My normal resolution for the new year is usually something like “lose a lot of weight” or “exercise more” or “eat nothing but raw vegetables” and I mean. Sure. Yeah. Noble goals – that tend to go nowhere. Whether due to sucky life circumstances, depression, stress, being overwhelmed with the typical mental load most women my age have to deal with, that stuff never works, and I’m just left feeling like a big stupid failure.
This year, for the first time in my life, I’m going to try the exact opposite of that: I’m going to work towards feeling happy and healthy, instead of trying to meet any concrete weight, exercise, or food goals.
I’ve already been eating more cleanly (less processed foods, more water, more produce, but no reduction in dairy, because that is a food group that majorly sparks joy) but going forward into this new year, I’m actively not going to think about my weight. I’m going to do things that make me feel good physically and mentally:
- No more going to bed before 8pm
- Eat lots of fruit (vegetables are great, but fruit. Omg. Apples. Mandarins. Bananas. Strawberries. Pineapple. fssssss….)
- Walk with Ruby (hard right now, because we are entering the season of snow, ice, and (sometimes) frozen mud, but there is an effort on my part to at least chase her around the house for twenty minutes a day like a lunatic)
- Eat a few salads a week
- Read more books (my anti-depressants give me sanity, and I can once again sit down and focus on a book for a good hour)
- Make time to quilt more (oh, the plans I have)
- Continue going to therapy (I still have things to work through, and I’m probably in a good enough mental headspace to handle it on my own at this point, but I’m going to keep going because it’s nice to have a neutral third party validate my feelings and/or cheer me on when times are tough)
- Cook two or three meals in my cast iron skillet every week (I have no words to describe how satisfying this is)
This should be doable, right?
