When talking about resolutions and goals for the New Year, Zeenya founder Chloe Wickman says the ‘R’ word really makes her cringe.
It’s the often arbitrary goals we set ourselves following what can be both a joyful and tough time in the year for many of us, says Chloe.
A little excess over the festive season, feeling a bit bad about our choices during the year toward our bodies and all of a sudden we’re ‘losing weight next year’ not eating particular food groups and hitting the gym with great intensity!
Fast forward a couple of months or even weeks into the New Year and those high demanding, unrealistic goals are out the window and we might be left feeling even lower than when we set those goals the year before.
Chloe suggests we should stop with the R’s, not in setting goals altogether, but to stop creating resolutions that make us feel like we’re ‘less than’ from the start, saying “I want to remind you that before you set yourself a resolution or goal, that you are good enough. Just as you are!”
Chloe is especially passionate when it comes to talking about resolutions that focus on strict diet restrictions and heavy exercise.
Not because these things individually are ‘bad’ but because when we stop and consider our year ahead, often it’s done with self-judgement and an underlying feeling that we aren’t enough as we are right now (at the end of 2021).
We write off the previous year often without giving it decent reflection and charge into the New Year saying all the things we’re going to change.
“What if we didn’t set the kind of resolutions that forced us to shrink, feel restricted or change to fit some external validated version of ourselves? What if instead we set kinder goals around what truly makes up happy every day?” Says Wickman.
Chloe Wickman’s top five tips for setting resolutions to make your 2022 year rock!
- Make them fun, not restrictive. If your resolution is to exercise, make a list of all the ways it feels good to move your body and use those. It might be to swim, walk, do yoga, dance in your house, run downhill with aeroplane armes – whatever it is, as soon as it feels like a chore, that resolution isn’t going to stick.
- Throw away your scales. You’re not a number, you’re a total human and nothing about that number will make you feel whole or good because it’s always changing.
- Wear what fits and what makes you happy. Get rid of those clothes that you’ll wear ‘one day’ when you’re size whatever. Get yourself clothes that fit you now and make you smile.
- Your relationship with food matters. We’re conditioned to think food groups are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but it’s time to get rid of that and eat the foods that make us feel good. Not jusy the instant gratification kind, but the ones that support our bodies to do what we love, make us feel full and give our bodies what they need to keep us in good health. Donuts though… It’s always about finding our own balance!
- Give yourself one challenge that pushes you to do something you’ve always wanted to do. Something that at the end of 2022 will make you proud to look back on. Then work out the steps to make it happen.
