Kate Hudson Swears By This Self-Improvement Mantra: “Stop Thinking You’re Broken”

Kate Hudson has a positive feeling about 2024. “It was a lot of good energy on New Year’s Eve this year,” she tells POPSUGAR. “It’s going to be good.” After stealing the show as the unapologetically extra Birdie Jay in “Glass Onion” and recently teasing her debut album, it seems like exciting career moves are well within her reach. Wellness, on the other hand, is more of a balancing act. She stands poised over the tightrope – occasionally allowing herself to falter, but always keeping her eyes glued to the other side. When it comes to wellness, it’s not easy for Hudson to be so regimented. “It goes against my nature,” she previously told POPSUGAR. “I’m an Aries.”

This year, however, she’s trying something new when it comes to her wellness goals: prioritizing sustainable habits, a routine she can count on, and a lot more fun. “This whole sort of wellness journey conversation can be very rigid feeling, and the reality is that’s also not good for our health. You also need to enjoy your life and not be so hard on yourself,” she tells POPSUGAR – a lesson imparted on Hudson by her trainer Brian Nguyen.

Weighing in on his own philosophy, Nguyen explains that the obsession with “fixing” ourselves is something we can all leave in 2023. Think about working out like “playing,” he says. “I text [Kate] in the morning, ‘I’ll be over at the house in 20 minutes to play.'” A typical training session between Nguyen and Hudson is still part weightlifting, but it’s also part singing and dancing. “That’s what keeps us coming back,” he says. For Nguyen and Hudson, it’s an impromptu dance party, but for others, “play” might mean a hike with friends, a new workout class, or even just walking the dog.

Learning to balance takes practice – between celebration and discipline, work and play. Hudson wanted to infuse this type of balance into her Small Steps, Big Wins plan on the MyFitnessPal app, a regimen she created alongside Nguyen. The challenge features seven simple changes you can make to support long-term health goals, including food swaps, nutrition tips, and even positive affirmations. Partnering with an accessible platform like MyFitnessPal is Hudson and Nguyen’s way of getting people excited and inspired to make a change well beyond Jan. 1.

The Small Steps challenge was designed to encourage realistic habits that make a real difference on your health and fitness. But for anyone overwhelmed by all the “new year, new me” content, Hudson invites you to remember you’re already doing great. “Brian’s always said, ‘You’re not broken,'” she says. “Stop thinking you’re broken. Stop thinking there’s something wrong with you. Stop thinking that you need to be something you’re not.”

Related: Upgrade Every Season of Your Life With These Wellness Tips and Tricks