I wish I could permanently eliminate diet-based New Year’s Resolutions. I think they are what give resolutions a bad name. Because no one actually wants to diet. They might want to be healthier. They might want to weigh less. They may want to look great on their spring break beach vacation. But they don’t want to diet. And diets are doomed to fail! So you start them and then you fail and then you feel awful and rebound hard and then just give up entirely.

I LOVE New Year’s Resolutions and it’s because it gives you a fresh start to go after things you’re really psyched about. Great things! Fun things! Things that make you a better you!

So ditch the food and diet resolutions and give one of these a try instead!

Non-Diet New Year’s Resolutions

1. Find a podcast you love and stick with it.
2. Cut your social media feed in half
3. Join a book club (mine!)
4. Plan a trip somewhere you’ve never been
5. Learn about your family history
6. Get to know your neighbors
7. Complete a 30 day yoga challenge
8. Figure out your skincare
9. Get a library card and go once a month!
10. Get CPR certified
11. Take a class at your community center for something that interests you
12. Buy a beginner’s crochet/embroidery/sewing/woodworking/etc kit and see if you like it
13. Watch a new documentary every week/month
14. Make a monthly savings goal and track it!
15. Cook your way through a cookbook, start to finish
16. Study the 5 Love Languages and work on them in your marriage
17. Make a restaurant passport of all the places you’ve been meaning to try and check them off throughout the year
18. Work on changing your relationship with someone important to you
19. Try a new form of exercise each month
20. Improve your sleep quality by setting routines, tracking sleep patterns, and streamlining your bedroom
21. Find ways to drink more water
22. Join or start a team playing a sport you’ve missed playing
23. Study minimalism and tackle one area of your home per month to clean and donate what you don’t need
24. Get into politics! Follow local government leaders on social media, read up on the needs of your town, follow political podcasts, and attend town hall meetings. Make sure you vote!
25. Try one full season of a show you wouldn’t normally watch
26. Regularly keep a journal – traditional, bullet journal, online, or other
27. Take care of your mental health with medication, therapy, and self care
28. Find a meaningful service project that gets you all fired up!
29. Undertake an organizational project that you’ve been putting off, but will be awesome – such as organizing photos on a hard drive, cleaning out a storage unit, clearing out a file drawer to go paperless, moving all your DVDs to digital, etc.
30. Try a no-spend week or month periodically through the year
31. Research potential educational programs you may be interested in, even if it’s just for fun
32. Watch a hit television series start-to-finish (The Office is obviously my fave, but Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, How I Met Your Mother, Parks & Rec are other good options)
33. Sign up for a fitness event that you’ve always wanted to try, like a 5K, Tough Mudder, Ragnar, CrossFit competition, or sports tournament
34. Learn how to be more environmentally friendly and implement a few new practices in your home to be ~green
35. Implement a daily habit, such as flossing, waking up early, prayer or meditation, making your bed, putting on makeup, exercise, packing a lunch, dedicated time with a child or spouse, etc.
36. Use an app like HomeBudget, Mint, or You Need A Budget to begin tracking your finances
37. Make photobooks with Chatbooks, Shutterfly or a similar platform to save and remember important events from the past few years.
38. Get an heirloom family recipe from a mom or grandma and learn to make it
39. Do something that scares you – skydiving, snowboarding/skiing, host a party, start that side hustle, ask for help with something, or do something by yourself that you’ve been waiting around for someone to do with you
40. Break a bad habit or addiction (read Better than Before to help with this)

It’s 2019. Stop worrying about your weight or pant size. Go chase that dream and go after something fun and awesome!