Well, I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions. Actually, the only time I genuinely made a very specific New Year’s resolution, I wasn’t able to stick to it for any time at all and ended up disappointed with myself right out of the gates of 2017. All in all, I find them pretty overwhelming, not to mention demanding. The new year should be about the joys of another 365 days in which you can do absolutely anything, not about making unrealistic goals that are painful to achieve just because you feel like you need to better yourself in some way. So, this year, I don’t have any resolutions for myself. All I have are three things that I want to think about going forward into this new year.
Be Less Determined:
I know this sounds weird, but, for as long as I can remember, I have been fiercely determined to do anything and everything I set my mind to. Whether that is school-related, job-related, or related to a relationship or friendship. At the end of the day, if I want something, I will not stop until I get exactly what I want, no matter how hard I have to work for it. Now, this characteristic that I have can be great, even phenomenal at times. With this determination comes extremely high expectations for myself and my life. But, at other times, it can be my downfall too. I get so determined to do things that I simply can’t do, yet I try and try and try anyways, eventually failing at whatever it might be and then believing that the failure was entirely my fault. Being determined is fantastic, but I need to learn to set realistic goals and chase after those with determination instead of chasing the moon and being disappointed when I land in the stars.
Chill Out With the Processed Food:
As I go back and forth with my vegan diet, I am always so astonished at how many vegan friendly foods are pre-packaged, full of preservatives, and generally unhealthy for you. As the years go by and society and brand name companies tell us over and over that packaged and processed foods are entirely healthy for us, we believe them. High fructose corn syrup? Yum. Ingredients that end in “acid”? Even better. Mono and diglycerides (pure animal fat in processed form)? Fantastic. As I head into this new year, I want to move away completely from foods that come in little boxes with cute wrappers and have an ingredient list a mile long. Even in the past week or so, I have eaten more fresh fruits and veggies instead of relying on vegan-friendly protein bars or crackers that just don’t hold the same nutrients as strictly plant-based foods.
Love Myself:
Now, this isn’t a new ideal for me. This is an ideal that I have been working on, struggling with, and trying to conquer for years now. How do you look in the mirror and smile back at your reflection when the society you live in blatantly promotes drastically underweight women as the “ideal body”? Sometimes, I find myself looking in the mirror and wanting to see what I see in the magazines - how incredibly unhealthy is that? As a human being with her own brain and a determined soul, I am so much more than what I look like in a swimsuit or what size dress I wear. This year, I want to find love in myself enough to be content with every aspect of who I am as a human being, on the inside and the out.
Now, there is no guarantee that I will succeed at any of these, but the idea for this new year is for me to keep these things in the back of my mind. I’ll be working on them slowly in order to better who I am as a person without focusing solely on the goal itself, but instead focusing on me.
