We deserve a new year. We've earned 2018.
Whether 2017 was rough for you because of things that happened in your personal life, or because things have gotten meaningfully worse for you due to our political climate, or simply because you're a person in the world who reads the news, or all of the above, January 1 offers us all the chance to start anew.
THAT SAID, I’m 100% done with starting the year thinking, What resolutions, which I will hate doing, will make me a better version of myself?
Look, I get it. The new year is a great opportunity to think about what you want to do differently in life — what with this fresh slate Father Time is giving us and all. And if anyone is into spending time analyzing herself, her relationships, behavior patterns, yadda yadda yadda, it’s me. But there’s a universe of difference between doing meaningful self-reflection and tasking yourself with a yearlong to-do list that you can basically sum up with “WAYS TO BE BETTER BY SOCIETY'S NORMS.” In fact, the make-believe Sally who preps all her meals, works out six days a week, meditates daily, sleeps eight hours per night, and spends all weekend reading literary fiction instead of rewatching The Good Place — I’m pretty sure I invented her just so that I could feel bad about not being her yet. This is not aspiration. This is self-punishment.
This got me thinking. What if we tried new things and formed new habits not because we're striving to be more acceptable versions of ourselves, but because we know that even when we feel drained, stressed, lazy, inept, broken, etc., we're still, at our cores, people who deserve to feel good about who we are? What if we were fueled not by our self-loathing, but by our legit belief in our own self-worth?
To see if we can actually make this A Thing, BuzzFeed Health is starting 2018 with New Year's Revolution, two weeks of content full of ideas for ways to have a richer, fuller 2018, minus the imperative to become a new you.
"OK, but so what does that actually mean?" you might be asking yourself. Great question, fair question.
We’ll be offering the ideas and tips that, if you’re like me, you’ll really need in 2018, including how to feel and cope better and build self-confidence, as well as new ways to think about food and exercise that go beyond weight loss. We’ll talk about how to form a healthy habit, stress less about money, deal with being single AND deal with being in a relationship, and when to know it’s time to stop pursuing a goal.
And there’s one last thing. We’re not going to be creating new weight-loss content for New Year’s Revolution. First of all, we figure you don’t need yet another outlet making you think about weight loss if you don’t want to deal with that. Plus, we’ve already done a lot of damn good reporting in the past on weight loss and related topics and we figure that anyone who’s interested in pursuing that can check it out, as it’s all still relevant AF.
Below is a killer selection of BuzzFeed Health's super-informative, fun, highly readable, and not-at-all-shame-y tips, advice, and explainers on weight loss. Get into it:
• 23 Surprising Weight-Loss Tips That Are Actually Doable
• 29 Things You Actually Need To Hear If You're Trying To Lose Weight
• Here’s Everything You Need To Know To Actually Lose Body Fat
• 10 People Who Lost 50+ Pounds Share Their Best Tips For Getting Started
• 333 Weight Loss Tips That You'll Wish You'd Read Sooner
• 13 People Who Lost 40+ Pounds Share What Really Got Them Results
• This 30-Day Fitness Challenge Will Make You Feel Like A Badass
Let the revolution begin!
Follow along at BuzzFeed.com/NewYearsRevolution from Jan. 1 to Jan. 14, 2018.
And keep an eye out for the NYR badge, because we’ll be adding content throughout February!
