New year, no fear and lets kick the beer (gut)

As one of the many who can safely raise their hand and be counted among the 1 in 3 Australians that noted a wee bit of weight gain after isolation last year, now is the time to better myself.

The online survey conducted by The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) showed all Australians that staying at home and boozing it up over Zoom did indeed have consequences (among many, many more severe issues that came to light throughout 2020).

2021 is the opportunity to work it all out, or work it over or whatever work adjacent word works for you, but for me it’s time to cut back, shut off and reconnect with lost relationships.

Cutting Back

My priorities during isolation very quickly shifted physical health to damn near the bottom of the ladder. Comfort clothing, comfort food and very slim excuses to avoid even simple exercise quickly destroyed some proudly won fitness levels and physique.

Getting my diet under control has been the key focus for these last few months and the biggest challenge has been re-building my self-control. There’s an ocean of information on improving your diet and eating habits but these three tactics are what’s working best for me.

Eating more often: I became tragic for eating two large and gluttonous meals a day that left me bloated and unmotivated. Following health advice to kickstart not only my energy levels but my metabolism, I am now chowing through 5 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner with two snacks in between.

Eating less when you do: Eating more often helps sustain your energy throughout the day but eating smaller, better portions is the true path to healthy weight management. That and of course regular exercise for periods of 30 minutes or more.

Set aside cheat days: Junk food and booze are still very much on the table, but saved for weekends to spice up the weekly meal plan ─ bonus points if you aim for the healthier option but they’re called cheat days for a reason.

“Don’t diet, live it” maybe a gross cliché but changing your outlook on restricting food choices is the only way to push through the cravings with any success or dignity.

Shutting Off

As someone who lives and breathes all things tech (and had no issue with a Zoom based social life) the screen time had to drop. A year solely focused on screens for work and screens for entertainment and screens for communication squeezed in between had me itching for a trip to the optometrist.

While I can’t step back in time to an era where pen and paper are the norm for work ─ and nor would I want to, long live the glorious digital age ─ I can control my screen brightness and be proactive about taking breaks.

The biggest step towards freeing my eyes from constant strain has been making the commitment to step away from my phone as much as possible. Turning off notifications, deleting old apps, games and image browsers and leaving the device at home for short trips, are all wonderful ways to touch base with reality.

Reconnecting

Isolation was a truly weird experience where some social connections flourished over Zoom and others wilted without direct physical engagement. I’m sad to say that during 2020 some relationships fell by the wayside and the harsh restrictions on attendance for social events created cruel shortlists for who you could share experiences with.

The last few weeks have been a proactive and rewarding journey in reaching out to friends, family members and communities after a year of strife. Enjoying the luxuries of social contact that we dreamed for during the long months of isolation and binge watching.

Everyone is working through their own fallout from last year and while I can share some of my day-to-day actions to get back on top, sharing by a gushy article isn’t an option for everyone. Reaching out, listening and sharing how each of us suffered, endured and succeeded is so important for recovery and understanding that we all have the strength to overcome whatever comes next.

We are all in this together, but its when we face our challenges alone that it can all fall apart. If there is one thing to takeaway from this drive to be better in 2021, its to be better to each other and reach out to that friend you haven’t heard from in a while.