Welcome to 2014, friends! Did you have a good end to the year? Mine was filled with friends, food, and family – three of my favorite things.
Cheers!
Two days into the new year… have you made any resolutions? Better yet, have you broken any? I don’t make them anymore, unless they are silly things like “don’t get addicted to drugs” or “don’t watch reality TV.” I’ve found that, more often than not, the typical self-improvement resolutions make us feel lousy, even when the intention is to make us feel or look or be “better.” So I figure, why resolve to do something that will probably end up making me feel bad? That seems like a pretty lame way to kick off a new year.
Of course the most popular resolution is to lose weight, or “get in shape,” by which probably 99% of people actually mean “lose weight.” Did you make this kind of resolution as the clocked ticked down to midnight? Have you joined a gym, started Weight Watchers? How long do you think you’ll stick to this new plan?
There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself, of course. But when we focus our self-improvement on weight loss, which is both very difficult and nearly impossible to maintain, we are pretty much setting ourselves up for failure. Imagine how good you would feel if, instead, you resolved to be healthier in 2014? And “healthier” can mean just about anything. Rather than focusing on the number on the scale or on the tag in your pants, you could resolve to improve your endurance or strength, lower your cholesterol, improve your blood sugar levels, lower your resting heart rate. You could run a 5K, walk a half marathon, complete an Iron Man, dance around the kitchen when you’re cooking dinner, walk around your block, lift heavier weights. If exercise isn’t your thing, you could resolve to eat more fruits and veggies, swap soda for water, try to incorporate more whole grains into your meals. And if eating differently isn’t your thing, you could read more, floss more, spend more time with people who make you feel good. Maybe getting healthier means taking more time to relax – doing less rather than doing more. There are endless ways to be healthier – find what works for you!
I just made a resolution to eat more lobster in 2014.
For the next few weeks, we’re all going to be inundated with weight-loss ads, on TV, in print, on social media. You won’t be able to turn around without being reminded that you aren’t skinny enough, and you’d better start losing weight now if you want 2014 to be a good year. Tune it out! There are endless resolutions that you can make that have nothing to do with your body weight. Instead of fretting about squeezing into a pair of smaller jeans, why don’t you try on something completely new instead?
Share your resolutions in the comments!
