I've switched from resolutions to an idea suggested by YouTuber CPG Grey. Instead of setting a resolution, you set a "theme" for a particular year. For example, instead of resolving to lose 15 pounds, you just make health your "theme" for that year. The idea is that when you come to any point where you need to make a decision (big or small), you can think about your theme when making that choice, and ideally it'll prompt you to make one aligned with your "theme". (He explains it better than I can.)

I've been doing these since 2021, that year being my "Year of Writing". I ended up getting back into writing regularly every day (something I hadn't been doing for about a decade), which was great. But I still had a bad habit of writing a lot of things that were only useful in the short term (e.g. notes to myself) instead of putting actual work into the story I wanted to write.

So, 2022 was... well, I never came up with a good word for it. "Year of Progress", I guess. My goal was to not just put effort into things, but to actually make real progress. I didn't get as much writing done as I would have liked, but I did finish a draft of something I've been struggling with for a long time, and I'm proud of that.

Funnily enough, I think my "Year of Progress" ended up translating more into "get housework done" than my original intention. Not that I can complain - that desperately needed attention, too. 😉

I think I'm going to keep a similar "theme" for next year. I have a draft I'm hoping to finish by the end of the year, and if I do, then I'm going to switch to editing for a while. In a sense, though, next year's theme is probably going to be "Bravery" - because the end goal is to get to a point where I'm willing to share my writing with someone other than my brother.

I suppose it's trying to limit my sugar intake. This morning, I had a cup of coffee with an unsweetened creamer made with oat milk from the brand "Nutpod" (cinnamon swirl flavor). It works great if you want creamer in your coffee but trying to limit sugar intake.

Now I'm not a regular soda drinker (though I do like ginger ale if I'm feeling nauseous). I'm consider to swap out soda with kombucha. I've heard of a trend kombucha float, which is ice cream and uses kombucha in place of soda.

So I'm not completely cutting out sugar. I'm just trying to limit my sugar intake.