The New Year is a great time to set goals but it’s also a great time of the year to set some clear boundaries and decide what you’re NOT doing this New Year.
In fact, this may be an even more effective way to create an aligned and amazing year.
Not sure about you, but our personal social media feeds have been filled with diet and weight loss marketing. Goals around diet and weight loss are so typical of this time of year and it’s really easy to get swept up in the marketing and the diet culture.
So when you’re working on your New Year goals list why not also add a list of things you’re not going to do in the New Year. Here’s ours…
8 things we’re NOT doing this New Years
We’re NOT setting the goal to lose 5 kgs
For most of our lives this was top of our goals list. And you know what? Life doesn’t get any better at 5 kilos lighter. The thing that happens when we are so obsessed with this number, is that usually, even if you reach the goal, you want to reach another number. It’s an endless cycle of toxicity.
Instead of losing weight… how about try to quiet down the self-hate?
We’re NOT doing a 6 week body shred
Been there, done that. And you know what? It’s boring, it’s unhealthy, it’s all-consuming, it takes away every ounce of joy. The fitness challenges that bombard you with messages to grow a booty, get a six-pack, lose 10 kilos, shred this, shred that… we could scream every time an advertisement pops up on our social feed… and well if we did, we would be screaming all day long. This is diet culture at its worst, ESPECIALLY at this time of year.
This is why we’re doing a 21 Day I’m Already Amazing Challenge instead. You could say it’s a big UP YOURS to diet culture…
You see during our Challenge and inside MerryBody, we combine physical movement with the mindset work of self-belief, body confidence, and self-acceptance.
It’s a workout that makes you feel good about yourself.
It’s a workout that makes you quickly realise: “I’m already amazing!”
Pretty different to your usual New Year’s challenge… different in the best kind of way.
We’re NOT doing any kind of detox diet (actually we’re not doing any diet…ever again)
Ahhh it is SO good to say that and write that out loud. Sure you may have started following us during our Paleo days and before we wrote on this blog there were many other diets tried. You see, we too were led to believe that smaller is better, skinny is better and more beautiful. But this simply isn’t true, it’s a lie we’ve all been told to keep our ideas small and the wallets of fitness/diet/media companies fat.
So, we urge you to jump on the anti-diet train with us (it’s a fun train). And no, this train is NOT anti-health, it’s anti-diet.
We’re NOT going to start running
Because we hate running and we vote you should never do something you hate (or that hurts your body in a bad way). No matter how many magazines or blogs you read that say running is the best thing for the body… if you hate it… why do it?! You heard it here first: you don’t HAVE TO RUN.
However, if you love running… go ahead, run a marathon!
With exercise, the most important thing is that you enJOY the movement. Because when you enjoy something, you’re more likely to do it. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says that “consistency is more important than intensity”.
This means, the 10-20 minute yoga session you do every other day is better than the marathon you run once a month.
This is why with MerryBody, JOY is a key factor we keep in mind when creating all of our classes. We want you to finish your class with a smile on your face and a pep in your step. We want you to go from blahhh to ahhh-mazing. And really, this is what our members love most.
We’re NOT counting calories
Counting calories can be obsessive and controlling. When we used to count our calories we were so specific that we even weighed our chicken and vegetables at each meal.
Remember, food is there to fuel and nourish us… it’s also a way to experience joy. It’s a way to experience culture. It’s a way to share love and get to know someone.
During the holiday season it’s normal to eat more! We are celebrating with family and friends, oh how lucky we are to celebrate! On the days you find you eat more, you still need to eat the next day. Do not fall into this trap of counting calories and restricting nourishment.
We’re not limiting carbs
Did you see the Pasta video? We are NOT limiting carbs… we’d call ourselves pro-carb…
View this post on Instagram
We’re not working off any ‘holiday treats’
If your fitness instructor tells you to work off your holiday treats, booze, cake, pudding, etc… we give you permission to walk out of class or turn the video off. Exercise should never be a punishment for something you ate or something you didn’t do.
Exercise is a celebration of the fact that you can move your amazing body.
Inside MerryBody our teachers (that’s us), never talk about burning calories or working off a certain food/meal. When we’ve experienced this in classes we’ve felt ashamed and definitely not inspired and we wish someone had told us earlier that we could walk out of a class like that.
You are allowed to eat. You are allowed to enjoy…without the need to punish yourself afterwards.
We’re not setting the goal to ‘drop a size’
There are so many reasons we are not doing this… one being who even knows what size they are these days?! Every brand has their own size version… in fact, I (Carla) have 3 jumpers from the same store/brand… one is Small, one a Medium and the other a Large… if the same brand can’t even get their sizes the same then why would we ever measure ourselves up to this! It’s a number and it means NOTHING.
You are SO much more than the number on the scales and the number on your clothing tag. When we buy new clothes we no longer care about the size, it’s more about how comfortable and confident we feel in it.
Ok… so there’s our list of things we’re NOT doing this New Years… what are you NOT going to do? We’d love to hear from you… write to us on Instagram or email us!
One thing we’re DEFINITELY doing is our 21 Day I’m Already Amazing Challenge… and if you made it this far, we have a feeling this Challenge might be for you, check it out here!
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla