Six weeks later: Reasonable Resolutions Recap
Plus, some obligatory vacation pics from a week on the Big Island!
We are now over six weeks into the year, so I’m a little late for what I imagined would be a one-month-later recap. But crazy-busy at work was followed by a week of vacation in Hawaii—and I’m glad to report that this recap wound up being aided by back-to-back weeks lived in both extremes as a result.
Sometimes, procrastination pays off!
Here are the winning titles across my “reasonable resolutions”—and the insights and questions each has prompted:
Easiest effort to impact ratio:
Committing to having a full glass of water before my second cup of coffee was far and away the easiest thing I’ve done in the new year. Thanks to its simplicity as opposed to my willpower, I completed this without fail and increased my daily water consumption by 50-100% by 9 am as a result. Weirdly, I also found myself drinking more water throughout the day—as if drinking more water helped me to recognize when I was thirsty? There is literally no downside to incorporating this into my daily routine moving forward, so that’s the plan.
Questions raised: are there other (easy) virtuous behaviors I could stack with things I love? And why am I immediately opposed to the idea of stacking Real Housewives with anything good for me?
Most frustratingly insightful:
Avoiding social media for the first and last hours of the day (and limiting it in general) was as valuable an exercise as it was frustrating. The degree to which social media usage negatively impacted every other goal was shockingly clear; which made it extra aggravating how easily I kept slipping back into using it.
Questions raised: why on earth am I not just deleting social media apps from my phone completely? Seriously, why?
Most surprisingly insightful:
Whole30 was initially created to be an elimination diet that would help illuminate food sensitivities, but that’s not why we did it. Neither of us have food sensitivities, silly! Instead, we were motivated by the hope that an anti-inflammatory diet would be good for Per; and if I’m honest, I was also curious whether it would give me a clearer picture of the role my diet had on my recent and stubborn weight gain. Losing my appetite during chemotherapy has given me a strange, almost-PTSD response to calorie-tracking and denying myself food pleasures; opting to eat only “healthy” things for a month seemed a lot easier than weighing every bad-but-delicious choice.
And, having done a similar diet years ago when I was trying to get pregnant, I was optimistic that introducing some culinary limitations would shake us out of our food rut and introduce us to some new dishes (which it absolutely did—I’ll share the best of them in another post).
What I was definitely not expecting was how much better I would feel eating Whole30ish—or how indulging in some “normal” vacation fare would make me feel dramatically uncomfortable. Maybe I do have some food sensitivities??
Our first night, we arrived just in time to order dinner off the “late night” menu, populated by foods that would have been healthy, had they not been deep fried. Oof. I felt it immediately, and when I covertly unbuttoned my pants under the table to help me digest, I remembered that this used to be a go-to move for me. A few more bites (of bread, cheeseburger, and fries) over the next few days made me feel bloated and ill enough to decide to resume Whole30ish for the rest of vacation. It didn’t feel like some big sacrifice: I just wanted to feel normal again.
Questions raised: could I be gluten intolerant? Was my system just reacting to fried food? Or is my GI just not as efficient when I replace a daily kefir-and-veggie mash smoothie with a glass (or two) of wine?
At the end of this Whole30ish experiment, I realized that feeling bad after meals had literally become so normal to me, I didn’t even register it. Now back home, I’m motivated to return to Whole30ish and its recommended reintegration process to understand what my body is really trying to tell me.
Since being back, we’ve had sheet-pan shawarma chicken and the creamy, spicy tomato beans with greens that have gone viral on TikTok. Tonight, we’ll have sheet pan tikka cod with spinach and roasted cauliflower. I’m feeling better already.
Easy as expected, but unexpectedly important:
Maintaining a daily smoothie wasn’t some big stretch, especially since Per usually makes them for us—but my body really missed having smoothies (or at least kefir) when I traveled.
Questions raised: should I invest in a portable blender for future trips? If so, do I pack a frozen container of veggie mash to use with it? Or would having kefir in my room suffice—in which case, maybe grains would be easier to carry?
Moving aggressively into this obsession, you’ll be pleased to know that I recently ordered kefir grains so I can try to make my own. I look forward to seeing if this hobby lasts longer than my sourdough phase.
Hardest:
Daily goals to write and to move and to sleep 9 hours a night proved to be the hardest to maintain—and the first commitments to slip when work got really busy. (And at the same time, social media grew even more alluring.) Still, across the course of the month I wrote and moved and slept more than I otherwise would have.
I was also reminded that in the year I did Strive for Five, regularly posting twice a week essentially required me to write daily—which meant prioritizing it over other things that were healthy or that I enjoyed. Making a weekly commitment to post moving forward feels reasonable and right. I’ll continue to try to move and sleep enough daily.
Questions raised: can I avoid guilt if I make this commitment and occasionally lapse due to work? Or, on the other hand—how do I determine how much lapsing is an indicator that my relationship with work is slipping back toward unsustainable?
Overall, this experiment feels like a success: my reasonable resolutions prompted some relatively significant change without a lot of effort or drama—a mostly homemade, mostly Whole30ish diet as our norm for another few months; a glass of water with my second coffee, and a smoothie after that; and trying to keep both social media and work in check enough to get enough sleep, to move daily, and to write often, posting once a week.
I’m back to work tomorrow, so let’s see how this goes.
And if you made your own reasonable resolution this year, I’d love to hear what’s made a difference for you!