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.

Yes, I know, January 3rd is a little late to declare my intentions for 2018, but as always I say, better late than never! (Well, maybe I don't always say that, but I should)

I never really got around to setting out any goals for 2017, I mean, I'm sure I had some, but I didn't write them down, I didn't put them out there into the wide world to help keep me accountable. While 2017 was a pretty good year for me personally, I have a lot of things I'd like to do better in 2018, and I may as well start with making sure I have a record of those things so I can come back and check them next year to see how successful (or not) I have been. And since I have a record of being pretty terrible at this, I'm making these as broad as possible, you know, to help with succeeding (no one should set themselves up for failure!).

1. Write more

I always say I'm going to, I talk about the things I want to write with friends, I think about them. And that's it. Which, in all honesty, is a really terrible way to get anything written. Not actually writing it down. So this year I'm going to blog more, journal more, outline and re-write my novel, try my hand at short stories. More than anything I'm hoping to jumpstart a daily writing habit in any way possible. 

2. Make my house a home

In the autumn of 2017, I was lucky enough to buy my first home. While all my things are here, and I've purchased some important new pieces of furniture, it's still a place I live rather than my home. I have walls that still need to be painted, art that needs to be hung, a library that needs to be culled and organized, and a lot of stuff that still needs to have a home found for it. I think it might be time for yet another attempt at KonMari or maybe the Swedish Death Clean because even though I have more space than ever, I still feel that I have too much stuff. 

3. Take better care of myself

Even though I'm pretty healthy, and manage to care of myself pretty well, there are a lot of ways in which I could be doing this better. For a while there, my nutrition was pretty great (mostly 'cause I had a trainer helping me) and I was going to the gym regularly. And then, like many people, life got away from me, and the first things to suffer were eating well and working out. I'm going to re-embrace the habits my trainer had mostly instilled in me, and try and find the time (a three-hour daily commute makes this hard) to head to the gym again. One extra thing in here, I don't have a proper skincare regime, and I think I'd like one. I feel like it's something I probably should have locked down earlier in life, and just never did.

Only three things. That seems do-able. I mean, yes, there are more things rolled into each of those things, but let's pretend it's only three...