Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season!
I took a few weeks off from blogging to enjoy my family and
friends, and to just take a break from the computer. But with the promise of
the new year, I’m pumped to be back at it once again.
Growing up, new year’s resolutions were never really
something I got into. I generally had the opinion that if you hadn’t been
behaving in a certain way last year, the one digit change on the calendar wasn’t
going to do much to help you behave any differently going forward. However, in
the past couple years, I’ve started to see value in the idea of a fresh slate
and wanting to achieve greatness in the new year.
My resolutions often read more like goals, such as completing
a 5k race or converting all my cosmetics to animal-friendly. I hadn’t even come
up with any goals for 2013 until I started reading one of the books I got for
Christmas this year: Folks, This Ain’t
Normal by Joel Salatin.
Salatin is the owner and farmer of Polyface Farms, one of
the more progressive farms in the U.S. and included heavily in Michael Pollan’s
books. His views are far more conservative and traditional than many of the
books I read about similar subjects, and as I’ve been reading, I’ve been
learning tons and loving the fresh perspective. And as a result, two of my
three goals are heavily influenced by his book.
2013 Goals:
- Learn to make more from scratch such as bread, pasta, pies, jam and applesauce. It wasn’t long ago that women simply knew how to make these things and would never have thought to buy them from the store. I want to learn to make the basics well and save money and improve our nutrition doing it.
- Learn to garden more veggies and fruits. Last year I attempted my first garden with some success. This year, I’m armed with a gardening book from my husband and lessons learned from last year to try to increase my yield, my variety, and reduce my losses.
- Incorporate new exercises into my current regimen. I currently run about 3 to 4 times per week, but have noticed my poor posture and lack of upper body strength as a result of neglect. I plan to try ballet barre, yoga, pilates and possibly other classes or tapes to ensure a more balanced fitness regimen.
My goals aren’t particularly exciting or lofty, but I’m
thrilled at the idea of pursuing new things this year and continuing to make
small changes that evolve my lifestyle in a more contemplative way.
What are your resolutions/goals for the new year?
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