J’Adore Tuesdays: New Year’s Resolutions

I shared a couple of my knitting New Year’s Resolutions last week. While I think I’ll do okay with those, it’s my personal resolutions that will be a bit of a challenge. Over the past week, I’ve gathered apps that I hope will help me, and I thought I’d share my personal goals and some of the apps I’ll be using! I’d also love to hear what apps you use.

1. Lose Weight. I say this every year, but I mean it this time (I also say that every year). I’m a plus-size woman, wearing a size 26. Now, I’m not a body-hater, but I’ve had enough of this. While I didn’t lose weight last year, I did learn to start loving myself for me, which will only help this year. I now know I’m worth it.

To go with this goal, I’m using My Fitness PalIt’s a free app that allows you to track calories, water, and exercise, as well as shows you the breakdown of your daily nutrition. I love it, I’m just out of practice using it. The app’s database has just about any food you can think of, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, it’s plenty easy to add it. The app also has a barcode scanner to save typing everything in.

2. Eat Healthy Food. This goes along with the first, but I don’t want to eat healthy food to lose weight. I want to eat healthy food for its own sake. I mean, vegetables are great! I’m just a lazy cook. I come home in the evening and cook for myself or throw something in the microwave.

I’ve found the app Trufflehead to help with this goal. Trufflehead is a cooking app that has recipes for all skill levels. It’s filled with easy healthy recipes that look like even I could make them.

3. Exercise More. This also is a companion to the first. As a big gal, this is definitely not going to be easy, but I’m okay with that. With everything that’s happened the past few months, I have a lot of pent-up energy and aggression. Again, though, I want to exercise for exercise’s sake, not to lose weight. I plan to use exercise as a way to release all this negativity.

One of the exercises I’m keen to try is Pilates. So, I’ve downloaded the app Learn Pilates. The app is from Mahalo.com, a website dedicated to helping individuals “Learn Anything.” I’m actually really excited I came across this, not just for this app but for the other courses.

4. Learn Something New. I graduated from college two and a half years ago. While I don’t miss exams and research papers, I do miss learning. It’s exciting to learn something new, something you can share with others.

While neither of these are apps, I do have to share these websites with you because they’re just amazing: edX and Coursera. Both sites are run and taught by professors from some of the most prestigious colleges in the world. EdX is run by MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, the University of Texas system, Georgetown University, and Wellesley. Coursera’s universities include (there are many on this list) Stanford, Rice, University of Edinburgh, Brown, and Columbia.

5. Manage Stress. Oy vey do I need this one. This is what keeps me from sleeping. My mind just keeps chirping away, analysing what I did that day and how to do it better in the future or worrying over the small things. It cuts into my sleep time quite a bit.

F0r this resolution, I’m trying the Relax & Rest Guided Meditations. I’ve not really tried meditation before, but I have friends who swear by it. This app is designed to guide you through three different meditations, which can be accompanied by nature sounds, soothing music, or can be just voice alone. I’m looking forward to trying this one out.

What are your resolutions? Are you using any apps or websites to help with them?