Wellness Habits to Kick Start the New Year

Can you believe we’re already a week into 2020? I feel like the last few months have flown by. I’m not the biggest new year resolution person (to be honest, I can’t tell you my most recent one), but I do love kicking off the new year with some self-care and focusing on wellness habits. By the end of last year, I was feeling a little run down and ragged.

After some much needed time away from work and blogging, I feel ready to take on a new year of challenges and goals. The most important aspect, however, is taking care of your body first. Nothing I’m committing to is groundbreaking or new, rather the below are a series of small promises and wellness habits I’ve made to myself in an effort to start putting myself and my health first.

With a new year, comes a chance to hit the restart button and refocus on your goals and intentions. As cheesy as it is, I love having January 1st to motivate me, and if we’re being honest, kick a little discipline back into my life.

Wellness Habits to Kick Start the New Year

+ No alcohol.

This is my fourth year doing “Dry January” and at this point it has become a very welcome routine in my life to start the year off on the right foot. November and December are typically the two most indulgent months of the year, and that means more alcohol than usual. We started doing Dry January as a challenge to see how we would feel after a month of alcohol. After you get over the initial crutch of alcohol in social situations, you realize that it isn’t so bad, and no one else will notice (there’s no need to scream it at the top of your lungs every time you go out, a soda water with lime will usually do the trick).

As much as I miss my regular glasses of wine, the physical and mental effects are undeniable. By the end of the month I always feel less bloated, see an improvement in my skin, and have a much easier time waking up early.

+ Water.

In a similar vein, hydration is key! I’ve made a mental note to myself to drink at least 2L of water a day. I’ve also made an effort to cut down on my caffeine and substitute coffee with matcha when I can. So water has become my drink of choice. We also have a SodaStream at home that I love, it makes drinking enough water so easy.

+ Fitness.

In the past, I’ve been into super intense bootcamp style workouts and long-distance cardio, but after feeling burned out from the impact of the exercise and some suggestions from my doctor, I’ve made a conscious effort to cut down on high-intensity exercises and cardio. I’ve been adding pilates to my routine 2-3x a week as well as resistance training and weightlifting, which I believe is a more sustainable routine for my body.

+ Sleep.

This one is super hard for me, according to my sleep tracker I average only 6.5 hours a night, which is ok but not great. The benefits of getting enough sleep cannot be stressed enough. And I know how much better I feel when I hit the recommended amount. I’d love to get above 7 hours a night, but you know, life…

+ Diet.

After analyzing my diet in-depth, I came to the conclusion that it was, like my sleep, ok but not great. Towards the end of the year, I found myself reaching for office snacks on a daily basis, eating more chips and packaged snacks than I care to admit and eating out more meals than not. After getting over the initial hump of grocery shopping and light meal prepping, I’ve found that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. My goal is to eat most meals at home, and see if it makes a difference in how I feel at the end of the month.

+ Reading.

In an effort to be more conscious about the type of media I consume, I reset my reading goal for the year (last year my goal was to read 30 books!) and am trying to choose a book over TV before bed – even though it’s much easier to put on The Bachelor and zone out after a long day. So we shall see how this goes!

How are you starting off the new year?