The Calendar
In November Americans celebrate friends and family, and all the things for which we are grateful. Then comes December, which is when many people celebrate religious or ethnic holidays as well as the Winter Solstice. January then is the month known for rebirth, new choices, and resolutions. This month is when we recognize the seasonal push into Spring. According to a writer on CNN, celebrating the new year with resolutions is a perennial brand of self-improvement.
On Wednesday I spent most of the day watching the new Doctor Who series, which meant I also saw a lot of TV advertisements. A very large percentage of them used “resolution”, as is probably appropriate given the season; the majority of those ads focused on food, loosing weight, and exercising.
It might be human tendency to want to make new starts, change our stories each year, to improve ourselves, our lives, or the lives of our loved ones. However, let’s be honest, very few of the goals we set now are held throughout the year, or perhaps, are even intended to, but they give us hope of better changes ahead.
Making Resolutions
January is the time of resolutions, defined as a firm decision to do or not to do something. But it also has another meaning, the quality of being determined or resolute.
Sometimes, the resolutions are outward focused. One year the resolution we had was to save enough money so we could renovate our old, ugly kitchen. Another year it was to review my pantry and buy food, so we could donate our weight in food during the annual UU Church food drive. These kinds of outward goals are actually easier to achieve, I think, than the inward focused ones.
To focus inward, generally starts with our list of bad habits, or our conditions we have labeled as bad, and we create the opposite as our goal. Generally the problem of these types of resolutions, to change who we presently are, is that it is damn hard. We have moved along one highway for years and years, and then quickly jump to another highway going in the opposite direction and hope it works. Making these type of changes can be drastic and may require lots of work and, in many cases, may involve fundamental changes to our habits.
I have always preferred to make resolutions I can actually keep. The key is figuring out things I might actually do. I want my year to be successful, rather than filled with false promises I may have made. I do not choose impossible dreams, I choose tactically, in ways that will allow me to accomplish dreams. Why? Because while I am one of those people who can be very willful, I need to actually want whatever my goal is, or I give up. In other words, I would not make a resolution to become svelte, I would choose instead to cook without added sugar (real or artificial). One I will fail at, the other is doable.
Each year I tend to make to make two resolutions, one of each. An inward focused one to help me change habits and an outward focused one. This year I am sharing how I came up with my two 2020 resolutions.
My First Resolution
So if I am going to do a new year’s resolutions what would it be? There are so many food-related choices of things I may want to do this year.
I think I would like to figure out how to do more cooking, teaching, learning, and working on my blog and website. Last year I set the intention to get at least 50 consistent readers of my blog and have achieved that. But still, I would like to get more subscribers, and increase visitors and feedback.
Perhaps a goal could be to reconsider how I use booze at my dinners and with guests, as there are so many botanical spirits made in nonalcoholic distilleries now available. While I have a mini-bar in my house, with a variety of spirits and liquors, what if I try to use non-alcoholic cocktail drinks at my parties and dinners? That could be fun.
Maybe I could change my approach to eating out. Mostly when we go out, I complain later that, “I could have made this dish better.” What I would like to do is maybe try new restaurants with differing flavors and foods, but to be strategic about it. No last minute, “let’s call Grubhub” cause I do not want to cook. Let me actually choose where to go and experience the restaurant, rather than just eat its food. The effort to get ready to go out will either result in a nice date night, or I will stop and just cook at home.
Or, perhaps, it would be to actually identify any food I am sensitive or allergic to and remove that food from my cooking. Or perhaps maintain hydration. Or maybe take the time to figure out how to include more fruit in my diet.
What my actual resolution will be is to identify something that may let me achieve all these goals.
- I resolve to keep a food journal for the next year.
I want to track what I eat, what I react to, what I like and ideas for cooking for my blog. This is not a weight management tool, it is a tool for mindfulness. A tool to help me be aware of mindless eating I may be doing. Perhaps this would help me stop skipping meals? Help me make wiser choices?
My Second Resolution
I work at a College on the UC Berkeley campus where it is well known that we have a very specific undergraduate student demographic. We have the highest first generation college attendees, the highest Pell Grant recipients, high numbers of DACA students, and so on.
Years ago, as a way to cut waste and save some money, our College set up a FREE OFFICE MATERIALS area where students, staff and faculty can place office related items no longer needed, that others can grab and use. It works great and everyone reviews the little bookcase to see if there are things they can use before buying.
Couple of weeks ago, a dog walker friend told me that despite best intent, she is not really going to learn to cook. So she asked me if I could find good homes for her unused kitchen tools. I said yes, and the next day received a large box of great pots, pans, skillets, a small slow cooker, etc. So I took it to work and placed them in an area near my office and a place where students frequent. I asked a staff person if they would create and post a FREE sign, and word got out so fast that most items were gone within that day.
My resolution then, is to formalize this area and advertise it to College staff that there is a “from our house to yours” freebie area from staff for students. This would be a great way to leave food we are not going to use (cans and packaged food) as well as cooking implements. Young folks just starting out, and our students specifically, need assistance which we can provide by sharing items we no longer use or need.
- I resolve to set a cooking and food-based freebie area at my College, and will assure there is always something there for the next year.
Salutations
Not everyone makes yearly resolutions, or at least may not share them. But, resolutions or not, please have a healthy and loved-filled new year. This is also a change of decades, so additionally I wish that wisdom and compassion find a home in all of us.
–Patty
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NEWS: The Scarborough: The Christmas foods most thrown away in UK homes each year are potatoes (710,000 tonnes), poultry (100,000 tonnes), carrots (96,000 tonnes), and gravy. (Source: Household food waste: restated data for 2007-2015)
NEWS: The USDA announces a new partnership with the Food Waste Reduction Alliance to formalize federal agency, food manufacturer and restaurant associations collaboration to reduce food waste. The goal is 50% by 2030. Time reports When this food goes uneaten, we waste the water and energy needed to produce it, harvest it and bring it to market. And the economic, social and environmental impacts of this practice are devastating. So what this new act does is focus governmental and business on reducing food waste.
Loved this.
Tom