Quick heads up…I’m changing my posting day to Wednesday!
Happy New Year! As spectacular as the holidays are (I mean…kids and santa OMG the best), I bet you’re craving routine. I sure am!
On Routine and Gratitude
One of the coolest lessons I’ve learned from having kids, and especially being a working mom, is that it’s really important not to sweat the small stuff. And most of it is small. We had a bunch of random things going on in the last few weeks, stomach bugs on Christmas AND New Years, frozen pipes daily for the last few days, a sewer smell in our bathroom {that’s finally fixed}… you know small stuff, really. It’s easy to get frustrated in the moment, but you know what helps?
Being grateful.
I’m grateful we live in a warm house and own a hair dryer that can easily defrost the pipes each morning. I’m grateful I have an amazing husband that does more than his fair share when our kids are sick or I’m feeling under the weather. I’m grateful for friendships, old and new. And that missing our fun plans when sick means we have a budding social life again after the 2-year newborn fog. I’m grateful for a job I can do anywhere. Even at home with a 6-year old. The 2-year old home last week…that was a different story! And yup – I’m grateful for my crazy awesome kids!
Look, I know it’s winter. Many of us are irritated with the cold, our not-so-great food choices over the last few weeks, the people everywhere this past month, the family drama that won’t end….etc. We’re tired from being out of routine. We miss flip flops. Again… all the small things.
Take a second and remember that you’re probably pretty lucky. Even if it doesn’t always feel like it. Smile more. Complain less.
Why Losing Weight is a Terrible New Years Resolution
I’m done rambling. Onto today’s post on New Years Resolutions. Sure, I could write something like 25 ways to stick to your New Years Resolution this year. I could go on and on about why to clean the kitchen out, how you need to put your workouts in your calendar, who to enlist as a workout buddy or coach…etc. But I’m not. You can Google that if you want it.
There’s one resolution many of you set that just sucks. Seriously.
If your resolution is something like I want to lose 20 pounds or, even worse, I am going to lose some weight this year, here’s why I think it sucks. And please note, I don’t think you suck. I just think your resolution sucks.
5 Reasons Losing Weight is a Terrible New Years Resolution
1. Losing weight is an outcome, not an action. You can only control what you can control. While, yes, you can do some things in order to make the needle on the scale move in the direction you want, you can’t control everything. Your weight depends on a lot of variables including things like hormones, salt intake, recent exercise, stress levels, how much you’ve pooped lately and oh-so-much-more. A better idea: set an action-oriented goal like get to the gym 3 times a week or bring your lunch 4 days a week. Goals like this help you create systems. If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?
2. Fat loss is not a forever goal. It’s not sustainable. It’s not something you can or should focus on forever. Your purpose in life is not fat loss.
3. Focusing on weight loss steals your current happiness and implies you are not good enough right now. When you focus solely on weight loss you tend to think you’ll be happy when…or you’ll be good enough when. What about right now? Can’t you be happy right now? When you focus on the practice/system/journey, instead of the outcome, you can enjoy the present moment and keep improving at the same time.
4. Weight loss goals often lack purpose. Many people decide January 1 is the best time to start focusing on weight loss related goals. It just feels like what you’re supposed to do, right? Not so fast. If you don’t know WHY you’re setting out to lose weight, your goal lacks purpose and once your motivation goes buh bye so will your weight loss progress. Stop setting goals you don’t actually care about.
5. It might not be worth it. Depending on how lean you are right now and what you’ll gain {pun intended} if you do lose weight, it may or may not be worth it. The cost of getting lean.
Hope the ideas here and articles linked above help as you work towards setting some better goals for 2018.
If you want to lose weight, great. You do you. Just remember to put some time and thought into WHY you want to lose weight, if it’s worth it to you right now {is it a priority?} and please focus on the process.
Enjoy the journey, remember your weight doesn’t determine how amazing you are and systems are important.
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