#FoodForThoughtFriday Goodbye 2016

So, 2016 is almost at an end.

Which is kind of a relief, since this year has been full of ridiculous and sad things happening worldwide.

I mean, it wasn't all bad. I skimmed this article by The Guardian this morning about how some things are okay/better in the world this year; so if you need something positive to look at and remember that not everything sucks, here you go.

But anyway, I've been thinking more about this whole "New Years Resolutions" situation today, and I had more thoughts than those I wrote about a few weeks ago, and wanted to share that with you.

Also, my good friend Maggie, who runs a vlog posted a great video of 12 resolutions that aren't diet-related, which I think you should check out, because they were all great suggestions. So, here's the link for that. I fully support non-diet resolutions because, as Maggie says from the get-go, they're super difficult to do and when people make those, they often end up not keeping them and then feeling bad about it.

Also, today's yoga session has got me thinking about the use of the term "resolution." 

So, at the beginning of a lot of yoga sessions, the leader might set some intentions for the day, like "today I hope we'll all be grounded and feel good in our yoga" or something like that. Today was the first yoga class I've been to in a few years, and I really enjoyed it and left feeling pretty okay [note: the reason I wasn't feeling better was that I got some spring rolls last night and didn't realize they had shrimp in them until I was like halfway through one and my body is hardcore rejecting this because it's been like straight up 6 years since I've eaten any animal and it doesn't know what to do with it; this caused a lot of problems, and about halfway through the class I started feeling pretty nauseous from this and it was gross, but digestive issues aside, it was great yoga].

But anyway, I think that the word resolution is a strong word and puts a lot of pressure on those who make goals for the new year because you're like "ahhh I have to do this it's important," and I think that makes it harder to stick to the goals we set.

So, I'd like to advocate for calling them our new years intentions instead of resolutions. That way, it's more like, this is something I'd like to do, something I intend to do, but I'm not putting all this unnecessary pressure on myself to do it. That way the whole process would be less stressful and people might be more likely to succeed in their intentions than they are in their resolutions.

So, let's take a look at some new years intentions that we can all set for ourselves

One really good one is to read. This one was included on my previous post as well as in Maggie's vlog, and I can't express how great it is to set reading goals!

This doesn't mean that you have to like read a whole book every day or every week or even every month, but it's a really good idea to set an intention to do at least a little bit of reading every day. Maybe you don't have a lot of time, and you can set a goal to read, like, a chapter a day. One of my favorite professors in college said that he would set aside time first thing in the morning when he woke up every day to read a chapter in a book. This was for lots of good reasons, including that it's one way to make sure that no matter what your day looks like, you've done something for you first (I think his statement included the phrase "stick it to the man," but don't quote me on that) and that's a really great attitude. I think I mentioned in my other post about new years goals that I plan to try and read a book every week in 2017 (books ranging from 100 to 300 pages, mostly) but that's an ambitious goal, so if you don't think you're at that level of bibliophile, then no worries, set a goal that is attainable for you. My 2016 goal was a list of 14 very specific books and I read 13 of those books and a bunch of other books, but by picking specific books, I limited myself and as the end of the year approached, I lost the motivation to read those books, so I'm giving myself a looser goal for 2017.

Another one, this one was featured on Maggie's vlog, but not my earlier post, is to make a habit of writing and sending letters to people you care about.

This is just a great way to spread love and positivity into the world, and it's something you can customize for your personal preferences/time constraints, etc. And it'll spread joy to others, so what's not to love about that?

My next intention is to move more.

My goal for 2017 with this one is to do at least a mile a day and to run a race each month. For the daily mile, this can be running, walking, jogging, biking, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, anything that involves moving a mile. The race goal is just to get me out into the running community more; I recently started running and want to embrace that as a healthy lifestyle for me. Movement can mean all sorts of things though. Maggie suggests walking more bc walking is honestly so wonderful like I can't even put in words how good walking is for you, mentally and physically and emotionally. But you could do yoga or pilates or any kind of thing. I also really enjoy jumping rope, and I have a friend who kickboxes and one of my coworkers is really into martial arts. There are so many ways to move and anyone can find something they enjoy, so like, find something that works for you, and don't forget to set attainable goals and just follow through on an intention to move more for well-being.

I'm also going into 2017 with the intention of practising mindfulness more.

Mindfulness is the practice of just living in the moment that exists right here and right now. It's about acknowledging, accepting, and embracing where you are in this moment. And it's really good for your mental health. And it's harder than you would think; the idea of just experiencing the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feels that surround you at any given moment sounds like it would be easy, but it takes a lot of practice. That's why making it an intention, rather than a resolution makes all the difference. If you struggle to turn all the thoughts off and just be, even for a moment, mindfulness will not come easily to you; you'll have to work at it, but it is so worthwhile to have even just a few moments of silence to just be. You can do this through yoga, meditation, or even just taking a moment to stop thinking about whatever is in your head and just focus on your 5 senses and experiencing what's around you, instead of worrying about what might happen tomorrow or the next day or what happened yesterday. 

And there are tons of other things that you can set as intentions for 2017

Some good ones include:

Take care of yourself (by visiting your appropriate health professionals when you should)

Share more of yourself (by donating items, time, or money to causes you care about)

Snuggle more (snuggling has many health benefits)

Practice positivity (verbal affirmations, little written affirmations, etc.)

