Your 2025 Foundation: 5 Lifestyle Adjustments to Support Your Wellness Goals

New year, same Woodstock.

Isn’t that a relief? While the myriad of wellness brands make haste on their Q1 marketing campaigns, we’re focusing on continuing to do what we do best.

That is: Providing science-backed wellness education that simplifies strategic supplementation. And while you might not be able to say that whole sentence five times fast, the keywords themselves are pretty easy:

Simple. Strategic. Supplements.

A core facet of simple and strategic supplementation is building a strong foundation before you start taking anything. So if you missed our last blog on Dr. Neal’s non-negotiable nutrients, that’s okay! Start here, with these 5 lifestyle adjustments that can make an enormous impact on your overall well-being.

By the end, you’ll have a rock-solid framework for whole-person health in 2025. Then, and only then, can you supplement the 5 nutrients everyone needs feeling totally confident in your ability to avoid wasting money on well-branded bunk.

In This Article:

• Why Start with Lifestyle Adjustments to Support Your Wellness Goals?
• Sleep Duration and Quality
• Exercise and Nutrition
• Stress Management
• Lifestyle (Or Environmental) Changes

Why Start with Lifestyle Adjustments to Support Your Wellness Goals?

We’ll keep this bit brief because, if you’ve read any of our other boat-rocking blogs, then you already know the core sentiment.

Which is, of course, that you can’t out-supplement a nutritionally bankrupt diet. Or a totally sedentary lifestyle. Or a stress-ridden day-to-day life that leaves you completely depleted.

Even the 5 incredibly powerful nutrients that Dr. Neal recommends for everyone work best when they’re supported by foundational wellness factors. Like diet, sleep, exercise, stress management, and lifestyle changes.

À la the Wellness Pyramid.

These five areas of life create the bedrock of your well-being. And, just like the vital5 nutrients, these factors work in tandem with one another. Your sleep impacts your ability to manage stress; your nutrient intake impacts your digestion; your digestion impacts your energy and sleep cycles.

So don’t shirk one area in favor of another! Instead, try to make time and space in your life for a little of everything on the list. Walk the middle path. Focus on moderation. Aim for consistency, not perfection.

5 Lifestyle Adjustments to Support Your Wellness Goals

1. Prioritize Sleep Quality and Duration

First up is sleep!

You probably already know that sleep is essential for recovery, focus, mental well-being, and overall health. But the importance of your sleep quality and duration cannot be understated. (Especially in our fast-paced, productivity-centered culture.)

You should be aiming for between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night, but the amount of sleep you get is only the tip of the iceberg. 

Sleep quality is incredibly important as well, and can be affected by a whole variety of underlying issues — many of which we’ll cover later in this blog.

One easy thing you can do is establish a consistent bedtime and stick to it! If you make a few small changes to cultivate a calming evening routine, like removing electronics and heavy foods that can disrupt your circadian rhythm… Your sleep quality will improve in no time. And if you need more sleep-focused tips, we’ve got a whole list right here.

Learn More: 5 Things to Do (Not Take) for Better Sleep

2. Exercise

It’s no secret that exercise can improve both physical and mental health. But most people think that means they need to hit the gym 6x a week or become a Tabata devotee. Want to know the open secret? Even something simple, like a daily walk, can make a significant impact. 

In fact, high-intensity training has been linked to things like inflammation, immune dysfunction, oxidative stress, muscle damage, and more. So if you’re just starting your exercise journey, fret not!

Instead, start with a manageable goal that’s confirmed by science to support physicall wellness and mental health. 30 minutes of moderate movement, 5x a week. (Think: Walking, stretching, yoga, bodyweight exercises, etc.)

Then, build from there! The ideal goal is 30 minutes of exercise per day, but like we said, consitency is key. It’s much better for your health to commit to a short, simple routine than to be on-again-off-again with a rigorous, demanding one. 

So whatever activity you decide on, stick to it if you want to see results! Regular exercise can help improve a whole host of things, like your sleep quality and digestion. Remember what we said about everything being connected?

