Should we be turning over a new leaf in January?

What's Up Docs?

BBC

Health & Fitness, Nature, Science

4.4 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken untangle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.

In this new year episode, they’re taking on the idea of the fresh start, especially the powerful urge many of us feel at the beginning of a new year to overhaul our health. Why do we want to make big changes in January? Why do our good intentions so often fall apart? And do we actually need to ‘turn over a new leaf’, or is there a better way to think about lasting change?

Chris and Xand speak to Alasdair Cant, behaviour change specialist with over 30 years’ experience. Drawing on the spirit of Motivational Interviewing, he empowers people to have open, honest conversations about change and growth. With a background in education, Alasdair works with teams and individuals to fulfil their potential in health, criminal justice, social care, education, the arts and the private sector, to get to the heart of what really drives change. With Alasdair, the docs explore why we slip back into old habits, what helps people stay on track, and how understanding the psychology of change can make new habits far more sustainable. They also ask Alasdair how his work has shaped his own life and attitudes towards making resolutions.

If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.

Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Alasdair Cant Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Researcher: Grace Revill Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Ruth Rainey

At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.
0:05.7	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked.
0:12.7	But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes,
0:18.2	The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials
0:22.2	from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommas Ranganathan.
0:25.9	However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked.
0:30.3	So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds.
0:36.5	Hello, welcome to WhatsApp Docs.
0:38.4	I'm Dr. Chris, and I'm Dr. Zun and for BBC Radio 4,
0:41.9	as we emerge from the cocoon of the crimbo limbo and stretch wide-eyed and bleary into 2026.
0:49.6	We're once again wading into the complex and conflicted world of health and well-being.
0:54.5	We're discarding the fiction about how we can best look after our minds and our bodies.
0:59.4	And today, Chris, we are looking at the most important topic for the beginning of January.
1:04.1	We are talking about resolutions, challenging the idea of whether you should make them.
1:09.6	And if you are going to make them, what should you make them about and how are you going to stick to them? But before we get into resolutions, what have you got for me? What I've got for you, Chris, is a brand new niece. Look at that. She is a cute baby. Do you think she looks like me? And I would tell you if she wasn't. But did anything weird happen, anything interesting?
1:29.8	So there was one bit. A lot of what I did was counting.
1:33.2	I mean, I did fill the birth pool and everything, but that's sort of, but I had to count and you do in for four, out for eight during the contractions.
1:42.0	And this is quite an easy job. But because it's such an easy job, especially compared to being in labour, it's easy to mess it up. It's a boring job. It's a boring job that's very straightforward and doesn't occupy any brain space at all. And consequently, I would count, I'd count in for eight, out for four, I forget where I was. I'd stop counting all together.
2:01.6	Dolly was very understandably, not getting very annoyed,
2:04.3	but being like, would you please concentrate and do the counting properly?
2:08.2	And I did think, like, yeah, that's right.
2:10.7	I would be so annoyed if I was in labour and all this guy has to do is count up to four
	...

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