Welcome to 2025: A Time to Take Deep Care of Yourself
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As we step into 2025, with the challenges posed by the Trump administration’s return, many of us are experiencing fear and overwhelm.
In response, we may find ourselves pulled toward behaviors that erode our well-being: self-medicating with less-than-healthy food, drinking more alcohol, losing sleep to the relentless churn of news cycles, and neglecting movement habits that ground us.
This is the time to do the opposite. Now is the time to lean into the greatest care for yourself possible.
We need each other—connected, clear, and present—to engage meaningfully in the work that matters most. To stand together with strength we must also prioritize our own well-being.
As Prentis Hemphill writes in What It Takes to Heal, the kind of change we're striving for “is cellular, as well as institutional. It's personal and intimate. It's collective as well as cultural.”
Caring deeply for ourselves in these times is not merely an act of self-preservation—it is an act of resistance, resilience, and love.
A Hope: Aligning Healthspan with Lifespan
One universal truth unites us all: we will each eventually die from something.
In the meantime, most of us hope to live with good energy, mental clarity, and minimal pain throughout our lives, with our healthspan—the period of life spent in good health—aligning with our lifespan.
Unfortunately, the gap between these two is widening for many of us. A 2019 study by the Mayo Clinic revealed that people globally are living an average of 9.6 years “burdened by disability or disease”—a 13% increase since 2000. The U.S. healthspan-lifespan gap is 29% higher than the global average, indicating that Americans spend a greater portion of their lives in poor health compared to other nations, underscoring the urgent need to rethink how we approach health.
Over recent decades, remarkable progress has been made in understanding these issues. Yet, the potential undercurrent of the incoming Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement will further polarize the health conversation. Evidence-based insights crucial to closing the healthspan-lifespan gap risk being disregarded or dismissed due to MAHA association and related noise.
If there were one resource I’d ask any and all of us to take in, it is this frame around ‘Medicine 3.0’ offered by Dr. Peter Attia from his book Outlive, available here. Listening to him read this excerpt is a highly valuable 20-minute investment of time.
The Challenge: Preventable Chronic Illness
When grouping illnesses into broader categories, the primary chronic diseases are: heart disease, cognitive decline, cancers, metabolic diseases, and autoimmune conditions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 90% of the nation's $3.8 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures are for caring for chronic and mental health conditions. With 60% of American adults navigating at least one chronic illness, and 40% navigating two or more, this is a collective pain-point.
It’s vital to remember: the prevalence of chronic disease is not about personal failure. Collective conditions drive these outcomes. While personal actions can create positive change, they often require deliberate choices that go against societal norms. Challenging. Yet, possible.
The encouraging news? Upwards of 80% of chronic illness can be prevented or reduced through meaningful lifestyle changes.
Metabolic dysfunction—a fundamental disruption in how our bodies process energy—has been identified as a significant driver of these conditions. By caring for our metabolic health, we positively impact every other aspects of our health. How do we do this?
That’s even more encouraging. Four core lifestyle habits underpin our metabolic health:
Sleep: Prioritizing both quality and quantity.
Nutrition: Choosing nutrient-dense, whole foods with discerning supplementation.
Movement: Engaging in activities that elevate your heart rate, improve mobility, and build strength.
Stress Care: Or, as I prefer to frame it, cultivating joie de vivre—the joy of life.
It may seem obvious, and yet it’s important to really grok: caring for these four core lifestyle habits not only enhances our lives today, it reduces and prevents chronic disease and cognitive decline in the long-term. It’s that big of a deal.
This Is ‘You with You’: No Competition, No Judgement.
A profound realization emerges when we understand how much our daily actions affect our quality of life—both now and in the future.
This isn’t about appearances or fitting into jeans. It’s about laying the foundation for physical and mental health.
Early in life, we were parented or supported in forming these habits. Often, they have become like the water we swim in—unexamined routines shaped by the mindsets of our younger years.
As adults, revisiting them with intention and compassion can be genuinely transformative, guided by:
Current, evidence-based insights that genuinely support health.
A regenerative design mindset that reframes these habits based on who we are now and what our bodies and brains truly need for health—for today and in the long term.
Deep self-care and regard, reflecting the kind of compassion we wish to see in the world.
A Key Focus: Nutrition and Metabolic Health
Nutrition is one of the most debated areas in health research, making it perhaps the most challenging of the core lifestyle habits to understand how to improve.
The intricacies of human health, individual variability (or “bio-individuality”), deeply ingrained food ideologies, and studies influenced by financial interests and lobbying all contribute to the difficulty in answering a seemingly simple question: What should we eat?
