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New Years Resolutions

2023 New Years Resolutions ft. Sugar Free January (and Beyond?)

For as long as I can remember, I’ve set New Year’s resolutions. Over the years, the number of resolutions I’ve set has varied greatly but they nearly always fit into a few set categories: money, skills and health. 

For the most part, these resolutions have been more like guidelines (similar to the Pirates Code, for those of you POTC fans out there) but this year, I’m honing in on a few SMART goals. I used to set very open ended goals ie: “lose weight”, “learn french”, “play more guitar” but would always forget about them a few months into the year or feel I accomplished them well enough because there was never truly and end goal. 

Captain Barbosa with his monkey, Jack

Well, not this year!

I’ve got some pretty definitive resolutions for the New Year:

  • Complete the Drumeo “Beginners Start Here” Course
  • Complete a Guitareo Course (tbd after finishing goal #1)
  • Sober January (aka Dry January)
  • Sugar Free January (and Beyond?)

I’m feeling pretty good about these goals, I really am. But one, #4, is the most intimidating

Starting Sugar Free January

I LOVE sugar. Particularly in the form of cake, candy, cookies, cake… anything baked. For motivation and support, I’ve started reading A Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub. It’s motivating to read the memoir of someone who has done something intimidating that you plan to do. 

The book cover of "A Year of No Sugar"

The Rules of My Sugar Free January.

My rules are pretty straight forward and actually have less exceptions than A Year of No Sugar

  1. No foods with added sugar. Since most packaged products currently use a food label with added sugar called out, it’s pretty easy to see if sugar has been added to the product. Otherwise, I’ll read the ingredients to make sure sugar hasn’t been secretly added. 
  2. All foods with natural sugar are okay. ie: Fruit and vegetables. Honey is a no-go since its essentially pure sugar. 

New Years Resolutions Start Tomorrow!

I’ll admit, before writing this I finished off a piece of delicious Apple Spice cake to savor my final sugar moments before the next month. And you better believe I’ll be having a drink tonight to celebrate the new year to come. But starting tomorrow morning, its sugar free and sober January for me!

Happy New Year!