Learn More: The Truth About Exercise: Ditch the Myths

3. Diet and Nutrition

Despite the fact that all of these lifestyle adjustments are incredibly important, nutrition seems to be the most disputed.

And while you might be tired of cliches like, “you are what you eat,” they’re closer to the truth than many would like to admit. Your body is like an amazingly complex organic machine, and the food you eat determines the quality of fuel you’re putting in the tank. 

To make it as simple as possible, we’ll put it like this: poor diet leads to poor overall health. No ifs, ands, or bots. Before you reach for your pitchforks, though, we’re not at all recommending depriving yourself or searching for the latest diet fad.

We recommend, as always, balance! Which looks like caring for your body with wholesome, nutritious foods, while still leaving space for a little indulgence. Everything in moderation, including moderation.  

Because it’s not just about choosing the right foods, either. Your body requires not only high-quality fuel, but consistent fuel. So, make sure you eat regularly throughout the day — it’ll help keep your blood sugar in-line. 

Plus (and you might see a pattern forming here), did you know that diet can also affect your sleep?

Learn More: Mastering Holistic Nutrition: Dr. Neal’s Top 5 Diet Guidelines

4. Manage Stress

While stress has become a bit of a buzzword lately, we’d like to cut to the core of it: Under stress, your body releases a flood of hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, putting your system on high alert.

Early in our evolution, this function of the body was hugely beneficial. In this state, known as the sympathetic nervous system, your body shuts down unnecessary functions to save energy for what it thinks is most important.

In our modern world, though, sometimes the body struggles to prioritize the right functions. If you’re being chased by a bear, for example, you’d be grateful to have all that pesky digestive energy redirected to your heart and lungs. In a stressful situation at work (that might last for days or weeks!) it’ll probably be a bit less helpful. 

Chronic stress, then, basically means that your body is trapped in the sympathetic nervous system state — AKA fight or flight — constantly.

So, addressing and managing your stress is your path to better digestion, sleep, moods, and a whole lot more. While you may not be able to just flip a magic switch and make all your stress disappear, you can definitely identify what’s pushing your buttons the most — and hopefully, do something about it. (Like meditation, mindfulness practices, or breathwork.)

And, spoiler alert: Too much stress also leads to too little sleep. Oh, how the connectedness continues!

Learn More: Meditation vs Mindfulness — Common Misconceptions

5. Finally, Lifestyle Changes

Now, you may be saying: “You’ve already talked my ear off about what I need to change! What else could you possibly want from me?”

Well, first of all — it’s not for us, it’s for you! And as always, take what you like and leave the rest. Incorporating some of these tips consistently will do a lot more for you than using all of them for a week or two. 

And secondly, while we’ve already discussed habits that address what goes on inside your body (digestion, sleep, recovery, etc.), we like to think of the lifestyle changes component as being related to all the stuff that goes on outside of your body.

Because, honestly, making a few, small changes that limit your exposure to toxins and inflammatory compounds can sometimes have the biggest impact. Lifestyle changes can be very personal, though, so remember it’s all about what does work for you, not necessarily what should. 

All that to say, basically, that none of these tips or supplements will work their best without being supported by healthy choices. Whether that’s drinking more water, bringing fewer toxins into your home, taking the TV out of your bedroom, or all of the above — these small changes can be the difference between supporting or derailing your progress.

Learn More: Environment: How It Impacts Your Health and What to Do About It

That’s Life(style Adjustments)!

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again (and again, and again…), optimal health requires balance.

If you combine good info with good habits and good supplements, you’ll make it a lot farther than if your supplements, habits, and lifestyle are all working at cross purposes.

So, while it may be slower and less fun than raiding the health-food store for all the latest and greatest miracle cures, adjusting the way you live and what you prioritize will make more of a difference in how you feel. Plus, with a little help from our team of supplement experts lead by the notorious loudmouth, Dr. Neal, strategic supplementation gets a whole lot simpler.

This year, keep doing the difficult but necessary work of finding and fixing the little gaps in your wellness foundation that are keeping you from being and feeling your best. New year, new you — same (awesome!) Woodstock.