Today is technically the end of my first New Year’s resolution – a 2 week detox from alcohol, cigarettes and sweets. I’ll admit I didn’t do as great as I wanted, at least with the smoking, but everything else I’ve been fairly solid. I smoked on Wednesday of last week, and while it felt like a small failure, I’m not beating myself up too bad since my goal wasn’t to quit smoking completely. My goal was and is to cut back on smoking and treat it more like drinking I guess. I don’t drink every day, I don’t drink during the day (except on special occasions or mimosas at brunch) and I think I’d like to treat smoking that way as well. So, while I did have a cigarette Wednesday evening, I did not smoke during the day at work or at home at any point and have decided to only smoke socially or when I’m drinking, which I’m good with and completely capable of. Furthermore, I feel that not smoking cigarettes for over a week after smoking for 10+ years is pretty good, especially since I did it cold turkey and without the aid of any sort of supplement such as the patch or gum. I proved to myself that I can quit long enough to get the toxins out of my system, and that’s exactly what I did.

Drinking went almost the full two weeks. I put in a previous post that I had a fairly important birthday party to attend on Saturday and that I was contemplating taking a hiatus from my detox for the occasion. I decided to have that hiatus and so ended up drinking at said party. It was fun, however, I did not anticipate the change in tolerance from not having drank for almost two weeks straight. I may have gone a little overboard, and while I hope I didn’t make a complete fool of myself, I felt it the next day. But I think it was a good lesson learned. I hate the day after drinking. Saturday was such a productive weekend day and it felt so nice to wake up early, get things done and then have time to relax before having more things to attend to. This made Sunday feel so much worse, as I sat on my couch for hours on end, regretting the decisions I made the previous night. Overall, it made me realize that moderation is key, and that I don’t have to drink at every occasion just because other people are drinking. I’m capable of saying no, and capable of sticking to it.

The one thing I’ve stuck to my guns to the entire two weeks is no sweets. This isn’t too difficult for me as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth to begin with. Not that I don’t like the occasional cookie or bowl of ice cream now and then, but I didn’t feel any terrible cravings over the past two weeks. I think I’ll keep this one going too. I’m already seeing good changes in my body from the lack of drinking and lack of sweets. I’ve also started drinking an apple cider vinegar drink in the mornings which I hope will help to propel my progress. Overall, I still feel better during the day with more energy and am sleeping better at night. My biological clock has changed as well. I’m waking up each morning before my alarm at around 5:50am. The best part is actually getting up and ready for work in the morning with time to spare. This spare time is used to walk my dogs if weather permits, and I love having the extra time outside before being confined to an office all day.

I’m also still sticking to my meal prepping and planning. I did my shopping for the week on Saturday morning. I once again purchased the majority of my product from the Farmer’s Market which is great because part of my resolution is to stop with convenience and start supporting more local causes. I have some rather tasty meals planned for the week, a couple of which are new that I’m excited to try and hopefully blog about. I haven’t purchased anything new as part of my no buying anything new resolution for the entire year. And, like I said, I’ve continued to walk in the mornings as part of my resolution to take better care of my body (my gym is still not open… need to check on the progress of that).

I’m proud of my progress and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’m excited to get to tackling my other resolutions as well, mostly the gardening. I believe I’ll need to purchase my seeds soon for starting indoors. I’ve been pinning upcycled ideas for planters like crazy and can’t wait to see what other ones I can come up with. All in all, I’m excited and looking forward to the next steps.

How are your resolutions or goals going for the year? Is there anything you’ve learned about yourself so far?

MelissaRose