4 Casual Promises to Myself That I Am Under No Legal Obligation to Fulfill (2019)

It's not my new year resolution. According to Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of New Year's resolution is a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year.

Let's face it, most of us, if not all, can't keep our new year's resolution till the end of the year. So I've not set any for the past few years. Oh, actually I did. My goal was to survive wtf.

However, somewhere in December last year, I decided to start a few things before the new year and so far stepping into the new year, they're slowly becoming habits now. So Imma pen them down and maybe review them monthly to keep myself in check? Again, these are just casual promises to myself that I am under no legal obligation to fulfill wtf lol but will try my best to practice them.

1. Cutting down sugar intake.

If you are my best friend or if you know me well enough, you should know that I don't snack on junk food and I don't drink soft drinks. At all! The only thing that's keeping away from being a healthy nerd is my addiction to sugar. I CRAAAAVVEEEEE for sugary drink all. the. damn. time. I need to have my milo bing fixed every single day. On some extreme days, I could drink a few cups/ packets a day. And on weekends, especially when I'm in a mall, I will make all sorts of excuses just to buy that cuppa cheese milk tea.

Somehow one day, I decided that I really need to stop doing this. There was no particular reason, really. Just a moment of coming to my good conscious. Yet I know that it's easier said then done. So I'm gonna go easy on this. For now, I will only allow myself to have one cup of milo or any sugary drink a day. And if I'm getting a cup of milk tea, I will make sure to order it without sugar or 30% sugar. It was a lil hard at first but now I can walk past my favourite cheese tea store without looking back if my "quota" is fulfilled that day. I would tell myself that I can come back again tomorrow or next week. It gets even easier to walk away when my purse is empty wtf.

But I do give-in occasionally. Especially when I need a mood booster desperately  because the husband doesn't remember our anniversary or even if he does, he did fucking nothing about it to go on with life wtf.

2. Go green.

I sometimes bring my tumbler out to get a drink or take a container with me to buy food. Often times, I just forgot about it because plastic cups are so conveniently available and readily provided.

This time, I decided that I'm gonna make it a habit. If I don't have my tumbler with me, I'd bite my lips and quickly walk passed my favourite drink store. I'm proud to say that I've done quite well so far. My tumbler has served me drinks like milo (ahem) from McD to my favourite cheese tea (the barista has a hard time pouring cheese into the tumbler though haha). Using the tumbler has also helped me to save on using straws. Not just that, my tumbler is also a reminder of my daily sugary drink quota because once I've used it, it has to be cleaned to be used again. But I usually won't be able to clean until I reach home so... yupe.

I also started to bring one container in the bag just in case I need to buy food. Any food. Be it pastry or proper meal. If I don't have it with me, I'd have a quick dine-in if possible. This, too, has been quite successful so far.

How else can I go green? I now carry 2 shopping bags in my backpack (and a few more on stand-by in the car). Later, Imma start getting home essentials from bulk store. Later because I still have new bottles of toiletries lying around waiting for me wtf. Oh, if you do not know what a bulk store is, it's a place that sells everything you need to run your household (and life) at affordable prices and with zero plastic packaging! I only know of a few bulk stores, namely A Bit Less Bulk Store, NUDE The Zero Waste Store and BYOB. Hopefully more and more of this kinda store will pop up. Better yet, pop up somewhere near my place please :)

3. Stop barking at the kids

I am not the perfect mother. Having to juggle life, work and the kids alone can sometimes get overwhelming. And when it does, I get easily frustrated. But kids don't fully understand. They continue to do things in their usual slow pace and gets distracted easily. And so in order to get things done quicker, I have to raise my voice at them. Often, regretfully, yell and scream at them. It works. And everyone stays alive at the end of the day wtf. But it's not how I wish to get things done. Because after all the barking, the kids feel confused and upset, and I feel defeated. Not by the kids though, by myself. At the end of the day, it's just not good at all for everyone. There're days where I just broke down and cried, leaving the kids even more confused. Especially Charlotte, who's turning 4 this year. She'd walk up to me and ask, "Are you ok, mummy? Why? Why are you crying?". Then proceeds to put her arms around me and goes, "It's ok mummy, I am here ok? I am here." while Emmett looks at us with his tilted head.

Sigh.

So for the sake of all of us, I'm trying to stop this nonsense. Now, whenever I feel like I'm at the verge of loosing my cool, I try to take 5 deep breaths or walk away.

I'm still working on it.

4. Practice Intermittent Fasting

I didn't know intermittent fasting was a thing! I mean, I lost 20 over kgs using the same method when I was a 13 year old teenager and people were condemning me for "destroying" my body by starving myself. But I wasn't! I would have a meal or 2 a day and I eat normally. It makes me look forward to break-fast even more. Besides, I love finishing my dinner earlier because if I finish my dinner later, it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable to go to bed with a full stomach. I will end up sleeping late and feeling more tired the next day having to wake up early.

I've been practicing intermittent fasting for 2 weeks now and I've lost 2kgs so far.

I'll be writing my monthly review (hopefully lol) and erm... let's see how things go :) How about you? Do you have any new year's resolution?

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