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Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. And as we close out 2025, this week it is New Year, I wanted to talk about letting go of what doesn't serve you. Now, I know that the New Year, New You messaging is pretty much everywhere right now. And a lot of people push back on it. But I do think there's something super valuable about using this time of year as a checkpoint.

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not to completely reinvent yourself, to honestly assess what's working and what might need to go. So today, I want to chat about letting go. Specifically, letting go of practices, narratives, and even information sources that are no longer serving you, which is really hard, particularly sometimes when these just familiar things feel like a comfy blanket that has served you well in the past, but just might not be anymore. And...

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I'm gonna be talking about this from multiple angles because what needs releasing will be different for everyone, right? For some of you, it might be an actual physical practice, maybe fasted training that's become dogma rather than strategic. Maybe for others, it's a story you've been telling yourself that's become a self-limiting belief. And for many of us, it might be the constant stream of negative health content we're consuming online. So let's dig into what you might wanna let go of for 2026.

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One of the first ones I want to address is the age old, if you like, conversation around fasted training and fasting protocols. I'll start here because it is one that I see often and that is why it is constantly sort of in my social media feed and the conversations that I have with people. And you know that I think fasting as a therapy is a super powerful protocol when used strategically and with purpose and with good reason.

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and I'm absolutely not opposed to it. same with training fasted. I do a lot of my training fasted and it feels totally fine for me. But there is a difference between using these tools strategically and holding onto them when they no longer serve you. So if you are someone that has always done fasted training and you've never really questioned it or you do fasted training and you've started to have issues with recovery, with sleep, with your ability to perform,

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ask yourself, is your faster training actually aligned with your current training goals? Or has it become something you do because you've always done it, even though your training has changed, your stress has changed, or your life circumstances have changed? And even if you actually feel completely fine with everything to do with your training and with sort of what you're doing, it is a really great opportunity to sit down and go, okay, so this feels really good right now.

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If I'm forecasting in the first few months of this year, what might need to change and what can stay the same? And if I'm thinking about faster training, if you are in a base training phase right now, I just think it's quite good to have sort of in your frame of thought, you know, if I'm coming into a key training block for the marathon that I'm training for, let's say Rotorua Marathon, for example, here in New Zealand, then potentially I'm going to need to start bringing in some fuel.

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at around this time as I lift the intensity or I lift the duration or I lift this sort of key power output. So just have it in your frame of mind as something to look at as you get into different training, just because even though this might not be something you need to address right here and now, because you are not seeing any negative connotations of it, it doesn't mean that it is not going to change. So always come at it with an open mind. And similarly with fasting protocols.

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If you started intermittent fasting and it worked brilliantly, that is awesome. And if it is continuing to work and you're getting in your protein, that's great. But if you're now finding yourself irritable, if you're struggling with recovery or you're experiencing signs of under-fueling, which might be hormone related, might be appetite related, might be sleep related, maybe time to let it go or at least reassess the frequency and the timing. So if you are,

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let's say doing a 16-8 or 18-6 or God forbid, this is my personal bias, 24. I mean, gosh, who would want to do that? But I know people do. Then what can you change to help alleviate some of the stress that is being built up that allows you to still achieve what you were hoping to achieve when you started the fasting protocol? And it might be something as simple as instead of always doing 16-8,

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regardless of how hungry or how tired or how irritable you are, maybe you are just more aware and tuning into your appetite signals to make sure that you're not white-knuckling it through to that 11 or 12 o'clock breaking off the fast. So just tuning into your body, I think, can be super helpful and isn't something we're not always as good at doing. Of course, another physical practice you may need to release could be excessive cardio and junk miles. This is that more is better mentality.

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which we've talked about many times, either with expert guests or me on this sort of solo episodes. You know, if you're logging miles just to log miles without a clear training purpose, you might be creating stress without adaptation. You may be limiting your performance and limiting your ability as an athlete. And I've heard time and again of how people have let go of volume and how this can actually improve performance in recovery. And it isn't just cardio miles as well.

