Realistic Resolutions

A few years ago Megan and I were asked to share some ideas about setting realistic resolutions for the new year. You can watch the video at the end of this post! Looking back to five years ago, we made resolutions about more dinners at home and planning family outings. It all makes me laugh hysterically considering the year we just survived. Updated for 2021.

Don’t get me wrong, we stand behind our attainable resolutions. But you feel me, right? I am craving alone time and carefree travel for the new year after a very long 2020 of togetherness.

The truth is, the days between Christmas and January are some of my favorite. I am filled with hope and excitement of what’s to come. I always make New Year’s resolutions and it’s no different this year even though our world is operating in such uncertainty.

What Are the Most Common Resolutions?

The internet tells me that health, fitness, saving money and quitting to smoke are the most common resolutions year after year. These broad all-or-nothing declarations are destined for failure without setting small, attainable resolutions that will get you to crushing your larger goals.

Small, Attainable Resolutions

So, what are some small, attainable resolutions? The following are the three New Year’s resolutions we talked about in our video. We believe these resolutions are ones to revisit each year.

This post contains affiliate links.

Cooking At Home

Is “getting healthy” one of your resolutions? It’s definitely one of mine but it’s too broad. How can I ensure I’m feeding myself and my family healthy meals? I can cook at home.

We ordered an embarrassing amount of take out meals for my family during 2020. I convinced myself that we needed to support our favorite local restaurants.

Even with the best intentions, ordering take out gets real old, real fast.

Late in the year, I started to ordered weekly meal kits from Home Chef. I don’t hate to cook, I hate coming up with dinner ideas. I hate going through the effort of making a homemade meal only to be met with scrutiny. And, I hate the clean up.

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Home Chef has completely changed up our dinner routine. My family picks the Home Chef meals together, I know what I’m cooking and that I have all the ingredients on hand. If Home Chef could include a tiny, little dish washer fairy in each box, it would be perfection.

Try Home Chef Today! Get $90 Off With Code AFFJANUARY90

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Another meal planning service both Megan and I really like is called eMeals. This is not a meal kit delivery. Instead, eMeals is a subscription based app for your phone where you plan meals, order groceries and the have those groceries delivered to your door step.

Try eMeals Free for 14 Days

Watch our eMeals review here.

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If meal kits or subscription based apps aren’t for you, consider cooking from a healthy cookbook a few nights a week. Here are a couple, highly-rated, easy recipes cookbooks to get your started.

The Best 3-Ingredient Cookbook: Fast and Easy Recipes for Everyone $22

The Well Plated Cookbook: Fast, Healthy Recipes You’ll Want to Eat $20

Make Family Outings a Priority

Do you want to have more fun in the new year? Let’s drill down on how you can make that happen without being overwhelmed by the challenge we’re currently facing.

Creating fun plans or family adventures feels like something that should be a priority. Pre-COVID, our weekends generally revolved around soccer or basketball games and household chores and errands. Outside of the sports, there isn’t a whole lot of fun or adventure involved. Family adventures and shared experiences foster better communication, less behavioral problems in adolescence, and better grades (via PRB.org).

But, who knew in 2016 when we originally made our “realistic resolutions” video that we’d be in the middle of a global pandemic five years later. With life still on a temporary pause and closures of some of our favorite places still remain in effect, all we can do is make a very long bucket list of things we would like to do as a family in the (near, hopefully) future and find some safe alternatives for now.

Stop Pinning and Start Doing

It’s so easy to say I’m going to start a new hobby this year! and have no idea where to start. Do you want to start taking more photos, learn how to bake, read 52 books for the year, clean and organize your home? Whatever it is you want to do, stop thinking about it and just do it.

Get inspired with our list of hobby ideas.

I love to organize spaces in my home. But, I’ll get caught up in how to make the goal happen and never actually get started on the organization. If I don’t start small, I get too overwhelmed and end up pushing it off until next week, next month, or next year.

Take a look back at our collaboration with SheSpeaks TV. Our goal wasn’t to talk about making it to the gym daily, because we can be honest with ourselves about the reality of that happening. Instead, the goal should be attacking the little changes and make those into reality.

As seen or mentioned in this video:

The Family Dinner Cookbook: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids One Meal at a Time $29

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing $11