2020: A more mindful year
It’s been a while since I’ve had a ‘theme’ for a year, or at least one that I felt pretty dang confident about. In today’s episode of Not Enough Spoons, my co-host Alicen and I talk about how we plan to take care of ourselves in 2020. As I describe my plans for the year, I use the word ‘mindful’ about seven times, so I think it’s pretty clear what my personal theme is for 2020.
This year I intend to use my time a little bit better. While I have no qualms or issues with having non-productive time (it’s SO necessary for me), I have been known, on occasion, to take that to excess. I mean, I think, if you read this blog at all, you’re well aware of my struggles with procrastination and motivation. And this certainly isn’t to say that I’m going to suddenly stop bingeing Netflix (or Prime or Disney +), you best believe I still will. It’s more along the lines of not playing on my phone while watching something, and maybe folding the never-ending pile of laundry instead. Perhaps sorting through the Rubbermaids I still haven’t gone through even though I’ve lived in my apartment for two and a half years or stopping one episode earlier to actually do my full evening routine. You know slightly better uses of my time.
While two years of My Peak Challenge have helped me start to develop the kind of strength I’ve always wanted, I still struggle A LOT with my nutrition. A considerable part of it, I think, has been the not-great relationship I’ve had with food for most of my life. Still, I’ve slowly been repairing that, and I’m hoping this year, being a lot less mindless about what I eat, should help with that. One of the co-founders of Girls Gone Strong, Jen Comas, mentioned something in one of her Instagram posts that struck a chord with me, ‘how do I want to feel after eating this.’ If you’re like me, when you eat a whole bag of chips, you feel like garbage afterwards, even though you convinced yourself it was going to be a stand-out idea when you started. Definitely not how I want to feel after eating something. I intend to be more conscious of how I want to feel after I’ve eaten, instead of listening to that part of my brain that seems to think eating all the things is a good idea. That part of my brain is wrong, even though my tongue might occasionally agree with it.
The last thing I’m hoping for in 2020 is to do a lot more writing. Yes. I know. Broken record over here. It’s something I say over and over and over again. However, I’m going to keep saying it. Because, in the end, I really enjoy writing, even if I often let it fall to the very bottom wrung of my to-do list. I’m hoping that you’ll see a lot more randomness from me here on the ol’ blog this year; movie reviews (after a long hiatus), things I’ve learned after a deep dive on Wikipedia (may as well use those as blog fodder), and anything else that tickles my fancy. So, that’s the plan for the start of this shiny new decade, trying to be a little more mindful about how I live my life.