January has always been a detox month for me. I can’t remember where it started, or when, but for a pretty long time now, January has been where I made up for the excesses of December by spending no money, drinking no alcohol and eating healthily. It’s not a resolution, so much, as a habit.

And as such, it’s quite easy to stick to, because I spend 11 months knowing that it’s coming.

Det-Or-Big_000I discovered a fantastic detox drink last year, which you have an hour before breakfast, and it really does clean out the system. From years of experience with various detox concoctions, I can really vouch for this one’s effectiveness. And as an added bonus, it tastes pretty good. Feeling great is progress, and the sooner you get there, the more likely you are to stick at it, aren’t you? And they didn’t even pay me to say that.

Also, because it’s not a resolution, there’s no pressure to start on January 1st. In fact, since we have a busy weekend on a still festive theme, we’ve decided to start on Monday, January 4th, so that we don’t have the potential of failure looming up at us from the get go.

It’s all about SMART goals, really:

Specific Goals:
1) Spend Nothing (or at least nothing over our very low weekly budget)
2) Detox – no refined sugar, no alcohol, and for me, wean off the caffeine again.
3) Take control of wastage- i.e. plan meals to better effect, use up left overs, cook things and eat or freeze them before they rot. And recycle.

Measurable Goals:
1) How far under or over budget we are, determines the success of this one
2) The first few days are hard – but suck it up and you soon forget that you had those cravings in the first place. The day after a sugar high, you crave sugar fiercely. The day after that you don’t even think about it. How do you measure it? Well, check the scale, for a start.
3) Should be visible in the weekly garbage collection output.

Achievable Goals:
1) Totally achievable. So long as there’s food on the table and bills are paid, we don’t need much else.
2) I control my cravings, they do not control me. Now repeat that 100 times. Then repeat it another 100 times as you peel yourself away from the bakery window.
3) Yes. Just takes a bit of planning. But with all that time I’ll be spending not looking at or eating refined sugars, it’ll be easy enough!

Realistic Goals:
1) Done it before, so yes
2) *sigh* Must keep trying
3) Of course. If I can manage whole projects, surely I can manage one fridge?

Timely Goals:
1, 2 & 3) Let’s just focus on January for now. The rest will take care of itself. If 2 & 3 become a habit, that can only improve our lives.

So that’s my plan for January. Now to the kitchen, to see what should be cooking. Oh! For the slovenly life of December!

Happy January, Everyone!

18 Comments

January’s Tortures Life Detox

  1. I like your detox tradition! Are you going to blog about it as you do it this year? I’d be interested in following along. My husband is doing a detox this month as well. Good luck!

  2. We tend to swing into a “detox” mode around here too. We can’t keep up with eating all of the sweets of the holidays, I think we’d get really sick. Time to let the chocolate supply run out and get back to real life!

  3. Thanks for sharing your January habits with us My Friend. Here’s Praying for a healthy and happy detox month for you and Sir Martin! <3

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