

and gratitude and time with friends and family and good food and lots of fun. I'll talk with you again soon.

Thanks for listening to the reshape your health podcast today. To learn more about Zibli, our online course and coaching program to reverse insulin resistance for long-term weight loss and disease prevention. Check out our website at www.zibli.com. That's z-i-v-l-i.com. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a rating and review on your listening platform and share it with a friend.

I'll talk with you at the same time, same place next week. Bye for now.