Happy New Year!
I have a friend whose biggest pet peeve is folks saying to him, “I haven’t seen you since last year!” moments after the clock ticks from one year to the next. Personally, I find this joke delightful and personally continue to text it to him shortly after the New Year rings in.
It’s funny how with an arbitrary shift and turn of the calendar page, we’re suddenly in a whole new world. 2016 feels like a completely different space and time than 2015, even though in reality it’s just a Thursday followed by a Friday.
A shift in mindset motivates many of us to make New Year’s resolutions, and despite my aversion to the concept I inadvertently have found myself formulating a few of my own. I spent much of the holiday season, like many of you, eating whatever was placed in front of me. It really was the most wonderful time of the year.
Now, however, I am feeling the dividends. Man cannot live on pie alone, I’ve found, and so part of my New Year’s resolution this year boils down to, essentially, “take proper care of self.” This may include the occasional trip to a place called “the gym” – which I at one point was acquainted with but which has become a strange and unwelcoming place.
Of course, a big part of self-care is preparing and consuming an adult diet. Over the holidays, I visited my folks in British Columbia, who had shelves stocked with scones, muffins and potato chips. I filled my plate and never looked back.
But returning to work means returning to a diet that will sustain my health past the age of 30. Preparing lunch for work that includes items from the five food groups, instead of just one (pastries) is a big step forward.
So getting back on track after a much-welcomed holiday season encompasses much of my New Year’s resolution goals. They say you’ve got to keep those goals manageable!
Of course, folks are quick to point out the futility of making resolutions at all on the first, and that might be true. Oftentimes, resolutions made at the start of January are dropped by the start of February. The day most people end up dropping those resolutions purportedly lands on the third Monday of January, leading to the well-trod concept of “Blue Monday.”
That concept, however, has recently been dubbed as “pseudo-science” – there’s no evidence whatsoever that factors converge on a collectively sad day. Apparently, the whole concept was spawned to sell travel tickets. So don’t get too down come Jan. 18.
So go ahead, make some resolutions! Why not? Just do it like me, and frame it in a manageable way, like “take care of self.” Perhaps we’ll make it to February 2 together.
