Shortly after Halloween, I hid my daughter’s candy haul.

Not because candy is evil or because I’m trying to ban sugar from our house, but because I kept finding wrappers in random trash cans and realized that a giant bag of candy sitting in the pantry was simply too tempting for everyone.

We also have a rule with ice cream where we don’t keep a carton in the freezer. If we want it, we go out to the ice cream shop. Why? Because I know myself and my family. If ice cream is in the freezer, someone will start digging in. But if we have to leave the house, we’re much more likely to pause and ask, Do we really want this right now?

This isn’t about discipline. It’s about strategy. As physicians, we’re taught to rely on willpower when it comes to our own health. But if 2026 is the year you want a different relationship with food, weight, and fitness, it’s time to stop trying harder and start setting yourself up for success.

There are three principles that far outweigh motivation alone: situational modification, upgrading your habits, and accountability.

Situational Modification: Make the Better Choice the Easier Choice

Psychologist Angela Duckworth uses the term situational modification to describe changing the environment so you don’t have to constantly fight yourself.

One of her best-known examples involves cell phones in schools. Research shows that even when a phone is face down, silent, and not being used, it still pulls on attention. Part of the brain is wondering what it might be missing. When schools remove phones entirely, keeping them in lockers from morning bell to final bell, students focus better and learn more.

The same concept applies to behaviors around food.

Everywhere we go as doctors we are quietly encouraged to snack on pretzels, graze on doctor’s lounge doughnuts, and grab another sugary latte. If the plan is just to power through with self-control, we’re making this a lot harder than it has to be. Situational modification asks a different question: What can I change around me so the healthy choice becomes the easier choice?

Work environments are where this becomes especially important — and especially challenging. Hospitals and clinics are filled with ultra-processed food, break room candy, catered drug-rep lunches, and physician lounges stocked with pastries and grab-and-go snacks. While advocating for healthier food options absolutely matters, those changes often require multiple stakeholders and take time.

In the meantime, situational modification at work might mean deciding not to stop in the doctor’s lounge, bringing a meal or protein-forward snacks so hunger doesn’t drive your choices during a long shift, or being the one who brings a fruit or vegetable tray instead of cake to a work celebration. You don’t have to control every environment. You simply need to be honest about which ones consistently trip you up and develop a plan for how you’ll approach them.

Upgrading Your Habits: Reduce Cravings Instead of Battling Them

Even with the best environment, food is everywhere. You can’t walk through a gas station, hospital ward, or clinic hallway without seeing something that looks good. Which means sustainable change requires more than avoidance. It requires upgrading your habits so the urges themselves become quieter. This starts with something surprisingly basic: fueling yourself properly.

When physicians skip meals, under-eat, or rely on just caffeine to push through long days, genuine hunger builds. When that happens, the brain is simply looking for fast energy. Ultra-processed food becomes very hard to resist not because of a lack of discipline, but because hunger hormones are doing exactly what they’re designed to do.

Consistent, balanced meals make a significant difference. For most doctors, that means two to three solid meals a day with adequate lean protein for satiety, fruits and vegetables for dense nutrition, some healthy fat, and fiber-filled carbohydrates for energy. Add in hydration and sleep, both of which significantly affect cravings and impulse control, and you’ve already removed a major source of friction.

Once your body is properly fueled, the next upgrade is learning to decondition the habit of acting on every craving.

Just because a thought pops into your head like chocolate would be really good right now doesn’t mean you have to act on it. A craving isn’t an emergency. It’s not a command. It’s simply a passing feeling of desire.

A question I often ask myself without judgement is: Am I in control of this food, or is this food controlling me? When something starts to feel compulsive, that’s a signal to pause. Often that pause looks like taking a short break from a particular food to reestablish a sense of control around it.

Another powerful habit upgrade is reducing scarcity. Foods labeled as “special,” “forbidden,” or “only available right now” take on outsized importance. We tend to crave and hoard things that feel scarce – something we all witnessed during the early days of the pandemic with toilet paper. But most foods are available any day of the year. When scarcity disappears, urgency fades.

Finally, instead of trying to eliminate all temptation, it helps to see real life as your training ground. Food will show up unexpectedly in the break room and at meetings. Rather than viewing this as a problem, you can see it as an opportunity to practice pausing, noticing urges, and choosing intentionally. That’s how self-control and self-discipline are actually built.

Accountability: The Part Most Doctors Skip

I played tennis in high school and college. That same personality trait that drew me to individual sports also led me to medicine. Many physicians are independent and self-directed. We’re used to figuring things out on our own. And yet, when it comes to behavior change, accountability is crucial to success.

Research suggests that people are far more likely to achieve their goals (hitting a 95% success rate) when they have regular accountability appointments with another person. Accountability isn’t about being policed. It’s about having a place to check in, reflect, and stay engaged. It’s knowing you’ll look at what’s working, what’s not, and make adjustments rather than quietly quitting or drifting off course.

That accountability might be a friend, family member, colleague, small group, or structured program. What matters is that you’re not relying on motivation alone, because motivation naturally fluctuates. Knowing someone is expecting to hear about your progress changes how consistently you show up.

If you’ve struggled with your health or fitness goals in the past, it doesn’t mean you’re bad at succeeding. Most of the time, it means the strategy didn’t match the reality of your life.

As we head into 2026, the better question isn’t, How can I do more? It’s: How can I set myself up for success? When you focus on shaping your environment, upgrading your habits, and building in accountability, transformation becomes not only possible but sustainable. And importantly, it doesn’t require perfection. It simply requires a more strategic, compassionate approach.

Archana Reddy Shrestha MD MS is a certified physician life coach and the Founder and Chief Wellness Officer of the Mama Docs School and the creator of the Mama Docs Weight Loss Accelerator.

Image by invincible_bulldog / Getty Images