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may even be people who are in the gym six times a week doing CrossFit, or you are hitting no pun intended, HIIT sessions four to five times a week, and really running yourself down, but it's what you've always done. Sometimes it takes a little bit of suspension of disbelief to step off whatever it is you're doing to allow for some recovery, to allow for some change, to see how that might be what you need to progress. Because we...

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do get stuck in this more as better mentality, and it doesn't always hold true. Chronic restriction is another thing. There's a huge difference between periodized strategic restriction, which can be a useful tool, and you know I'm a fan of it, particularly with my Monday's Matter approach, and chronic restriction that's become habitual. If you've been in a deficit for months because you think you should be, but you're exhausted, training is suffering, or you cannot stop thinking about food, or you're finding it

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difficult to adhere. So what should be restriction is in fact this almost restrict binge cycle, then it is absolutely time to release that approach as well. And finally, what about those supplements you're taking? We all have that drawer of supplements. Some you take because there is good evidence or you're trying to correct a deficiency. Some because you started them once and never reassessed. And sometimes it feels like you're taking 12, 10 to 12 different supplements and you don't even know

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what it is you actually need. honestly, unless you are correcting a deficiency, I think magnesium, creatine, fish oils, these are three for me, are almost non-negotiable at this point, but why not take a break from any of those other things that you're taking and see how you feel if you're not taking your age mate, if you're not taking your nutrient rescue, if you're not taking your NAC or your resveratrol.

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And I'm not suggesting any of these are terrible or not worth taking. And I'm not suggesting they're not benefiting you in some way, or form. But sometimes we just don't even, it's like a medication that we've gone on at the doctor that we've never come off. And we're taking them for years, like PPIs or on pain relief that they've never come off. So have a think about what you need and what you might not and make 2026 a little bit of a refresh for you in that as well. And one last thing, which I think

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could be useful. This is for people who feel wedded to their data. Do you need to weigh yourself daily to keep a check of where things are at with your body composition or are there other ways to assess your progress here? Look, I am a fan of this for people who can literally sort of look at their data and not buy into what it does or doesn't mean on any given day. But if you are someone who really struggles with the mental space that a daily weigh in

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takes for you or you're obsessed because you haven't tracked every single calorie, then reassessing your relationship to data, I think can also be really helpful as a bit of a refresh for 2026. Because these tools, weighing yourself, tracking your calories, tracking your sleep, et cetera, they're supposed to help and enhance your life. So if you find yourself becoming a bit of a slave to the data and it absolutely is affecting how you feel about yourself,

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or your training or your body in these really negative ways, then I think it's worth reassessing that also. The next thing is our mental narratives and our self-limiting beliefs. And this section, I've done a podcast or two on Brad Bisjak's work, and I find it really valuable that these are stories that we tell ourselves that become self-fulfilling prophecies. We don't even realize that they are these sort of self-limiting beliefs. Identity statements that limit you.

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such as, I'm not a morning person or I'm not flexible. I'm stubborn. I've never been good at strength training. I can't do hills. These statements become our identity. And then we make choices that reinforce them. Maybe you're not a morning person because you start late scrolling. That's a habit. That's not an immutable trait. Maybe you're not flexible because you've never consistently worked on mobility. It is 100 % addressable. I find this with stuff that I do as well. Like, man, I always...

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I can't help but make a mess when I cook. That is absolutely something I can help. But if I continue to tell myself I can't help it, then I'm not even going to try to change that type of habit and behavior. Same thing goes with these other self-limiting beliefs, like I'm not very good at strength training, or I hate the gym, or I can't run. So we stop doing things which might potentially allow us to get better at these things.

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Notice when you are using these statements like the ones that I mentioned or any that you've got in your mind, are they actually true or are they stories you've been telling yourself for so long that they've become true? sometimes they are just a little, I don't want to say this in a negative way, but some people use them as almost this lazy way of not actually changing their behavior. It's almost like by default that you don't even want to think about it. So you are in fact just lazy about it, which

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It's fine, but let's just call it what it is. This isn't that you, this is a trait that you cannot change. You just don't want to change it. That's okay, but just don't use it as the justification for not doing something. Another mental narrative I see people sort of come up against themselves is that comparison to your past self. This one is particularly relevant for, let's say endurance athletes and anyone who is going through a significant life stage. I used to be able to run a sub three marathon.

