6 People Who Actually Accomplished Their Health Goals Last Year Share Their Best Advice So You Can, Too

New Year’s resolutions have a reputation for fizzling out fast. In fact, the second Friday of the January is dubbed “Quitter’s Day,” which means at this point, the majority of people have thrown in the towel on their goals.

So we spoke to six people who are the minority.

These members of the Start TODAY community used realistic plans, small daily habits and adjustments when life gets hard to achieve their goals for 2025.

One trained back to three-mile walks after hip and spine surgery while another logged daily walks and yoga without eyesight. A mom used group fitness to help her cope with the loss of her son. Others focused on non-scale victories, steady daily movement and protecting their mental health.

Here’s how they did it.

Melissa Archer

2025 challenge accomplished: Achieving her 100th non-scale victory (NSV).

Top tip: Focus on being healthy, not on the numbers on the scale.

Archer’s journey started on July 1, 2022. That was the day she decided she was done feeling blah, being out of breath, eating her emotions, not sleeping well and skipping activities with her kids because she couldn’t keep up with them. “I was done not smiling like I used to. I was just done,” she says.

That morning, she walked a half mile with her sons near her home in Buffalo, NY. She walked again the next day, and the day after that. “Even if it was only a half mile, it was more than I had done any day before July 1^st,” she says. She also started portioning her meals and drinking more water.

“I wanted to keep my motivation going and make sure I didn’t get discouraged. I also wanted to focus on being heathy and not just on the number on the scale. That’s where NSV’s came into play,” she says.

Archer, now 46, aimed for 10 NSVs at first, choosing simple things like drinking water instead of soda and lengthening her walks. As her journey continued, her list grew to being able to cross her legs and fit into clothes she had stored away for years.

“Six months went by, and my list exploded,” she says. “I began to tune into my mental health.” Her list included positive self-talk daily as well as things like carrying a case of water down the basement steps, relearning her relationship with food and saving the money she had been spending on takeout and using it for a family beach vacation.

She shares some of her 2025 non-scale victories:

• Hiking: Achieved in August while camping in Pennsylvania

• Using heavier weights: She’s up to 12 pounds

• Walking three miles in under 60 minutes: This was her 100th NSV

Her top goal for 2026 is walking two miles in less than 30 minutes.

“My list grew by leaps and bounds because it wasn’t about the numbers, it was about me being proud of me for all my progress and achievements and valuing my health more than my image,” she says. “I’m healthy and doing things I couldn’t do before even though I’m not a size 2, but rather a size 12. That to me is the biggest NSV of all!”

The Start TODAY app uses One Small Thing to help you celebrate the small, daily victories! Each day, you are given a new, doable step you can take toward better heath.

Jean Marmo

2025 goal accomplished: Returning to three- to four-mile walks after hip-replacement surgery

Top tip: The more effort you put in, the better the result. Start small and build up every hour, every day.

“My happy place is getting out on the sidewalks,” Marmo says. She especially likes walking in Arizona, where she goes to escape the Michigan winters. But in fall 2024, hip pain started to limit the three-to-four mile walks she loved to take every day. She expected that within three or four years she would need a hip replacement.

But by April 2025, she was limping, and she couldn’t even walk a mile. An injection didn’t help with the pain. She needed hip replacement, and because of scheduling issues, she couldn’t have the surgery until October. “I am so glad it is done and I can now get back to moving as I did,” she says.

Within two weeks, Marmo, 72, could walk a mile without a walker or cane. “Every week I added a bit more,” she says. By seven weeks, she was back to walking three miles. “The hip feels great when walking,” she says. “My husband and I are signed up to complete a 5k race in mid-January. I hobbled my way through it last year and am excited to walk much better this year.”

Jenny L. Harrell Catron

2025 challenge accomplished: Walking for 2 hours every day.

Top tip: Know when you start that you’ll hit roadblocks, and figure out how to overcome them.

Catron, 57, set a lot of goals for herself for 2025. “I kept them all,” she says. “The key is starting them in August or September and making them a habit before it’s real. By the time January 1st rolls up you’ve worked out the kinks.”

For example, she started walking outside near her home in Fredericksburg, VA, but bad weather turned out to be a roadblock for her some of the time. So, on January 1, she joined a gym where she could walk on a treadmill when the weather was bad. “That helped on days when it was too cold,” she says.

“I’ve stayed with the same two hours every day since January first, one hour early in the morning and an hour in the afternoon,” says Catron. She lost 74 pounds, and she’s starting to run part of her route and add more time to her walks.