Celebrate more (celebrate little things as well as big things--anything good; you can also celebrate bad things bc they give you perspective)

Let love in (for example, adopting a new animal friend is a great way to let love into your life)

Don't hold things in (esp. negative things like anger, hate, sadness--let it all out)

So, go forth into 2017 with intentions that are workable and attainable for you to live your life in the way that's best for you.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist

#FoodForThoughtFriday New Years Resolutions

Happy Friday!

Today for my #FoodForThoughtFriday post, I'm going to look at this whole New Years' Resolutions situation.

It's a thing that people have been doing for decades, selecting something they can work at to improve their lives in the New Year; and most people, year after year, don't succeed in their New Years' Resolutions. So I want to talk about that.

So, let's start with the concept.

People select a New Years' Resolution that they think would be a great way to make their life better. Sounds great, right? Yeah, I'm gonna do this thing to have a better life next year! Rock on!

But if you want to improve your life, why wait for the new year? Why not just do it now? If you're sure that making this change will improve your life in one way or another, wouldn't it make sense to implement it as soon as possible?

Also, a lot of people pick very vague resolutions, things like "I'm going to eat better," "I'm going to exercise more," or "I'm going to get healthier," which sound great, until you realize it's really hard to gauge those things. And when we can't gauge our goals, it's a lot easier to give up on them.

So, I'm all about new years resolutions, but I recommend deciding on a specific goal ahead of time and working to implement it earlier than just January 1 [note: I have seen people succeed at New Years' Resolutions that they started on 1 January, such as my friend who decided that in 2016 she wouldn't dye her hair or have any major haircuts because it was a thing she frequently did on a whim and she wanted to adult more and she's been very successful with that goal; I also gave up soda and chewing gum as New Years' Resolutions in high school, and those were successful because they were very specific and both improved my life in ways].

So now let's look at some good, specific goals we can set for ourselves as resolutions for 2017. I'll start with my own goals:

My first goal is to take and post a photo to instagram every day. Which sounds like a really silly resolution, but I've found that I don't do a very good job of documenting my life as it happens, and I really want to, so I'm setting a realistic goal to help me do that. By taking and posting a photo every day, I will be able to keep track of my life through the pictures and the captions that I'll write with them. Sure, not every picture and caption is going to be super substantial, but it's a start, and it leaves the door open for future goals to improve my life documentation.

My second goal is to walk or run or bike at least a mile every day. This is another thing that I can easily track. I already track my walks and runs with two separate apps (Charity Miles and Runkeeper) and I was operating on a goal of exercising 3x a week this year, but it just didn't feel like enough. By selecting the goal of doing a mile a day, I am giving myself flexibility in the activity I do, as well as flexibility in the distance I move. This also allows me to have my "rest days" without having any days where I am fully sedentary (which is super unhealthy for you). 

My third goal is going to be to read a book every week. Which adds up to 52 books. This year, my reading goal was 16 very specific, very long books, and I'm close to reading those, I just need to finish Alexander Hamilton, which I took a break from by accident and read both The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon to get all of my goal books read. That being said, I've read like a dozen or so books that were not part of my list, so I'm going to operate on a less strict list next year. And I've done this year's goal by dividing up the total number of pages in the 16 books I selected last December (10 thousand and something pages) by the number of days in the year (366 days since it's a leap year) to get about 30 pages a day. Now, I stuck to this 30 pages a day rule for about 1/2 of the year, often reading more than I was supposed to, but also often not getting enough reading on a given day. My hope is that by having a less specific goal, I'll do better at sticking to it--I've got a few shelves full of actual books and a kindle with tons of books on it, and access to my local public library, so I've got literally hundreds, maybe thousands of options, and it's always possible to get more. This goal will just be about buckling down and picking up a new book every week (and I'm going to try to stick with books that are in the 100-300 page range for the most part, because I have to be reasonable with myself and much more than 300 pages is going to be a bit too much for me, 300 pages in a week is like 43 pages a day which is more than my goal for this year was).

My fourth and final goal is going to be to run a race every month. I've already gotten started on this one by signing up for the 1st Day 5K in Midlothian (a town near where I live) which is just a 5K on 1 January. Committing to a race each month is easy to keep track of because at races you generally get a bib and you also get like confirmation emails and probably pictures and times get posted. It's also a good way to make sure I keep up with moving every day because I'm hoping to do races of increasing length throughout the year for the most part--my true goal is to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October, so I'll work toward that by doing increasing lengths of races (and hopefully training with others who are interested in the same races as me) and see where it goes. 

So, those are my "New Years Resolutions," which I've already started working toward because why wait to improve my life until next year when I can do it now, right?

Other things I'm incorporating into my life include the intent to be more eco-friendly and to waste less by using reusable containers wherever possible (including asking places where I get takeout [read: Chipotle] to put the food items in a bowl brought from home, rather than their own disposable ones) and trying to be more financially responsible (so far, not so good, but I'm working on saving more of my paychecks and not buying everything that I see and think "yeah that looks awesome!") and giving more (which I've started by automatically donating $10 from each Target paycheck to United Way and $10 from each Mathnasium paycheck to the Elephant Sanctuary, and plan to continue more by donating a few items each month to charity and things like that).

So anyway, those are the goals I'm working toward, and I encourage everyone to work toward improving their lives in whatever ways they think will be best for them. Don't worry about what your friends or family are doing, just worry about you. Only you can make goals that you will keep and that will actually help you improve your life.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist