New Year Resolutions!

By Aimee on 9 December, 2019

It has been many months since my last post. We mentioned that we were going to Hong Kong but alas due to the political situation we decided to change locations last minute. So in August I was busy organising our trip to South Korea instead. In September we celebrated our daughters second birthday. Then in October we were in South Korea for most of the month. In November I was busy with Nanowrimo again and finished yet another novel. Even greater than the first and a very different style. Now it is December. Christmas is around the corner, our tree is up, we’ve been getting our baking on so I should have plenty to write about. We’ve even decided to do a more vegan diet in our home which I’m excited about. But what I really want to talk about are your new year resolutions. Not the ones you’re thinking about for 2020, I want to discuss the ones you said you would achieve back at the beginning of the year. What were they? Did you want to lose weight? Complete a project? Get a promotion? Spend more time outdoors? Less time on your phone? Whatever it was did you achieve it? How? If not, what stopped you?

Maybe you didn’t make a ‘new year resolution’ as you don’t believe in them. That’s fine. Most of the time these ‘resolutions’ are forgotten about by the end of January anyway. But why is that? What turns a resolution or a dream into a goal that can be worked towards? And what makes you truly keep that motivation?

My new years resolutions for 2019 were - Lose weight, eat less meat.

I can proudly say that I have achieved my 2019 goals. My main focus this year has been my health and fitness. I started Kayla Itsines BBG program late December last year and did a 12 week challenge (You can read about it here) Since then I have continued to work out and lose roughly 8-10kg (depending on the time of month and what scales I step on). There have been low moments where I haven’t worked out as much or watched my diet as well but I have continued to stay consistent. It is now routine. And that, I believe is the key to achieving any goal. Start something until it becomes a habit. Small changes, achievable changes, that end up bringing you joy along the way. This photo is 12 months apart. Same t-shirt, same location, same me - just happier, and healthier.

Eating less meat - this has actually been harder for me than I thought it would be. I have to credit this more to Sam than to myself. I’m all on board but sometimes struggle when eating out. So what have we done to help with the transition. Multiple things:

1. Stop buying meat when shopping (Simple right?) as well as planning ahead with a weekly list.
2. Making Bento boxes so I am less tempted to eat out.
3. Watching Documentaries like Game Changers
4. Experimenting with foods to remake old favourites.
5. Making simple switches - almond milk for cows milk in my porridge each morning. Plant based sausages over animal product sausages.
6. Shopping local - Farmers markets are a godsend and it helps us create a positive relationship with food for ourselves and our daughter.
7. Making achievable goals - initially it was cutting out red meat, then land meat, then all meat. Now it’s doing Vegan days a few times a week and slowly increasing them.

Here’s a few pictures of the vegan food we’ve been eating lately. Not bad right?

Chilli

Dumplings

Mac and ‘Cheese’

Smoothie Bowl

These goals are obviously not for everyone, but both goals were achieved in a similar way. Find a support network, work on something slowly, make it a habit. You’ll manage more than you think you could.

Now next year, what are my goals, my ‘new year resolutions’? Well I need to not use my phone so much. I attempted that this year and have failed abysmally. So I will focus on it in the coming year. My first step for that is not having it in my bedroom so I don’t wake up to using it straight away. Then we will go from there. I wish you all the best of luck on your goal journeys too.