I have found the arrival of a new year to be on my mind a lot lately. As someone that reads several blogs I have come across a variety of opinions in regards to making resolutions. One that struck me was someone who said that making a resolution just because it was the new year wasn’t a legitimate reason to do so. On the one hand I felt a little bit of satisfaction in that I started my Happiness Project in September a couple week’s after I read Gretchen Rubin’s book and therefore I did not fall into her category of jumping on the band wagon of January 1st life changers.
At the same time I wasn’t sure why she looked down on people who do make resolutions for the new year. For the most part I think she was referring to people who make them with no real plan to execute or intention of being successful for any extended period of time. And yes, I think that people should make resolutions at whatever time of the year highlights a need for change and not postpone making changes for some future date such as January 1st.
New Years resolutions get a bad rap because people regularly fail. Maybe instead of starting your fitness goals in January you do them in the spring or start of summer when you can take advantage or the nice weather to motivate you work out consistently enough to make a habit of it. Maybe people aren’t specific enough about what steps they need to take to make the changes they want, maybe they aren’t ready to change and make a big resolution because that’s what you do at the start of a new year.
I still think that making a new years resolution is a good thing. It shows self reflection, acknowledging our flaws/shortcomings and a plan to change ourselves for the better. I think it’s admirable to be able to say I don’t like this about myself and here’s what I’m going to do to about it. It’s even more impressive when it’s successful.
I already have my resolutions for next month, and the month after that, etc. but I thought it would be fun to think of a few extra little things that I want change because sometimes little things don’t always fit in with the monthly theme. My extra resolution is sugar. I consume a lot of sugar on a daily basis. First, I want to eliminate as much soda from my diet as possible. Flash argues that diet coke doesn’t have any sugar which is why it’s okay for him to have 3 a day. Even without the sugar there are a lot of chemicals and who knows what they do. I also eat an obscene amount of candy. I cut back when I started my project but it seems to have picked up. I think afternoons at work are the biggest culprit. I’ve had a lot of really slow afternoons at my job and mindlessly eating a entire bad of candy helps. I’ve developed a reputation for being a sugar addict at work. If a couple days go by without sugar on my desk someone usually comments. I’m not about to go nuts and eliminate white sugar and flour from my diet and eat only organic produce and free range chicken. Those are the kinds of unreasonable things that cause resolutions to fail.
I’m curious to see how cutting back on sugar affects me. I’m a really moody person and I like to see if that changes without sugar highs and crashes. Another thing I notice is that I have a hard time falling asleep. I have always been a night owl and struggled with mornings, but I have also always been a candy nut. My grandma used to tell me I was going to get diabetes from all the candy I ate. Maybe I could fall asleep faster and get up earlier if I detoxed.
Sugar, can it be that you are the source of all my joy and my sorrow?
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