As I would say if I were on TikTok, I’ve been in my flop era for a while now.
I mostly blame the pandemic and having kids, but I allowed it all to happen and leaned into some poor habits that have now taken over my life. I’ve been working a little on rebuilding new habits and it’s working to a degree. Thankfully, I love “big new year, new me” energy, so I will use that to my advantage. I feel like I’ve been training for this for a while. I’ve been thinking about it, reading the books, and focusing on what I want to do. Now it’s game time.
2024 Goals
My overall goal for 2024 is to adopt healthy habits. I know myself well and I cannot simply sit down and write out a list of habits I want to develop over the entire year. I know that these habits need to evolve. To help me make these changes over the year, I have been working on a list of smaller habits. I will pick a few of the smaller habits each month to work on. They said it takes ~66 days to adopt a new habit into your life so some of these might need more time or less time depending on what they are. Here’s the list I’m keeping in a Note on my phone to give you an idea of where I’m at.
Overall, the things I want to change are:
Adopting daily movement into my life
Reducing the amount of time I waste on social media (aka doom-scrolling)
Getting out of the house to explore more
Weight Loss
One thing I don’t think I’ve ever talked about on here is my weight, so TW ahead. It’s something I have always struggled with. Truth be told, I need to lose about 80lbs to get to my “healthy” BMI but realistically my goal is to lose closer to 60lbs. I remember sitting in PE in 7th grade with my friends wondering why my thighs were bigger than my friends’, and because of that memory, I know that my body is built differently. No part of me believes I was unhealthy or overweight as a 13-year-old, but I also know my body is built differently. I’m not a naturally thin person. I have a curvy build. Mentally, I’ve always seen myself as fatter when parts of my body were just bigger.
Unfortunately, I picked up some terrible habits that I need to change throughout college and grad school. Thankfully, we already do a good job at cooking at home but I could do better at prioritizing protein, leafy greens, and more vegetables. I know adopting daily movement into my life and making more conscious choices about what I eat will go a long way to help me lose weight. I do plan to post updates here to keep myself accountable - just as a head’s up.
Doom Scrolling
I’ve talked a lot about how I want to spend less time on my phone. A bunch of people on Instagram recommended I use the Opal app and I really could not recommend it enough. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it is a game-changer to keep me from being all consumed by content on my phone. It’s so good that I left my phone at my grandparent’s house, didn’t realize it for hours, and then ended up not being able to get my phone until the next morning. And while I missed my phone, it was nice to have time away from it.
I love that I can lock myself out of groups of apps during designated times with increasing difficulty in getting back in. For work, I have it set up so that I can get into social media apps but it takes longer and longer throughout the day if I’ve opened any of those apps already. More often than not, I will forgo the attempt because I didn’t get the hit of dopamine quickly enough since I had to wait. I have a schedule set up so I cannot use these apps on my phone at all from 5:30-7pm. They are completely locked. If you use this link, you can get 30 days for free on Opal!
One thing that has helped this change as well, that I hope to continue doing, is the mindset of mindful fun before mindless fun. It’s a rule in Laura Vanderkam’s book Tranquility by Tuesday. The idea is that you do fun things like reading a book, which is a more mindful activity, before something like scrolling through social media, which is mindless. At least that’s my real-life interpretation of it. In my mind, I’ll always feel prouder of myself for reading a book or playing a game with my kids than I will for scrolling through TikTok.
Getting Out of The House
I shared this post a few months ago and want to revisit it as we head into 2024. Because if anything, I want 2024 to be less boring. I want fewer Saturdays cooped up at home when there is a whole bunch of life to live outside of our neighborhood. We live in a gigantic city and there is so much to offer that we need to explore. Looking back on my personal Instagram grid pre-kids, we did so much fun stuff. We traveled, went to hockey games, tried new restaurants, etc. We don’t necessarily need to do those exact things, but getting out and doing more and scheduling time for my husband and me to reconnect is huge and something we have not prioritized at all since having kids.
I need to make a list of things we can get out of the house to do because I operate a lot better when I have that list to work off of. And I also need to ask my husband to contribute to that list because 1) he’s part of the fun too so it’s not just about what I want to do or what I want to do with the kids and 2) because I don’t need to take on the entire mental load of managing that list.
So, that is where I’m at as we head into 2024. I’m excited for the new year. Like I said, I love “new year energy” and the fact that the new year starts on a Monday is just perfection. If you’re like me and want to talk more about these changes and are looking for some accountability, I have created a Chat where we can talk to each other about our progress, and challenges, and share ideas overall. I’ve been looking for a fun way to use the chat feature on here and I think this can be a fun way to do so that promotes more community versus me talking to you all individually in my DMs on Instagram.
I do plan to write at least monthly about my habits and how I am progressing on my goals. I think this will keep me accountable while also giving me the chance to do some journaling. And I mean it when I say that I want you to share your goals and progress as well! There is nothing better or more motivating than cheering each other on and celebrating each other’s wins.
Great post and I like your goals. The only negative I would have for you, is don't weigh yourself everyday. You'll make yourself crazy if you do! LOL Try doing it once a week, at the same time every week. That way the minor fluctuations won't bother you as much. Just my opinion, you know you best.
I also struggle with getting out of the house in the winter months. Last year, I started putting "obligatory weekend fun" on my weekly to-do list, and even if it's just one small activity, it makes such a difference.