Why Staying Healthy Isn’t About Motivation

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

Every new year starts the same way. You visit the gym three times in the first week, twice the second week and then very quickly not at all. By the end of the month, the healthy promises have quietly disappeared. That’s the story for around 60-80% of resolution makers year after year, including me.

Yet being proactive about our health has never been more important.

The Modern Healthspan Paradox

Modern life is amazing. Your favourite food delivered to your door - no need to cook, work from home whenever you like - no need to get out of the house, and instant connection with all your friends on Instagram - no need to meet up. These same conveniences are also resulting in generational drift. Whilst healthcare marvels mean we are living longer than ever, modern conveniences also mean that us millennials are more prone to chronic diseases earlier than our parents (see figure 1).

What’s the solution?

Awareness is half the battle and regular health checks with a doctor do exactly that. We already get our teeth checked by a dentist every 6 months, but what about the rest of our body? Detecting and dealing with health issues early are linked to better outcomes.

General health checks are becoming more common. Some of you may have been offered one by your employer or seen increasingly more adverts for them. The NHS also sees value in them, introducing health checks for those aged 40+. A government review (2) deemed these to be a success, recommending that checks should be offered to younger ages, more frequent engagement, leverage digital tools and address more conditions - however these are yet to be enacted.

Whilst this increasing adoption of health checks is positive, there are two main failures of current health checks. Firstly, the quality of advice is limited by the quantity of data fed to the clinician - including blood panel and patient history, both of which can be highly variable. Moreover, even though approximately half of UK adults (3) use at least one type of wearable to track health information, this data is rarely shared with healthcare professionals or incorporated into a clinical assessment in a meaningful way – despite how relevant information such as sleep data can be to a clinician.

The second failure is action. I’ve had health checks in the past and told I need to live a healthier lifestyle. Then, no follow up, no communication. I may have lived healthier for a week but then very quickly slipped into my normal routine. It doesn’t matter how often a dentist tells us to floss if we then don’t actually do it. And it’s hard. Habit changes that improve our health are hard to sustain without support and healthcare systems should help you with that. After all, we all surely want the same thing: better outcomes.

Why are healthy habits being hard?

So we all know we should live healthier, why don’t those healthy resolutions stick? The barrier is often the “all-or-nothing” mindset.

Missing a workout or sneaking in an extra snack can feel like failure. The reality though is that living proactively does not need perfection or extreme restriction. It relies on informed, sustainable choices most of the time: moving regularly, eating well, sleeping adequately, managing stress, avoiding harmful habits and engaging with healthcare before problems escalate.

Small, consistent actions can dramatically change long-term health trajectory. The challenge is knowing which action will make the biggest difference to you personally.

Sticking to these actions can be a challenge, particularly if you do it alone. Trying to form a habit by yourself has a 29% success rate. Add a person in the loop, someone to chat to and add a little bit of accountability, this jumps to 59%. Add a financial commitment and it goes to 72% chance of success of sustained, positive change (4).

Ultimately, the goal is not just to live longer, but to live better - adding more healthy years to life, not just more years. Getting there requires moving away from reactive healthcare and towards proactive care through 3 components:

• Comprehensive data to drive personalised health insights

• Clinician-led early detection to identify risk areas, with AI-in-the—loop and deal with issues as they arise

• A system that supports sustained, positive lifestyle change.

At Evida, we’re building exactly that.

Join Evida and move towards Your optimal health.

Ready to move from reactive to proactive?

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References:

1. The Health Foundation. REAL Centre. Health in 2040: Projected patterns of illness in England. July 2023 https://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/upload/publications/2023/Projected%20patterns%20of%20illness%20in%20England_WEB.pdf

2. Preventing illness and improving health for all: a review of the NHS Health Check programme and recommendations, December 2021
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-health-check-programme-review/preventing-illness-and-improving-health-for-all-a-review-of-the-nhs-health-check-programme-and-recommendations

3. London World article
4. https://www.londonworld.com/community/wellness-on-the-rise-over-50-of-uk-adults-embrace-health-tracking-devices-4962792

4. Micro Habits. Tiny Changes that Supercharge High Performance. Chapter 2. By Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes