Intuitive eating with a side of feminism

2018 Resolutions

The time between Christmas and New Year’s is a great opportunity to reflect on the past year, and see how far you’ve come. I’ve been looking at my goals and resolutions from the past few years, and wow I’ve changed! I’m cringing so hard at my old resolutions – they’re the usual clichés of ‘lose weight”, ‘get fit’ or some variation on that theme. The last few years of my life have been consumed with the pursuit of ‘transforming’ my body. So much of my precious time and energy have been spent obsessing over nutrition and exercise, to the detriment of all else. Life was put on hold until I looked the part.

This year I’m so over that!

#1 No More Dieting!

I have spent a good 5 years of my life dieting, and where has it left me? I’ve ended up with a terrible relationship with food, and ironically, heavier than when I started. So instead of getting ‘back on track’ in January, I’m staying far away from all the diet culture BS! I have no big goals for my body this year. I don’t want to get better at counting macros – or count them at all. I don’t want to sacrifice study time so I can train for 2 hours every day. It’s not happening. I’m going to continue with Intuitive Eating, and incorporate exercise I love into my routine – but not let it take over my life. This resolution should be fairly easy to keep!

#2 Waste Less

In the past few months I’ve become really interested in Climate Change, and reducing my impact on the environment. I discovered the ‘Zero Waste’ movement, and was astounded that people could fit 4 years’ worth of rubbish in a mason jar! While I can’t see myself getting to this level, I certainly have been inspired to reduce the amount of single-use plastic I throw away. I’ve started using a KeepCup, reusable water bottle, and reusable metal straws, and plan to build on this in 2018! I’m all about little steps and slowly changing habits so that I’ll stick to it.

#3 Buy Less

Another related area I’ve become interested in is Minimalism. I watched the ‘Minimalism’ documentary on Netflix a few months ago, which planted the idea in my head. I soon forgot about it again, and went back to my spending sprees and cluttered room. It wasn’t until I was moving home from college a few weeks ago that I realised how much unnecessary stuff I’ve accumulated. My parents brought home a car load of my stuff a few weeks before I moved out, and I realised I actually didn’t miss any of it! Moreover, it was so much nicer to have a tidier room, with less clutter. This year I’m going to try to live with less stuff, and avoid buying things I don’t need. Easier said than done, but we’ll see!

#4 Reduce my meat consumption

Controversial, I know but hear me out! The production of meat, especially beef has a huge environmental impact, and is a big contributor of greenhouse gases. This year I’m going to add in more vegetarian meals to my diet – maybe I’ll even learn to like tofu! I’m not going to go completely vegetarian or vegan, as I think that can be quite restrictive, and you really need to be in a good place with food before limiting your diet so drastically! I’m not reducing my meat intake because of scaremongering nonsense like “What the Health”, which is very biased against animal products. Sure, there’s evidence that too much processed red meat probably isn’t the best for your health, but that isn’t a reason to exclude all meat! I’m not setting a limit on the amount of meat I eat – again, I’m all about gradual changes that’ll stick.

That’s it for New Year’s Resolutions for me – no big aims, weight loss goals, or crazy ambitions I won’t achieve. For once, I feel like I might actually stick to my resolutions!