New Year's Resolutions

I’ve always been against making New Year’s resolutions. That seems like a fairly innocuous to have a negative stance on, but it’s true. My philosophy on New Year’s resolutions has kind of been, why should I need a number on a calendar to inspire me to make decisions for bettering myself? Shouldn’t it be something with more depth, like my family or my husband or my own well-being that inspires self-improvement? I always felt like New Year’s resolutions were made to be broken and if you just made “life resolutions” instead, with real motivation behind them, you were more likely to keep them.

Well, this year, I realized I was kind of wrong. (I’m a lawyer, that’s the closest you’ll get to me admitting I’m incorrect about something.) The holidays hit, which was wonderful, I took time off of work, got out of the city, even left the internet behind for the most part. I obviously still checked facebook and people.com, let’s not get crazy here, but mostly, I gave myself a much-needed break from being constantly overstimulated. I spent some serious quality time with family, the hubs and old friends. I had no-holds-barred, uncomplicated fun. I recharged my batteries. Most of all, I had time to think, not worry or stress, but think.

It was exactly what I needed and guess what? It happened right at the New Year. It makes sense to me now that the time that people make resolutions for themselves is right after the time that they get to take a break from all the crazy of daily life. Also, being with those most important to you does a great job of putting things in perspective. It also makes sense that the most common of New Year’s resolutions, to lose weight, comes on the heels of the holidays. I had a similar realization during all this self-reflection and time off. Not to lose weight so much as to be healthier. After having a ready supply of candy and baked goods at hand for a few weeks, not to mention many a happy hour and rich meal, I felt like I needed to cleanse myself. Since drinking nothing but water, lemon juice and cayenne pepper has never been my style, I decided to do it a little bit more realistically. Eating more vegetables, looking for new and interesting ways to cook them so life didn’t feel like a salad, cutting out as much sugar and rich dairy as possible and trying to exercise almost every day has made me feel great, look better and ultimately, it’s actually been somewhat enjoyable too. I’ve always loved to cook and be creative in the kitchen and it’s led me to the discovery of some new favorite meals that include some great healthy ingredients. I’ll share one with you all right now. My new favorite dessert is a Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana Milkshake, but healthy. Yes, I’m serious. I put a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa, a heaping teaspoon of reduced fat peanut butter, a cut up banana and about a cup of almond milk in a blender and I kid you not, it tastes ah-mazing. I’m not a “healthfood” person in that I don’t usually fall for healthy substitutes for delicious things, but no joke, this is a treat that’s delicious all on its own. I highly recommend it.

My other resolution, which seems weird for someone with a blog, is to spend less time on the internet. Of course, I will still blog, especially because it’s wonderful to write like this and I'll still occasionally tumbl and I can’t keep myself from checking facebook, but especially when I’m at home, I don’t want to be spending my relaxation time looking at a screen. It’s much better for me to have some no screen time occasionally. To put away the many electronic devices for a bit, turn off the TV, put on some music or even enjoy some silence and read or write in a notebook. I’m learning the value of quiet, which is such a turn around for me because I’m not a quiet person and I’ve been known to have music playing, while the TV’s on, while doing something on the computer. But now, I just need some quiet time in my day.

So I guess I’m a convert to New Year’s resolutions. I had time to focus on what’s important and I hope that making a few small changes will help me with that even more. I hope you all had wonderful holidays, that you all had time to reflect and get excited for the coming year and I am looking forward to getting back on the blog!