New Year, Old Me

And, after a brief 5 year hiatus, we're back!

For those of you who are new here, for a number of years I wrote a blog featuring an assortment of things I found interesting: the British Royal Family, sarcastic hot takes on award show fashion, travel, and (the reason I started it) to help me keep stay on track with eating healthier food.

Recently, one of my doctors suggested that I start the blog back up and I thought it was a good idea for a few reasons: chief among them to help with some health goals, plus I'd like to use it as a way to stay connected with some colleagues that departed at work.

By way of an understatement, 2023 was a smidge rough.  My dad got really sick in April, and after that, it was a slalom of the American healthcare system / in-home healthcare / nursing facilities / ambiguous loss & living grief.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the company I work for turned 24 and, well, sometimes 24 year old companies behave like 24 year old humans.  They're fun and energetic and hopeful and also their prefrontal cortex isn't quite developed yet so they make some really interesting decisions about people, money, and priorities.

If I was a metaphorical flight attendant, I felt like in 2023 was running around putting oxygen masks on others while asking if there was a doctor on board and also deploying the emergency slides while simultaneously reading the safety card about how the slides work but also the card was written in a foreign language.  (Good thing I'm not a real flight attendant, pretty sure this approach would end poorly on an actual airplane.)

Help.

I'm not one for "New Year, New Me" in general, but specifically this year I'm aiming for "New Year, Old Me." I'm also not generally focused on having a theme/special word of the year (totally cool if this intention-setting device works for you thought!) except that this year I DO have a word in support of "New Year, Old Me" which is REVIVE.  Feel free to make me a cute bracelet with that word on it.  Too often we put pressure on ourselves to go from survive to thrive, but there's a middle step here.  

Ah, ha, ha, ha Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive

So here's what I'm hoping to revive in 2024:

• Normal cortisol levels - no one came here for medical details--and if you did, get ready be disappointed--but a chronic condition + stress have my cortisol levels jacked up (technical term) so I'm working to get my nutrition, exercise, and sleep cycle figured out.
• Side Note: I'm sure that keto, gluten free, paleo, whole 30, vegan, CrossFit, HIIT, sensory deprivation tanks, sleeping upside down like you're a bat, etc. worked for you and I am very happy for you.  I'm working with a squad of doctors so I'm going to stick with their advice.  That said, if YOU are a medical doctor and want to offer advice, let's go out for coffee.  You're buying.  Possibly related: Starbucks makes a size BIGGER than a Venti.  It's called a Trenta.
• Correspondence - the blog is coming back, and so is Postcards to Voters.  I did actually write 165 postcards to encourage people to vote last year but that's on the lower end for me (I average around 250 cards a year).  Also coming back: sending people cards and notes because it's good to express gratitude and nice to get real paper mail.
• Sustainable practices - especially composting, organizing, and saving money.  I'd say I did the minimum amount of maintenance on all three last year, but I do enjoy them and want to get back to focusing on them.
• Boundaries - there were a few I intentionally lowered do deal with specific circumstances, but I need to put them back into place.  RAISE THE DRAWBRIDGES!
• Reading - And it doesn't actually need reviving, but I did set a goal to read 53 books this year.  That's the one thing I feel like I did well last year, and reading has both physical and mental health benefits.  Want to follow what I read on Goodreads?  Click here.

So those are the overarching themes, and I'll talk more about them in the weeks that follow.  For now, here's how I started the New Year off, although I recognize it's easy to do things when you're riding the tide of motivation and have some time off...

Mmmm, fermentation and good luck.

• Breakfast was scrambled eggs, a tomato, roasted mushrooms (not pictured), center cut bacon, and (let's live a little, it's a holiday) a sausage link and two baby pancakes along with a giant glass of ice water and a cup of coffee with vanilla soy milk. 
• Lunch was a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers and a free slice of pizza with unsweet tea.  Wait, free?  Why yes, UberEats delivered 2 pizzas to us on accident and we got to keep them.  So my love of eating healthy is battling with my love of frugality and you know that frugality usually wins. We did give one of the pizzas to our friends because we realize we can/should only eat so much (free) pizza.
• Snacks today were hot green tea, kombucha, dates, a piece of chocolate and cowboy caviar because you have to have black eyed peas for New Year's Day!
• Dinner was sushi. Specifically avocado & spicy tuna sushi. And some miso soup.  I'm supposed to include more fermented foods in my diet, hence today's kombucha & miso.

I wrote 5 postcards for a special election in Florida. This one is super jankety in terms of making it confusing and inconvenient for people to vote: the election is on January 16th but early voting is January 6-13 in one county and January 6-14 in another.  Also the Vote By Mail records were purged at the beginning of the year.  Cute. 🙄  And I sent some Christmas thank you notes!

Finally, I read for about an hour, and did 45 mins of yin yoga for back pain and stiffness (because I've had some back pain and stiffness).  Here's the practice I did--I'm a big fan of Yoga with Kassandra and it's FREE on YouTube!

I typically close each post by giving it a rating in the context of the British Royal Family. (So Kate is a great rating, and a not-so-great rating would be like, one of the York sisters or Camilla.)  I think it's appropriate for this one to give it a Kate-as-the-newish-princess-of-Wales at the coronation.  Until next week!

Get in the carriage, loser, we're gonna have a great year.