Lifestyle // Five Promises to Myself for 2020

Hello 2020! I love a new year new me and all that jazz. While I totally agree that you’re still the exact same person on 1st January as you are on 31st December and you shouldn’t feel pressured to make drastic changes, I do find a new year good motivation to take stock, refocus and look at what you want to achieve in the next 365 days. Fine, 345 as this post stands. Pedant!

So here are the five promises that I’m making to myself to take me through 2020 –

1) Keep investing in my healthy eating and working out

I lost 2.5 stone in 2019 and am feeling healthier and more confident in my appearance than I have in many a year. I’m definitely an emotional eater and my weight has crept up over the last few years as I’ve struggled to deal with the emotional impact of my dads illness, which got particularly bad last year.

Last year I took great steps to take control of the situation, and as part of this found a healthy eating and exercise plan which works for me. I started and completed the 0-5k (and am due to do a 10K charity run in February), have started regular Fitness Rebounder classes which I LOVE and have prioritised taking time to shop and prepare fresh clean food, avoiding quick fix processed foods. As well as looking and feeling better within myself, my skin and allergies have been much better, I’ve got more energy and my mental health is also benefitting too. Hurrah!

I don’t have a goal weight or anything in mind, I just want to keep living the healthiest way I can to hopefully have a happy and healthy 2020.

2) Keep being selfish (and not feeling guilty about it)

Now hear me out on this one.

I used to be a bit of Yes-Woman. If anyone asked me to do anything I’d do it, even if it was at great disadvantage to me and my happiness and health.

I was the ultimate go-to for people to talk their problems through with, it became expected that I would be at every social occasion, never mind if I could afford to in terms of time, money or mental health; and I went above and beyond on all sorts of projects and errands whether I really wanted to, or if it was my place to do so or not. Basically I gave myself to everyone / everything who needed / wanted a piece, but left very little for myself.

However in the last few years I realised that while I was giving so much of myself away, I wasn’t leaving myself time to make sure I was happy and doing what was best for me and my priorities. I also realised I wasn’t necessarily being “refilled” by all the situations which took, which left me at somewhat of a deficit. I ended 2017 exhausted, worn down and felt rather like I was at the bottom of the pile.

I’ve since learnt to put myself first and reassess my priorities (mainly so that I actually included myself in them).

While it wasn’t easy I felt so much better for it, and continued to practice putting myself first in 2019.

Yes there have been bumps along the way – it’s hard re-wiring your brain to make YOU the most important person if you’re not used to that. Change of status quo can also be hard for other people to accept and get used to too.

Its been well worth the ride though. I know more about who I am, what my limits are and how to prioritise my precious spare time, as well as being better at saying no when I need to. Plus I’m surrounded by loving people and projects who share and reciprocate positive, productive energy.

2020 is going to be the year of me. Again!

3) Remember I can’t do everything and that’s ok

Along the same vein as the above – I’m going to continue to try and tell myself that I can’t do everything – and certainly can’t do everything perfectly – and that is ok!

One thing which causes me quite a lot of stress (and in turn triggers my OCD and anxiety) is not having enough time. Now I know we all have 24 hours a day and it’s up to us how we choose to / have to spend them but I find I often get overwhelmed with the amount I need to do.

I work 5 days a week, often 11/12 hours a day, spend one of my weekend days at my parents spending time with my them and helping look after my dad (which is not a chore or a duty, but does take a chunk of time). That leaves one day to fit in spending quality time with my boyfriend and my friends, meal prepping, gymming, cleaning and you know, having a bit of me time.

It can be a lot.

But in 2020 I will keep reminding myself that 1) I need to be as productive as possible to maximise the time I do have and 2) that if I need a few hours where I do nothing and recharge, then that’s ok too. (Hence my blog took a bit of a back seat in 2019). It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the juggling act, but I won’t be keeping *any* balls up in the air if I’m passed out with exhaustion or pulling my hair out with stress. If I need to focus on one ball at a time, or even put all the balls down for a bit, that’s ok.

4) Save money

Original I know. But this year really does need to be THE year I sort my finances out and stop frittering my cash on crap. I definitely got my finances a lot more on-track than they have been for the last three years, and I want to keep moving in that direction this year.

Andy and I are starting to think more about buying our first house, and our list of places to travel to gets bigger by the second so it’s even more important than before to scrimp and save as many pennies as we can. I’m looking at everything I buy with a real “This or house / holiday” kind of attitude and hope I can keep it up throughout the year. Yes it may be boring, but I’ll be so happy if we can buy this year / save enough for a really big trip. Hawaii I’m looking at you!

5) Keep doing my bit for the planet

I wrote about this in my 2018 goals, and while I have made some good changes to my lifestyle to cut down on plastic consumption and limit my palm oil consumption there are definitely still more changes I can make.

I now buy 99% of my food at Iceland, who actively promote greener practices – cutting down on plastic packaging and not using palm oil in their own brand products.

I’ve stocked myself up on a plethora of reusable bottles, cups and containers to try and limit my single use items and if I don’t remember my cup, I don’t buy a drink (recent trip to New York excluded – I need to work on my sustainable ways to travel this year).

This year I want to continue to educate myself on the impact I have on the environment and what I can do to be as sustainable as possible. I also want to eat much less meat, potentially going fully vegetarian which can have a considerably positive impact on the environment. I also love animals so much and am a becoming increasingly aware that this is very much in contrast to my diet.

Have you made any promises / New Years resolutions this year? Let me know below and we can help keep each other accountable!