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I was so much stronger and fitter when I was 30. Yes, things change, but comparing yourself to a different life stage, a different stress load, a different hormone environment, that's not actually that useful. It's often the narrative that creates frustration rather than helping you optimize where you are now. So instead of wishing that you were as fit, fast, as young or as lean as what you were when you were younger, thinking that that was a better version of yourself,

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Think about where you are in the here and now and what you might want to do to optimize moving forward to move into that best stage of your life. And what about all or nothing thinking? If I can't train for an hour, there's no point. Or I've already had dessert, so the day is ruined. This rigidity is exhausting and often counterproductive. Metabolic flexibility, which I talk about a lot in training, also applies to your mindset. Let go of this binary thinking and the people who are

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the most successful with achieving particularly their nutrition goals are those that have a flexible mindset around what they're doing. Instead of rules, they have guardrails. Instead of instructions, they use structure. So there are different ways of framing nutritional practices that don't have to be black or white. And it's actually the more that you step into that sort of gray zone and you're comfortable in that gray zone, the easier it is to make progress long-term.

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Guilt around rest or recovery. If you feel guilty on rest days, that's a narrative worth examining. And look, this is absolutely one this is work on for me. Recovery is productive. Deload weeks are strategic. Sleep, that's performance enhancing. So have a think about what it is that prevents you from actually just taking a breather. And recovery doesn't have to be not moving. And I think this is where some people get it wrong. m

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Recovery for you might be an easy swim rather than doing your usual 3K. It might be that you do a 20 minute easy jog rather than smashing it out for an hour. Or it might be that you're just doing yoga and walking rather than your F45 class. I do think actually as an older athlete, well, midlife, moving your body is essential on a daily basis, but it doesn't have to be smashing it out.

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all the time and you don't have to feel guilty if you haven't hit that session. And also think about, and this is what really helps me, actually think about how good you will feel the next time you train if you are having a day off. That one definitely helps me. And another mental narrative just to let go of is this idea that perimenopause or menopause is an inevitable decline. As a perimenopausal woman and working primarily with a lot of women in this space or beyond,

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This narrative is absolutely everywhere. Absolutely hormones change. Absolutely there are challenges. But the story that perimenopause means inevitable weight gain, loss of strength, brain fog, and declining performance, there's no evidence to support this is the case when we implement these appropriate strategies. And there's a lot of talk about weight loss resistance in this age group. And I can tell you with the hundreds, if not thousands of women that I've worked with, particularly over the last four years,

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there are women thriving in perimenopause and menopause, reaching their best selves through using these appropriate strategies. And sometimes it's just finding that solution that's gonna work for you right now. And leading go a lot of these narratives is one of those first steps. So if you're holding onto any of these or others, it absolutely will be affecting your actions and it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So have a think about what you consider as beliefs that you hold.

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and think about how true they are for you right now, because things do change. And look, finally, what about your digital diet and information? There is absolutely fear mongering content out there on the internet. You know the accounts I'm talking about. People that say everything is toxic, everything causes cancer, plants are terrible for you, meat is terrible for you, you absolutely need a JLP one, everything is conspiracy. Now, look, I like critical analysis.

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I like to fact check claims. I point out research limitations. I will challenge pseudoscience, but there is a difference between evidence-based skepticism and relentless negativity. And if your feed is full of content that makes you anxious about every food choice, every product, every decision, that isn't serving you. It's creating a state of chronic stress that's probably worse for your health than whatever it is that they're warning you about. I would also say that if some of the accounts you're following are

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absolutely hell bent on just tearing other people down rather than argument. That's another indicator that that content is probably not serving you even if it is meant with the best of intentions. Pathologizing normal physiology is another thing I see. This is content that frames normal aging, normal perimenopause, normal responses to training is purely pathological. We absolutely want to optimize of course, but not everything is broken. Not everything needs fixing.

