Revolutionary Resolutions for the New Year

By Rosa Hannah, Co-Chair 

​The New Year is right around the corner, and so are the resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, and eat healthier to become a “Better You.” It’s hard to avoid this popular wish, especially with discount memberships to gyms and diets. Everyone around you talks about how in this New Year, they’re going to be a “New Person.”
   

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     It’s easy to imagine that with the new year can come new habits for a new and improved lifestyle. You’ll go to the gym more often. You’ll eat all of your vegetables. But here’s the thing: when you wake up on January 1st, January 2nd, and all the way to December 31st, you’re still going to be you, and that’s not a bad thing!
    So this New Year, we should make the revolutionary resolution to love ourselves for who we are, including the size of our bodies. Of course, that’s not an entirely easy task, especially considering how society advantages people who look a certain way and fit a certain style. Doing this every day isn’t going to be easy.
    Resolving to just love yourself seems like—and is—a big task, so here are five things that you can try in the New Year to help break down some bad blood between you and yourself.

1) When you wake up every day, look in the mirror and tell yourself something you like about yourself, whether that be a character trait, an act you did, or something physical.

2) When you hear a friend engaging in “fat talk” (i.e. saying they look fat in something, or shouldn’t eat something because it’s “unhealthy,” etc.) either tell them that fat is something you need to live. If you feel uncomfortable being confrontational, just change the subject! Fat talk doesn’t make anyone feel good!

3) When you’re choosing something to eat, choose something because you want it, not because you feel like you should eat it because it’s “healthier” or better.”
      *Food doesn’t have moral value! A hamburger did not rob a bank; a
      carrot did not win a Nobel Peace Prize. You are not good or bad
      for eating various foods!

4) If you exercise, do things that make you feel good! If you don’t like running, don’t run! There are a thousand other things to try!
      *P.S. Exercise isn’t a punishment, or something that you
      need to do to “earn” the food you’re eating.
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5) If being body positive is too much energy on some days, try being body neutral! This is the idea that you have a body, and it’s there doing its thing!

    Along with these five things there are a ton of other little things you can do everyday that can help combat any bad thoughts about your body that you have! So this new year, instead of resolving to do something that makes you feel bad about yourself, try the revolutionary thing and love yourself instead.


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