Bloganuary Day 1

Happy New Year! I pray your 2023 is more prosperous than your 2022 and that it is filled with love, success, charity, and fulfillment. 😀

This January I’m joining the month-long blogging challenge Bloganuary. Hopefully, I last longer than the four days I did last year, but we’re not looking back, we’re only pressing forward! So what do I have in store for the new year?

  What is something you want to achieve this year?

There are a lot of things I hope to achieve in both my personal and writing goals. I’ll reserve the writing goals for this week’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group post, but personally…

2023 will be the last year I lose weight

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of “lose weight” being the #1 New Year’s resolution. I’m tired of losing weight. I’m tired of stepping on the scale and being disappointed by the number displayed. I’m tired of family members reminding me how much I’ve gained like I don’t know this (you are not helping my self-esteem by telling me every day that I am fat). I’m tired of looking in the mirror and hating what I see.

Yes, I want to be healthy. Yes, I want to be in shape. Yes, I want to stop squeezing into shapewear so that my outfits are flattering. Yes, I want to be able to wear those fashionable jumpsuits and formfitting dresses currently collecting dust in my closet. Yes, I would prefer not to be out of breath every time I climb the stairs to my apartment. Yes, I would like to be more active physically.

But (and this is the key word here—BUT!), I am not ugly, I am not worthless, and I will not be shamed while I am in the process of achieving these things or if I do not achieve these things by the end of the year.

Self-care and self-love will be the focus moving forward

Because 2023 will be the year I learn to love myself again, not just who I will become, but who I am right now. Is there a thinner, more confident version of myself that I aspire to be? Sure, but my aspiration should not stop me from appreciating how I am now, specifically, how I look. Because how can I ever expect to achieve the 30+ glow-up when I can’t embrace, cherish, and care for the 30 and under dull-down?

So last week, I decided to cut my hair. Yes, the freeform locs I’d been growing for the last three years are no more. People often say you hold your emotions—everything you’ve ever felt and everything that has ever happened to you—in your locs. Well, with them gone, I feel like a weight has been lifted: all of the depression, loneliness, and slothfulness since the start of the pandemic, which unfortunately came a few months after I started my loc journey.

Although I loved my locs, I wasn’t taking care of them, and I wasn’t taking care of myself. I neglected so much in waiting for perfection rather than actively pursuing it. So those were the first pounds I had to shed, and I was not going to wait until the new year to snip, snip. I wanted to go into the new year already in the process of implementing a new routine of self-care and self-love, which entails…

1. Giving my tiny-weeny afro some tender-loving care
   There was a time when I hated combing my hair, but can you imagine how good it felt to glide it through my hair under that showerhead for the first time in three years? Sure, my hair is only an inch long, but it still felt amazing!
2. Putting on makeup more often
   Even when I have nowhere to go, and at least on those days when I have a Zoom meeting scheduled so I look less gray on camera—also my reflection on the webcam should not be the first time I see myself that day.
3. Working out regularly
   But I want to work out to be active, to feel good about myself, and to care for my body, NOT to lose weight!
4. Maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle
   I love to cook, but I’m terrible and meal planning, and I hate going to the grocery store, so thank God for Hello Fresh! Oh, and by “healthy eating” I simply mean eating balanced, eating whole (when I can), and not skipping meals.
5. Saving money so I can treat myself occasionally
   To take a weekend getaway, go on a shopping spree (though I hate shopping, I need clothes), or take myself out on a date (but not too often because we’re trying to cut down on eating out—food is still too expensive).

So these are the goals (I won’t use “resolutions” because resolutions get abandoned by February) I’m hoping to achieve in 2023 and onward. And I also want to lose 78 pounds (1.5 pounds per week), which will put me back at the smallest I’ve ever been, but I was also the healthiest I’ve ever been, extremely active, and disciplined, and those are the true goals because as long as I can achieve health, consistent physical activity, and discipline, I’ll never have to lose weight again!

So, once again, happy new year, and happy Bloganuary! I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Day 2. By the way, will you be joining Bloganuary? What are some things you’re hoping to achieve this year?

—Nortina