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So remember that whenever you're looking at any content that sort of puts things like aging and perimenopause up there as a problem that needs to be solved. Wellness influence who make you feel like you're failing if you're not doing their specific protocol or the content makes you feel shame or guilt for what you're currently doing, it's time to let go of accounts like that because any sort of practice around health that is framed as a moral imperative is absolutely doing you a disservice.

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And then what about this conflicting advice that creates paralysis? You get one account that says eat breakfast, another says fast till noon, one says carbs are essential, another says they're toxic. If you're consuming so much conflicting information, you can't make a decision. You need to curate your feed a lot more carefully. Find those three to five experts that resonate with you, that are open to answering questions and discussing viewpoints that might be challenged, but

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have a point of view that is backed up by evidence in science or practice, but also open-minded to see that there can be different ways of doing things. These are accounts that you should follow. And I, of course, hopeful that I fall into one of these categories for you, but that might not be the case for some of you either. So have a think about the people you follow and whether or not their content is making you feel safe and productive, or is it making you feel anxious and overwhelmed?

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And this is the thing with the algorithm on different social media platforms such as Instagram. The algorithm will serve you more of what you engage with. So if you're constantly clicking on negative health content, doom scrolling, engaging with fair based posts, you'll get more of that. So you need to break that cycle by being conscious about what you actually consume. And this of course ties back to that narrative piece. If your internal dialogue has become overly negative, like I'm broken, nothing works for me.

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my body is against me, your information diet might actually be reinforcing that story. So how do you identify what needs releasing? Here's a bit of a framework. Ask yourself these questions. number one, is this practice, belief or content creating more stress than benefit? Practices should serve you, they should not create anxiety. If it is a negative, it is absolutely time to reassess. Question number two, am I doing this strategically or habitually?

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If it's strategic, it is aligned with current goals, it is periodized, and it is evidence-based, be it evidence in science or practice, or hopefully both. If it's habitual, this is, I've always done it this way, even though circumstances have changed. Question number three, is this opening possibilities or closing them? Growth-oriented narratives create options. They don't shut things down. Self-limiting beliefs absolutely shut down exploration.

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and fear-based content creates restriction. Number four, would I recommend this to a client or a friend? Sometimes we hold ourselves to standards that we'd never oppose on others. So if you wouldn't recommend it to someone you care about, why are you doing it yourself? And number five, is this aligned with my actual goals right now? Not past goals, not some day goals, but your actual current reality. Your training, nutrition, and information intake should always match where you are and where you're actually going.

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So whilst you might have goals for the future, if they are not your present here and now, and they're not in the foreseeable future, then you are much better focusing in on what's relevant for you today. So just as you periodize training and nutrition, also periodize your information consumption. Sometimes you need deep research dives. Sometimes you need inspiration. And sometimes you need to completely disconnect from health content to avoid it becoming neurotic.

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So I'm not saying you should never consume health information, obviously, that is literally my job to create it, but be intentional. Curate consciously. If it's not serving you, let it go. So as we move into this new year, I'm not suggesting you need to become a new person, but I'm just asking you to honestly assess what you're carrying that might not need to come with you. As I've mentioned, might be a training practice that served you in one season but doesn't fit this one.

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Or it might be a story you've been telling yourself that's becoming limiting and is actually no longer true. Or maybe it is that constant stream of negative health information that's creating more anxiety than empowerment. And letting go of something isn't about quitting, it's about making space for what actually serves you. And this is definitely something that I know from working with hundreds of clients and from my own experience. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is release what's not working rather than adding something new, which is our

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almost our human instinct to add, add, add. So this is my invitation for you. It's not New Year, New You. It is New Year, better environment, better narratives, better information diet for the you that already exists. Hopefully you found this helpful. If you decide that you do want to do this little of these things that we talked about, absolutely let me know. I'm on Instagram threads in X @mikkiwilliden, Facebook @mikkiwillidennutrition.

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or head to my website mikkiwilliden.com and scroll right down to the bottom and pop your name in the little box and that'll get you on my email list. Alright team, catch you next time.