Welcome to 2024, Dear Listener!
I don’t usually go in for this New Year’s resolution stuff. But this year something has gotten into me. Since chatting with Maxine about it, I’m really taking stock of my life and actually creating goals for the future (and, oh hey, plans to make them happen!).
I have goals for every area of my life (career, health, creativity, etc.) and a major focus for 2024 is a healthy lifestyle. This means creating a life in which I feel fearless, joyful, serene, fulfilled, free, and HEALTHY.
GOAL #1 – A Healthy BMI and a Strong Body
Goal #1 is to get to a healthy BMI. I’m currently about 20 pounds overweight, and I don’t like the way I look and feel. My clothes don’t fit well, which means I spend most of my days in jeans or yoga pants. Not the professional look and feel that’s going to help me move up in my career. “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have” isn’t really possible when all of your professional clothes are too small and you refuse to buy new ones.
But I don’t just want to look good. I want to feel good, too. I want a strong body that can do all the things I need and want it to do! For instance, my daughter’s rolling backpack is amazing, but it weighs approximately 84,000 tons. Someone has to lift it up to put it in the trunk of the car (yes, it’s too big to fit in the seat next to her) and I want to be able to do it without putting my back out.
How I’m Going to Achieve It
In order to achieve a healthy lifestyle (and not just temporary weight loss), I’ve decided to change my diet, but not go on a diet. This is a huge change for me. In the past, when I needed to drop a few pounds, I went on Weight Watchers or Noom and counted points or calories obsessively, tracking what I ate every day and feeling guilty when I went over.
This time, I’ve decided to take a more positive tack. I’m adding a fruit and/or vegetable to every meal and snack. So, if I want that toast with a little bit of peanut butter on it as a snack, an apple or a handful of grapes comes first. And there is no meal without a large portion of vegetables. We’ll see what happens.
It’s strange to be trying to lose weight without tracking calories. But I don’t just want to lose weight (and, by the way, have it all come back again – because it will). I want to be healthy, which means eating quality foods and having a positive relationship with both food and my body.
I also have a goal of going to the gym 4 days a week and doing yoga (or something else a little more low-key than the gym) twice a week. But I’m not beating myself up if I miss a day. I’ve spent enough time doing that for multiple lifetimes.
Learning to Cook
The other major part of achieving this goal is learning how to cook. Yes, I’m 47, and I don’t cook. I mean, I can cook. A few things. But my husband is the most amazing cook and he winds up doing it 99.9% of the time (because why eat the semi-edible, partially burned chicken breast I made when we can eat the glorious, pan-fried, crispy but tender salmon fillet he made?).
My mom (hi, Mom!) got me a book called “How to Cook Without a Book” for my birthday and, even though I’ve tried 100 times in the past to figure out why I can’t seem to put food on the table without spending 6 hours digging through internet recipes, 2 hours at the grocery store, and 3 hours in the kitchen only to throw it away and order a pizza, I think this might be the one! Again, I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. I’m treating it as a way to learn, not something I must understand and conquer immediately. I’ll keep you posted.
This isn’t my only goal for 2024, but it’s one of the most important. I’ll be posting about the others soon. But I just had to acknowledge to myself that this feels like a big change for me. I have a weight-loss goal for sure, but this is really about me becoming a person I want to be – someone that prioritizes my health because I care about myself, not because I need to look good to other people. It’s about long-term change, not short-term gain (or, um, loss). And it feels really freaking good!
What are your goals for 2024? Let me know in the comments below!
-XOXO, Millie