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Let’s do a quick end of January check-in: Did you follow through on your New Year’s intentions the entire month? If yes, amazing! If you haven’t, no worries, it’s not too late to get back on track and join our challenge, Make it to February. We want to encourage everyone to keep reaching towards their goals in ways that feel good to them, especially if that means picking up where you left off and doing it better the second time around.
If you find your resolve faltering a little or could just use some extra encouragement, we’ve come up with three questions to help you examine your intentions and make sure you’re setting yourself up for success. We want you to make it to February, because we KNOW you can do it!
1. Is this something you truly want?
Does your goal really line up with something you actually want, not just feel obligated to do? Look into your why (your number one reason or main motivation) here. Do you want to do it because you think it will make you go down a dress size or do you want to do it because you want to feel great every day? Hint: The feeling good is always a better motivation than something external — so get aligned with that.
If your goal is to eat more plants, maybe you need to invest time into making sure your meals are delicious in addition to being packed with nutrients. We can’t sustain a healthy eating habit if we don’t like what we’re eating. Find tasty meals that make you feel good by experimenting with ingredients, cooking with new recipes, making a few extra-tasty sauces, or trying out new cooking methods. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be something that’s appealing to you.
2. How does it fit with your current lifestyle?
Is this goal a huge inconvenience for you? Is it stressing you out? Maybe it’s adding a ton of extra tasks like food shopping and recipe research in addition to cooking? Brainstorm ways to make it easier.
Using our plant eating example, think of ways you can streamline the process. Start by considering your essentials like eating mostly plants and using organic, seasonal produce and sustainable ingredients. Then look for ways you can make this happen without causing too much of a strain on your routine. Maybe weekly meal planning or batch cooking will be a big game changer. Or maybe getting help from a meal delivery service like Sun Basket is the right move.
3. Did you try to go from zero to 100?
OK, be honest: Did you try to flip the switch to a new lifestyle only to get overwhelmed? The positivity and optimism of a New Year is powerful and fun, but it can also hinder us from being realistic when setting our intentions. It’s time to reassess and find the areas where incremental changes are the way to go instead of forcing yourself into something that doesn’t feel right for you.
Maybe you went full-on vegan and realized that it’s just not your thing. Good news: You can still get the benefits of a plant-based diet while eating a more blended diet, like Pescatarian or Mediterranean. Explore ways you can be more plant-based or plant-focused while still enjoying sustainably-caught fish and antibiotic- and hormone-free meat. Sun Basket’s new Vegan, Pescatarian, and Mediterranean menus are great to mix and match and explore how plant-based eating doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
You can do right by your goals and intentions once you get real with yourself and find solutions that make you feel good, not stressed. Check-in with yourself often and find tools and services that not only make your life easier, but enhance your new habits in a positive way. This will be the key to your success in February and beyond. You’ve got this!
These Peanut Butter Cup Protein Bites Make The Perfect On-The-Go Snack
Molly Knudsen, M.S., RDN
