New Year, New You... Blah Blah Blah..

Are you tired of hearing NEW YEAR, NEW YOU yet?   

It's only January 8, 2017 and I am already tired of hearing it on every TV channel I turn on the TV and walk by a Newsstand and you will see it on every cover.  I admit that I was guilty of perpetuating this in the past in blog posts and I even wrote said article for B Magazine a free Beauty magazine that was available in TTC stations many years ago.   It's about this time when people are already starting to get tired of going to the gym and they start dropping off.

It's kind of stating the obvious that we all want spectacular lives all the time but is it realistic?

After a couple of months of celebrating with food at Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas dinners or even Hannukah food traditions and then add all those work events and other family and friend get togethers and Potluck's that all revolved around eating massive quantities of mostly high fat, sugar and salty foods.  How many of you are feeling snug in your clothes now?  Yes I bet a whole bunch of you unless you have a crazy workout routine everyday if you had the time.

But as soon as the Calendar turns to January 1st, you are expected to put down that fork and pick up dumbbells instead and hit the gym hard and get in the best shape of your life instantly because last years version of you wasn't good enough.  You have to be a smarter, fitter, younger version of yourself and you also have to have more money to be seen as acceptable in the North American Society.

Would you tell the 2 year old pictured above that her 1st year of life wasn't good enough and now that she is 2 she needs to become a NEW person and be better and look better and do better.   Well of course not, so why are we so hard on each other and ourselves as we become adults?

I don't know about you but I try and be a better person everyday and it's a struggle.  I have my own high expectations of what I thought my life would be like but it turned out to be very different than what I pictured in my head when I was a teenager.  I am hard enough on myself that I didn't achieve my goals and I don't particularly appreciate the constant media messages that I am a failure because I don't have the perfect body, family, friends, home, job.    If everyone had all of those things there wouldn't be any homeless people on the streets.  It's just not real.  Nobody can have it ALL.. something gets sacrificed somewhere.  

Every year I say to myself that I want to be fitter and healthier because every year when I am at TIFF I feel the effect of me being out of shape when I have to run up the stairs at Roy Thompson Hall. But every year I seem to gain more weight and have a bit less energy.  Well I know better but I also have a highly stressful life trying to find work and keeping up with my blog with not a whole lot of help.  Age is creeping up with me and after a couple of falls this past couple of years and not always eating clean while going to all the food events it takes a bit of a toll and I really feel it at the end of the year when I stay home more and hibernate.

My goal this year is to try and up my cleaner, healthier food quotient.  I started my week off at work with Green Tea and a fruit and nut oatmeal and I always have a bottle of water with me to stay hydrated.  The Builder's bar is to carry with me when I am starving at work or out and about so that I have something to grab quickly.

In the winter because there are less festivals and events to go to I go back into my kitchen a lot more.  I go back to what I did way before blogging started and that is making more things like Chili, Sheppards Pie, Stews, and roasted vegetables.

I used to do a thing called veggie Sundays when I was at home with my Mom and brother.  Sundays were always a day when nothing much was happening and I would watch cooking shows on TV or get bored so I would go into the kitchen and start to cook something and then would end up cooking a whole bunch of vegetables because I was trying to use things before they spoiled or I would start to prep a vegetable and then have some left to make something else.  One thing usually turned into 3 or 4 things at least.  Even though yesterday was Saturday I did that again and made Baba Ganoush, Roasted Red Peppers in Garlic Oil, a Vegetable stock and a roasted tomato jam.  Now I have things in the fridge to make or eat quickly.

I need to get back into this habit of doing prep at least 1 morning or day on the weekend to have things ready to eat quickly during the week.   More Batch cooking for less time in the kitchen and also less cleaning up time.    Cook once eat twice or more.

Here is my 1st TIP to start your new Year Batch cooking. Make this recipe if you have these things:

Fridge Clean Stock

1 medium onion cut in quarters
1/2 of a leek, use the green parts that normally get discarded
1 to 2  carrot roughly chopped in a couple of pieces
2 Bay leaves
2 Tbsp of fresh parsley
2 to 3 celery sticks.  Use the interior or ends that you would throw out.
1 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tbsp salt - add more at the end if needed

Optional:  add garlic, parsnips, ginger or other things that will add flavour or you might want to use up.

Fill a stock pot half way with water and add the vegetables.

Bring water to a boil and then turn down to a simmer on medium low heat.  Cook for at least an hour or more or until all the vegetables have lost their color and are falling apart soft.

