Paleo Birthday Resolutions

It’s my birthday today, which is the perfect time to evaluate my achievements this past year – and to focus on what I want to achieve in this brand new, unchartered year.

This past year can be summarised by one word for me: Paleo!  I’ve travelled to America twice for PrimalCon and the Ancestral Health Symposium and met so many amazing, lifelong, Paleo friends along the way.  I’ve refined my Paleo nutrition and found what works for me.  My housemate and a few friends have adopted a Paleo lifestyle, which I am thrilled about.  I’ve spent a lot of time this year researching and reading in the Paleosphere – and of course, I started this blog.  My biggest personal achievement this year has been my fitness.  I have never been as fit as I am now and it enhances almost every aspect of my life.  Linked into all of these factors, my sleep has been another huge transformation this past 12 months.  I used to really struggle to fall asleep, sleep very poorly, then struggle to wake up in the morning.  The last few months however, I’ve been tired at bedtime, sleeping soundly and waking up before my alarm almost every morning!

It seems like a timely point to work out what I want to achieve between now and my next Birthday, with the help of some “New Years” resolutions.  So, from tomorrow: –

1.       I’m going to see the sunrise and sunset every day.

This is going to be quite a challenge, but it seems a really important link, to the body’s natural circadian rhythm.  After all, we should live alongside the natural day; staying up until 4am isn’t good for us.  Here in Sydney Sunrise is between about 5:15am (this month) and 7am in the winter months.  This should be fairly easy.  I’ll get up just before sunrise, so I should see the sunrise on my walk into work.  The time of year will then determine how long I spend in the gym/ swimming pool before I go to work – or perhaps I’ll even start work early?  Sunset will be a lot more of a challenge, as in Sydney it varies from around 4:50pm in June to about 8:10pm in the summer months (I do miss those long summer evenings in the UK!).  I’m not sure how I’ll tackle this one in the winter, but the summer should be quite achievable.

2.       I’m going to get rid of five things every day.

One Primal area I really struggle with is minimalism!  I have a lot of “stuff”.  My friend Lars over at Primal Minimalist has recently started a new daily habit of de-cluttering his house by five things every day.  I could honest do this every day for the next year – and probably still have quite a lot left by my next birthday.  So this is what I’m going to do!

3.       I’m only going to eat local food.

I think I’m probably fairly compliant on this one already, when I eat at home.  When I eat out however (which is all too frequently), I often have no idea where the food is sourced from.  I need to know this.  I think it’s really important to eat local food (and ideally, organic).  This should also mean I am only eating seasonally, which is also important.  I can hopefully achieve this by bringing in my lunch to work, and eating out less.  When I do eat out, I’ll be very careful to select somewhere that uses local food – and I won’t be afraid to ask!  One area that might not be possible is coconut oil; I’ll investigate further, but may need to make an exception here.

4.       I’m going to up the ante on my chin-up & fitness mission.

By my next birthday I want to be able to do ten unassisted pull-ups and be working towards hand-stand push-ups!  I also want to be considerably fitter and stronger than I am today.  As I have never been as fit and strong as I am today, this is all very exciting new territory.

Are you still sticking to your New Years or birthday resolutions?  Which new Paleo habits would you like to adopt?  What do you think of my resolutions?