How To Maintain New Routines And New Resolutions In The New Year
How To Maintain New Routines And New Resolutions In The New Year
When it comes to making New Year’s Resolutions, many of us start with good intentions. But it’s easy to slip out of a routine halfway through the year.
It’s fairly easy to eat light and fresh over the summer months, with plenty of crisp summer salads and bright zingy smoothies on hand when you get the urge for a munch. But when the evenings begin to draw in and we spend more time indoors, it’s often more difficult not to go to the kitchen out of boredom or for comfort.
Any lifestyle change has to be sustainable for you and your daily routines, otherwise, on the days when your willpower isn’t quite as strong, it’s much harder to meet your goals. When you lapse in any kind of diet or lifestyle, it inevitably impacts your motivation and sometimes even your self-esteem, so it is important to make sustainable choices instead.
So how to go about making the change in a long-term, workable way? Here, we’ve collected some of the most popular dietary and lifestyle changes that many of us are undertaking as part of our New Year’s resolutions, and discuss how to go about making the leap long-term and sustainably.
Veganuary
Veganuary is growing bigger and better annually, and in 2021, over half a million British people signed up to go vegan for the month of January. This was more than double the number of participants in 2019, when there were just 250,000.
According to statistics from Veganuary.com, in 2021, businesses also began to back the challenge, launching 259 new vegan menus to chain restaurants, and 566 new vegan products. Also driving the boom in veganism were workplace challenges, with 57 major companies participating in the workplace challenge.
Plus, many well-known faces have joined the movement too: from A-lister celebs like Alec Baldwin and Emily Deschanel, to environmentalist and TV presenter Chris Packham, and sparkling TikTok personality and vegan foodie Tabitha Brown.
There are many reasons why participants went vegan, but an overwhelming majority said it was for animal rights (46%). The other most common motives for going vegan were personal health (22%), and environmental reasons (21%).
Veganuary is a good choice if you want a lifestyle change that is easy to keep up long-term and that is good for the environment and all things fluffy, feathery, or scaley. For the month, two-thirds of participants were able to keep to a fully vegan diet. Not only that, but after the month ended, 40% said that they wanted to continue being vegan – a 10% increase from the results of the preliminary survey!
Of the participants who stayed vegan, the number one reason cited was that it was ‘easier than expected’. And the good news is there are ways to make going vegan even more straightforward than usual, such as by signing up to a subscription box service – like the one offered by Greensoul Organics, for example – that will deliver your vegan food right to your door. So why not give it a try?
Shopping Locally
With many high street shops closing their doors due to the pandemic, many of us are thinking about how we can support local businesses.
Shopping locally is crucial for supporting the local business community and for keeping money in our local area instead of sending it abroad.
This helps to save – and even create – new jobs in local towns, keep money circulating freely among the community, and support local food businesses and agriculture. It also helps to ensure that local councils are well-funded, enabling them to pay for better community resources and services. This means that the extra money you spend on the high street may be helping to pay for a cleaner, safer, and more pleasant local environment.
And that doesn’t just go for the man-made environment either; when you shop locally, there are fewer fuel emissions from transporting your food. This helps to reduce air pollution and traffic both locally and across the globe, making shopping locally the Greener choice.
While online shopping is often touted as being cheaper, you may also find that you can get better deals by buying locally. Shops will often offer discounts on end of line, nearly out of date, or damaged food stock that you may not be able to find online – and you don’t have to pay for postage!
If you want to start shopping locally but struggle to find the time or to physically travel between small shops, why not sign up for a food delivery box? Many local farms offer a fruit and vegetable box, and even milk and cheese deliveries. Take a look at what’s on offer, and you might find something you love.
Whole Foods Diet
You’ve heard of low carb, high fat. You’ve heard of paleo, Atkins, and Intermittent Fasting… but have you just tried eating good, whole foods?
Many diets are sold to us to try to cash in on our insecurities, and some of them work temporarily, while others don’t. But very few offer long-lasting, sustainable change.
So what does? Eating a whole foods diet rich in fruit, vegetables, and healthy fats.
This means ditching the takeaways and brushing up on your skills making good, homecooked food just like Mum used to.
If you’re a grab’n’dash kind of eater, you may be thinking that this isn’t for you. But not everything takes hours to cook. Make sure you look up some quick and easy go-to meals that you can knock out at a minute’s notice, and keep some healthy snacks on hand at all times – such as bags of nuts and raisins. And of course, ensure that there is always fruit and veg to hand to munch on.
If you think you might need a treat every now and then to stay compliant, then don’t worry. Just look up some healthier versions of your favourites. For instance, we love the healthy plant-based recipes found at deliciouslyella.com
Whatever your food resolution for the new year, remember – slow and steady wins the race. So take things at your pace, and have a very Happy New Year!
Sources
https://veganuary.com/veganuary-2021-survey-results/
https://veganuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Veganuary-2021-Campaign-in-Review.pdf