Pull out the vegetables and you could either blend them into the soup or discard for a clear stock.

Put the stock into plastic or glass containers and let cool and then put into the fridge.  You can freeze the stock in plastic containers or even in ice cube trays for instant stock to add to stir fry's etc.

Holiday Hangover

Do you have a Holiday Hangover?

It's the start of a New Year and we are just starting into January 2015.  Did you notice that the ads for weight loss services and products started on January 1st?  There's no coincidence in that fact.   Everyone spends most of December over indulging in Food and Alcohol while being social and trying to keep up with all the social obligations that they have whether it's a work Holiday Party or a Traditional Family Dinner or even just a party with friends.  You either can't say No or you don't want to say No to events and food and drink.  But then the marketers cash in to your guilt after all the gluttony is over and you look at your expanding waistline and shrinking pocketbook and the total lack of energy you have after trying to be everywhere and eat everything over the Holidays.

Are you feeling the effects of a Holiday Hangover?  Here's the thing.   It's not your fault.  Well some of it is but really you just fell into the trap that is set up by savvy marketers.   Starting from our Canadian Thanksgiving in October the marketers start pushing the Holiday Decorations, the entertaining tips, the gifts you need to buy and all the food shows really ramp up all the perfect holiday events that you need to host or attend.   Yes I have fallen into that trap and probably perpetuated it myself as well.
It's hard not to fall into it.  Everyone wants a better life and to spend time eating great food and drinking with our friends and family and enjoying our life.  We are encouraged to make the Holidays the best they can be.   Well it's not always a great time of year for everyone.  For myself it's a rough time of year because I don't have a family and I don't have a job other than this blog right now so the pressure to buy gifts and bring things to parties and host events is high but I end up alone on the key holidays because people spend it with their families.  Depression is at an increased level for a lot of people at this time of year because they just can't keep up or measure up to what's expected in their life.

Then the New Year hits and you are expected to magically shed all the Holiday weight and achieve impossibly high goals by a certain time.  But you still have a Holiday Hangover.   You probably have a huge amount of holiday bills to pay.  If you go back to work you are probably overloaded with work that didn't get done while you were busy attending all the parties.   If you drink you may be getting over the Christmas and New Year hangovers.   Yes you feel like crap in more ways than one and those smart marketers are going to help you fix all of your problems.   They will sell you gym memberships, weight loss services and products and make you feel like your life isn't good enough as it is and you need to change into a NEW YOU.   Yes,  I have been guilty of writing articles about this in the past but this year I am going to tell you that it's not your fault.

As I look around my home and see all the remaining treats from generous friends and even companies and my own cooking and buying of treats for entertaining I realize that it's hard to start your weight loss goals while all of these things are still around your house.   But you don't want to throw them out because people have thought about you and brought you sweet treats or your secret Santa gift exchanges contained treats or you received hostess gifts.  It's really easy to just pick up a gift basket from Costco or a box of Chocolate from the drugstore because it can keep and you don't have to do anything with it.  Who doesn't love chocolate or cookies or candies or cakes?
 I made a few food gifts because I didn't have money to spend on gifts.

I hosted a small party because I realized that I accumulated a lot of food from attending all my food blogging events and I told my friends not to bring any munchie foods but one of my friends still brought a box of chocolate because it's what you think you are supposed to do.   My same friend dropped by on the weekend totting a box of Cinnabons to have with tea.  
So you see that food is still all around you and this is why your New Year's resolutions to lose weight fail a week into January.  It's cold out and you feel like crap and this food makes you feel better right away until the guilt and television reminders kick in and then you beat yourself up about it.

This year my resolutions are to no make a diet and weight loss resolution but to drink more tea with great health properties like Oprah's Chai Tea or Green Tea.   I am also trying to clean up my life by making sure I don't waste food and keeping clutter to a minimum.   My big goal is to get a job that pays enough to live the life I want while still leaving me time to keep up on this blog because I enjoy it but it's not supporting me at this time unfortunately.

I am working on getting rid of my Holiday Hangover and all the after effects of a couple of months of buying and doing things I shouldn't be doing.   But I am going to try and ditch the guilt and just move forward and try and spend less and eat better.

Ditch the Holiday Hangover and the guilt and just keep moving forward.
My advice to ditch your Holiday Hangover is to take more time for Tea..
Drink the good stuff and Detox and take the time to sit back and enjoy it and re focus where you are going in this New Year.

Enjoy 2015 and be prepared to do it all again next year.