I apologise for the long absence but I had a very busy run up to Christmas professionally and personally and I didn’t want to just throw nonsense posts up to mark time.
I’ve been composing a post in my head for a while but it keeps changing so I decided to get it down and see where it goes.
Essentially this post is about how much I hate the whole concept of ‘New Year – New You’. Why are we dictated to about when we have to make changes in our life. Why are we expected to make new year’s resolutions? Why do we wait for a certain date to do things that we want to do and if we don’t want to do them why do we wait for a certain date to not achieve them and make ourselves feel bad?
As soon as the fun of Christmas is over all of the commercial breaks on TV become three minutes of us hearing how we’re not good enough because we need to lose weight, look and act differently and change all of the furniture in our home. It’s not just TV adverts it’s everywhere – scroll down your social media feed and you’ll see pictures posted of green sludge that people are planning on drinking all year (I give it a week, maybe two). You’ll see packs of the new fad seed or pulse or beans or whatever it is we’re being told we need to eat in the new year. Why, why, why?!
If you want to lose weight then just do it; what significance does 1 January have? Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years – these concepts are only significant for marking the passing of time but why do they have to influence us so much?
I know from experience that weight loss can only be achieved when you’re in the right frame of mind and really want to do that. A frame of mind cannot be dictated by a date on a calendar which is why so many new year’s resolutions go out the window so quickly.
New Year – New Nothing! That should be the mantra that we all live by.
I want to lose weight and I have done for a long time but weight loss for me is a massive uphill struggle with my ridiculous underactive thyroid. Do I want to start losing weight on 1 January? No, I don’t. On 1 January I’m tired after a late night, I’m a bit glum that the fun of Christmas is all over and I’m not looking forward to the weeks of cold weather and dark mornings and evenings that lie ahead. Why do I want to make myself more miserable by telling myself I’m on a diet?
I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t be dictated to about what you should be doing just because the fourth digit at the end of the date has changed.
If you want to make a change in your life then do it because it feels like the time is right for you. If you want to lose weight you’ll know when the time is right. It doesn’t even have to be in the morning that you make the change. If it’s what you want to do then just do it when the time is right.
If you want to start exercising, same thing. Don’t think that you’re a failure because we’re one week into January and you haven’t got up off the sofa yet. You have the rest of your life to make a change. If you want to make the change today then do it now – go for a wander, run up and down the stairs a few times – if you want to do it on 6 March, do it then. If you feel ready on 25 November then that’s great too. Who cares what the date is, listen to your body and your mind and live the life you want to live.
emrothwell 