Take dietary fat as an example. Once demonized (and replaced with sugar) in the food industry, we now know this shift has had devastating health consequences. Healthy fats are essential for our brains and bodies to thrive, and the added sugars disastrous.
The solution is simpler than headlines may otherwise suggest. It is:
Transition away from processed foods, prioritizing whole, minimally processed foods from quality sources.
By simply reducing processed food consumption you will dramatically lower your intake of industrial seed oils, added sugars, refined grains, preservatives, and additives, while reducing your exposure to addictive foods designed to keep people eating.
Here’s a foundational approach:
Prioritize greens, vegetables, lean proteins, nuts, beans, berries, and healthy fats (such as olive oil, avocado oil, or grass-fed butter).
Enjoy fruits, mindful of their glycemic impact.
Grains fall in the debatable zone, but when eating them: whole grains are preferable to refined grains or flours.
Delight in fermented foods, and dive fully into the spectacular world of spices. Explore raw cocoa, and other delights such as matcha and teas.
Choose food sources free of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, additives and preservatives, and support regenerative farming practices when possible.
Supplements can also play a vital role in filling nutritional gaps. Key examples include Vitamin D, Omega-3 fatty acids, and a high-quality multivitamin sourced from food (not petroleum derivatives). This is partly due to soil conditions, and partly from what is being learned about what supports optimal health.
Timing around when we eat does matter quite a bit, but less than quality. If you do consume processed foods, become a diligent label reader. Additionally, as recently recommended by the Surgeon General, reducing—or eliminating—alcohol consumption is a powerful step.
One thing you’ll soon hear a lot about via the MAHA movement is the harmful impact of the "hateful eight" seed oils: canola (rapeseed), corn, cottonseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and rice bran oils, or ‘vegetable oil’ in general.
Avoiding industrial seed oils actually is an important, relevant, and relatively recent finding. To learn more, Dr. Cate Shanahan’s book Dark Calories underscores just how industrial seed oils are driving oxidation and inflammation, and that avoiding them may be the highest impact nutritional choice we can make—in spite of 75 years of messaging otherwise.
While dietary changes can yield noticeable benefits relatively quickly, nutrition is ultimately about cultivating a long-term lifestyle that fosters health and vitality through implementing consistent, meaningful changes.
Several factors can complicate the process, including:
Accessibility and affordability of nutritious food.
Cultural connections and traditions tied to meals.
Navigating social situations, like eating out or dining with others.
Personal preferences, coping mechanisms, and chemical dependencies.
This journey is deeply individual. Take it one step at a time, listening to your body and discovering what foods truly nourish you. It’s a gradual process, but one well worth pursuing with high payoffs.
Looking Ahead: A Vision for 2025
As we navigate 2025, remember: how we care for ourselves shapes how we are able to show up for one another. Deliberate choices in our eating, moving, sleeping, and how we care for stress (and the joy we cultivate!) radiate outwards.
This is a time to stand steady, live with intention, and face the future—together. Here’s to a year of strength, connection, resilience, and regeneration.
Appreciating being a part of this journey with you.
With gratitude,
Heather Johnson
Founder, Fractally Whole
Tools and Resources
In response to some requests and to help anyone who’s interested, I’ll be sharing a Self-Hack Health Pack in February and hosting a free two-hour session on February 27, 11 AM–1 PM PST, to dive deeper into these topics. RSVP here.
Resources used for this message, which have all become favorites I highly recommend:
Prentis Hemphill’s What it Takes to Heal: How transforming ourselves can change the world
Dr. Peter Attia’s Outlive: An important read on longevity science
Dr. Casey Means’ Good Energy: A guide for metabolic health
Dr. Mark Hyman’s The Pegan Diet, Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?, and Food Fix—all helping you to discern: what should YOU eat, and why.
Dr. Cate Shanahan’s Dark Calories: The impact of industrial seed oils on health
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon’s Forever Strong: Insights on muscle health and longevity
Dr. Uma Naidoo’s Calm Your Mind with Food: The connection between diet and emotional health
Psychologist Kimberly Wilson’s How to Build a Healthy Brain: Optimizing mental health through lifestyle choices
Dr. Rupa Marya and author Raj Patel’s Inflamed: Systemic health and social factors
Header Image: Taken by the author at Astra Lumina, a wonderful immersive light-show experience currently featured at the Seattle Chinese Garden, of an element amidst bare tree branches with an-almost-full moon glowing in the background.