If weather is a roadblock keeping you from getting your steps in, have an indoor walking workout in your back pocket, like this 10-Minute Indoor Walk or this 1.5-Mile Indoor Walk With Al Roker.

Along with walking, Catron set and kept goals for other areas of her life, too. She now follows a bedtime routine, reads the Bible every day and attends church every Sunday and keeps money in her bank account as a cushion for emergencies.

Heather Harne

2025 challenge accomplished: Walking and practicing yoga every day in spite of a disability.

Top tip: We all have obstacles, and we all can find ways to get in movement that fits our bodies.

Harne, 52, had eye cancer (bilateral retinoblastoma) when she was a baby. Treatment meant her right eye had to be removed at that time. Her left eye, which gave her partial vision, needed to be removed in 2017.

Before then, she had been active with yoga, Pilates, dance, kickboxing and walking. But becoming completely blind, plus having back surgery around the same time, caused dizziness and balance issues.

At first, all she could do was stand for one minute an hour. She lengthened her standing time, and slowly started walking in place, then around her house, adding minutes and miles.

Over time, she began walking in a local park where she could follow the path with her cane. She also takes a private yoga class once a week, and practices a short yoga sequence every morning and every night. She committed to maintaining her walking and yoga habits throughout 2025, and succeeded.

“Being blind is only part of my story,” she says. “I believe we all have struggles, challenges and obstacles. That could be internal, with mental or emotional difficulties, external, with snow or rain or heat, or physical, with injuries or surgeries. Everyone has something, and even so, we can all build strength and get movement in throughout the day.”

Trisha Stringer

2025 challenge accomplished: Coping with the death of her son through group fitness classes and walking.

Top tip: Grief is a lonely road. Taking that first step is the hardest, but it helps.

In June, 2024, Stringer had a late dinner with her 24-year-old son, Dakota, and his fiancée after she finished a 14-hour shift as a nurse. They talked about one day hiking part of the Appalachian trail and leaving “happiness rocks” painted with words of encouragement along it.

The next day, when her son was working on an oil land rig, it fell over and killed him.

“I knew I had two choices the day after he passed. I could stand up, or lay there and die with him. That kind of grief will kill you. I chose to stand, and asked God to help me. I made a promise to him I would stand every day,” she says.

Before her son died, Stringer was walking two miles four or five times a week near her home in Sandy Hook, MS. Afterward, she continued walking, but not as much. She ate at night for comfort and gained 53 pounds. “I knew I was spiraling with my weight, and wanted so badly to change that. I told my physician I was eating my emotions. He suggested I take time and give myself grace,” she says.

In early 2025, she joined a gym and began taking fitness classes. “It was hard. I don’t think my body was ready,” she says. “But the group classes helped me get social activities in on my darkest days. There were times I didn’t want to be around people when I was in deep grief, but I would push myself to get out and go. It helped me tremendously.”

She kept at it, and she restarted her walking routine. By October 2025, her weight started to drop. She’s committed to fitness and for her 43^rd birthday in December, she treated herself to personal training sessions three days a week.”

Stringer wants to make sure the tragedy that killed her son won’t happen to anyone else. She is working to pass a law, Dakota’s Law, that would require permanent tie downs on all oil rigs in Mississippi. “If the site my son was at had tie downs, he wouldn’t have perished,” she says. “I know my life has a purpose that now includes my son’s story.”

Looking for a community to support you on your health journey? Join the Start TODAY family and connect with like-minded people for encouragement.

Sue Englander

2025 challenge accomplished: Rebuilding her fitness routine after spine surgery.

Top tip: Respect your body and what it can do.

2025 put Englander’s commitment to fitness to the test. After a health scare in 2021, the Floridian changed her nutrition and committed to daily movement. “Walking became my foundation — not about speed or distance, but consistency — and over time I worked up to averaging about 10,000 steps a day. Step by step, those walks added up,” she says. “I released 40 pounds, my knee pain eased, my mobility improved and my energy returned.”

But walking wasn’t easing her back pain. She was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and sciatica, with three pinched nerves. “It was debilitating, interfering with walking, sleeping and my daily life,” she says.

Physical therapy and epidural injections weren’t enough, so the 70-year-old had spine surgery in November 2025. “I went into it stronger and healthier than I would have years earlier. Releasing those 40 pounds and building a consistent walking foundation gave me physical resilience and confidence heading into recovery,” she says.

Within three weeks, she was back walking, intentionally, carefully and with respect for what her body can do. “Some days are short. Some days are slow. But every step is forward,” she says. “This journey has taught me that walking isn’t about perfection. It’s about participation. Bodies change. The rules change. But you’re never too old to start upgrading your health.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com