New years resolutions
It’s a perfect storm isn’t it
Time off then a fresh start
Two weeks (more or less for some) without the structure we simultaneously resent and thrive off
With it - our lives have synchronicity, satisfaction of box-ticking, working towards something
Yet we’re also suffocated by it, it prevents us from living the life we’d rather have
We might fantasise about extra time for elaborate morning routines that involve making green juice, a 5km walk, a complex skincare routine and writing intentions - yet when we have the opportunity to do all of that we realise we’d rather sleep in and graze on leftovers all-day
Instead of optimising each slither of free time graciously offered through annual leave and public holidays, we fall victim to procrastination tendencies, bed-rotting, doom-scrolling and disassociating
Could just be projecting my own experience of taking time off (sort it out, Lauren)
The blank space between handing in final deadlines, the pressure, rush to get it all done before Christmas Eve - before it all starts up again
Combined with New Year, New Me rhetoric
Is a ripe opportunity for contemplation, reflection and intention-setting
Silence screaming louder the less productive you are, the less you do with that time
Perceived wasted time leading to guilt
The more rotten you feel, the more driven you’ll be
So yeah - hopefully you enjoyed those mince pies and all that champagne, you’re going to be on a strict eating protocol of steamed vegetables and poached egg whites for the next 12 weeks to pay for that
And it will feel good to be back in routine again, to have your regular meal times with good macros and neat, tidy schedule - a nice fresh start to the year. Feels like clean linen and an organised wardrobe with all the holey, bobbly sweatshirts finally thrown out. Feng shui restored
Whilst our childlike optimism this time of year can seem innocuous
‘Naw, she really thinks she’s going to stick to that this time - good for her’
Statistics suggest that we, in fact, rarely stick to it
What makes you think you’ll be the exception?
Not to be rude or anything - I just wouldn’t assume that the people who fell off the wagon by February wanted it less badly than you do
‘It’ referring to what you want - which is to feel peace toward your body, like you have control over your eating habits, assured that you’re doing something positive for your health and to be more fully present in your life
Because that is what you really want, isn’t it?
If you think about it
You might have the desire to change your body composition and the way that you look
But that’s because you equate looking a certain way to feeling a certain way
So we cling to whichever route or promise that feeds this idea that we might be able to morph ourselves into an image we’ve internalised must be ideal and that will make everything better and we’ll be happy and healthy and confident forever
Whether that’s keto or plant-based or calorie counting or fasting or sugar-free or whole-30 or good old ozempic
Not to say these strategies are bad and you shouldn’t do them, it’s just that doing them in isolation won’t save you from your unhappiness with yourself and with your life (sorry, didn’t mean to call you out like that first week of the year)
They also won’t work for the long term unless you figure out how to eat when you’re not on them - which is the part of dieting that no one wants to talk about
I don’t think New Year resolutions and goals are bad but I think we often go about them in a back-to-front way
The discomfort you feel when you sit still in silence with an empty to-do list is a feeling we should listen to, rather than run from
What is the source of this pain and how can we allow ourselves to feel it more fully? What is this feeling suggesting we need more of in our lives?
That is the prompt I would begin with before thinking of how I would like to go about my year
Here’s to a fulfilling, nurturing, healthy 2025!
It’s good to be back,
Lx
