It would be wrong of us to completely ignore the marriage between fitness and New Year’s Resolutions by not mentioning the topic in a Facebook post, blog or instagram story. So here it is...our obligatory New Year’s Resolution post!
Years ago we would have written about ways to build “S.M.A.R.T” fitness goals, ways to smash your weight loss goals, or strategies on how to adhere to them. However, this year we sat down at our usual Sunday family dinner and came up with a list of our top 10 New Year’s Resolutions that have actually nothing to do with fitness or nutrition.
Cut Down on Your Screen Time
The new iPhone upgrade has the lovely feature of giving us a weekly update on the average amount of time per day we spend on our phones. Yikes! Yes, we need our screens for work and communication...but how much of our free time is on Netflix and how many other valuable activities are we saying we don’t have time for?
Use Less Plastic
According to Ocean Conservancy Inc., “Plastic has been found in more than 60% of all seabirds and in 100% of sea turtles species, that mistake plastic for food...Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments.” This is the act of being mindful of our habits, our environment and adjusting for causes that are bigger than ourselves.
Learn to Meditate (or just learn to breathe)
The proven benefits of meditation include reduces stress, fosters clear thinking and, increases our capacity for empathy and compassion, results in a relaxation response in the rest of the body, lowers high blood pressure, lowers the levels of blood lactate, reducing anxiety attacks, decreases tension-related pain, such as, tension headaches, ulcers, insomnia, muscle and joint problems, increases serotonin production that improves mood and behavior, improves the immune system and increases energy level. All of these benefits in as little as 5 to 10 minutes of your day... Um...why are we not doing more of this?
Eat More Home Cooked Meals (preferably with friends and family)
What you eat is important but so is HOW you eat it. Standing while eating, eating in the car, eating on the run, grabbing and picking anything in sight, or driving through a fast food restaurant where you have no idea who prepared the food (or even what is actually in that food) that you are shoving in your mouth — any of that sound familiar? We’re firm believers that the more meals we eat like this, the more likely we are to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. For ways to improve the “Vitamin L (Vitamin Love)” in your food check here!
Read More Books
Did you know that reading has been linked to Alzheimer's prevention? In addition, it helps promote relaxation, provides mental stimulation and can improve focus and writing skills. Seems like a solid use of our time. Regardless of what your trade (career) is, chances are you can get better at it by reading more about it.
Do More of What You Love
This one is a little cliche but when we are doing more of what we love we are happier, when we are happier we are better friends, parents, co-workers, employees. Everyone we come across benefits from us loving our lives just a little bit more.
Support a Non-Profit Organization (Support can look a lot of different ways)
This Resolution could have easily been called “Do more acts of service.” In a world full of media coverage of bad things happening everyday, we can feel like our contributions are minimal -- however we do have the power to do small acts with great love. Kindness, compassion and the feeling of a greater interconnectedness to our community is something we can all use more of.
Choose Experiences Over Gifts
Sometimes having more “stuff” feels like the driving force. This year focus less on stuff and more on creating lasting memories/experiences. Experiences often leave us seeing the world in a different way, learning valuable lessons and creating new relationships.
Forgive Someone (or Yourself!)
Sounds pretty heavy, however, if you want to lose the physical weight, we often have to lose the metaphysical weight first. That extra weight could be things we are carrying around with us from the past. There’s that great quote that goes something like this...unforgiveness is like drinking poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die. This year, stop drinking the poison.
Be Mindful of Your Word Choices (And how you speak to/about yourself)
Words are incredibly powerful and we can use them to work in our favor. There are plenty of experiments to prove this. Take Dr. Masaru’s water experiment, for example. He discovered that crystals formed in frozen water change depending on what type of concentrated thoughts and words are directed toward them. Water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and symmetrical snowflake patterns. Water that is exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. If words effect water on a cellular level, what effect can they be having on us. Google it!! I once heard someone refer to those negative voices in her head as the “Shitty Committee.” Challenge yourself this year to shutting them down and then you’ll get better at spreading loving words and thoughts to others.
While zero of our top ten explicitly address your scale weight or the amount of days you spend in the gym, they speak volumes about our overall health and well-being.
If you’re in the industry long enough, you know that our choices to eat a certain way or prioritize fitness has a lot to do with the way other areas of our life are going -- examples being how happy we are, how well we cope with stress, or in general how connected we feel to others and to the earth.
If you do more of these things, chances are hitting your fitness goals will be a lot easier.e