As goes the tradition in my blog, I will share my New Year’s Resolutions. My overall resolution that covers all those below is to do things that I enjoy more often this year and to feel healthier. Last year was difficult stress-wise and I often felt sad that I have lost some of my enthusiasm for my life and spend too much time doing things (or thinking about things) that I don’t like. Since this is all up to me, really, this year I have decided to not only make more time for things I want to do but also put more energy into those things that I have to do and thus make them more enjoyable.

Diet
After living as a not-always-compliant Gatherer in 2008, I am starting 2009 as an Explorer! Based on my measurements and other info I come out close to either genotype, with the final decision resting on finger measurements! My fingers are so debatable, I’m just assuming they are equal lengths and that made me a Gatherer by the book. However, I also have many features of an Explorer (and some of Hunter, for that matter). Plugging all my info into SWAMI tells me I’m an Explorer, although the diet created for me is not the textbook Explorer diet since it is customized for my needs.

My first resolution is to get familiar with my food lists and improve my diet a bit. Meaning more vegetables and fruits and less sugar and caffeine. I’ve been getting sloppy, mostly because I am sometimes so tired and hungry at the end of the day that I eat whatever is closest to me!

Another dietary change I’ve already implemented that I plan to stick with is to be gluten-free. In October I went to a seminar on gluten sensitivity (will write a blog about it soon!) and since then have been nearly 100% gluten-free. I think I have accidentally eaten a few things with gluten, but I’m avoiding anything obvious and also cut out some gluten-contaminated foods such as oats. I think I do better gluten-free and I also think I have the least white lines in my fingerprints now than ever (comparing back to prints taken in 2005 and 2007). It will be interesting to see if this improves even further.

Exercise
This is a resolution every year! I would love to get to a point sometime in my life when I feel that I have enough time to exercise as much as I would like. I know this will not happen while I’m still in school, but hopefully soon after graduating I will have more control over my time…

Anyway, I would like to get to the gym twice per week on average. I love being there, I love how I feel after being there, and I have the ability to do this. So I will. Not every week will be perfect, but this should be doable most of the time. While there I will do what I feel like doing, as long as it is exercise. I would also like to get back into running semi-regularly. I ran a lot in the summer (sometimes 4-5 times per week) and loved it. I like being outside, I love the feeling of running, and it adds variety to my exercise routine. About once per week (or more) I’d like to get outside for a run (however short it may be). Finally, I would like to do some other exercise activities that are fun. One is to play squash with my boyfriend. I’ve never played (but want to learn) he wants to teach me, so this will be fun. I also want to maybe go swimming sometimes, do more yoga, go ice skating, etc.

The rest
The rest of my resolutions are more minor, mostly habits and health promotion stuff:
• Meditate daily before bed and hopefully other times in the day
• Body brushing
• Give advice only when asked
• Embrace silence
• Make time to do things I enjoy: read, talk to friends, see my boyfriend, cook, exercise, rest