Fearless blog
Why New Year’s Diets Don’t Work (and What to Do Instead)
December 23 | Words by Lyndi Cohen
About that New Year’s weight loss challenge you were planning on doing…
Yeah. It’s not going to work.
Not because you lack willpower.
Not because you “don’t try hard enough.”
But because diets don’t work long-term.
Full stop.
At Fearless, we’re not just here to sell swimwear. We’re here to help you stop sitting on the sidelines and feeling like you need to shrink yourself first before you start living.
Let’s make this the year we stop making weight-loss or diet-related New Year’s resolutions.
Not because health doesn’t matter. But because diets distract us from goals that actually improve our lives.
Instead of shrinking your body, what if you focused on expanding your life?
Here are 3 stupid-easy, genuinely life-improving things that beat a New Year's diet.
1. Set health goals - not weight goals
Your health has nothing to do with a number.
It’s about energy, strength, capacity and joy.
That might look like:
- Spending 15 minutes each day to play with your kids in the park because you value spending quality time with them.
- Going on a 20-minute walk for your mental health, so you feel clearer-headed and calm for the day.
- Choosing 2 healthy and delicious meals that you can meal prep for the week, so you’re giving your body the nutrients it needs to think, move, and feel your best.
When your goals have a why that actually matters, they stick.
2. Be kind to yourself
Self-kindness isn’t “letting yourself go.” It’s actually what makes healthy habits sustainable.
When care comes from acceptance and love instead of shame, you’re more likely to:
- Move your body because it feels good.
– Choose a walk, a swim, stretching, or a workout you actually enjoy
– Stop forcing movement you hate just because you think you “should”.
- Eat in a way that supports your energy, headspace, and health.
– Eat regular meals instead of skipping and then spiralling
– Add nutrient-dense foods like veggies and fruit without turning eating into a rulebook
– Let food be food, not a test of willpower
- Rest when you need it (without guilt)
– Go to bed earlier instead of pushing through exhaustion
– Take a proper break instead of scrolling and calling it “rest”
- Get help when things feel heavy
– Talk to someone instead of carrying it alone
– Ask for support before you’re completely burnt out
- Learn to treat your body like an ally, not a project.
3. Do a wardrobe cleanout and buy clothes that fit
If opening your wardrobe makes you sigh, it’s probably not because you “let yourself go”
It’s probably because half your clothes are from 2006 and don’t fit right anymore.
Jeans you’re keeping for “motivation.”
A dress that only works if you don’t sit down.
Flimsy bikinis from before you had kids
Here’s your permission slip: You don’t need to change your body to deserve clothes that feel good - including swimwear.
Do a cleanout and be ruthless. If it pinches, pulls, rides up, or makes you constantly adjust, it goes. Not because your body is wrong, but because the clothes are.
Then replace a few key pieces with things that fit now. Clothes you can move in. Sit in. Live in.
That includes swimwear that actually supports you - like Fearless.
Our suits are designed to stay put, feel comfy, and let you forget about your body once you’re in them.
Confidence doesn’t come from waiting for a “better” body.
It comes from wearing clothes and swimwear that work with the body you have right now.
Make this the year you step off the on-again, off-again diet rollercoaster.
Imagine how much headspace you’d get back if food wasn’t something you had to be “good” about… That’s the kind of reset worth committing to.
