I’ve spent a good chunk of my career writing fitness books, a genre released almost entirely around New Year’s Day with a “New Year, New You” marketing campaign.
The idea, of course, is to capture the New Year’s resolution crowd, a group that inevitably gives up their resolutions by Valentine’s Day. Perhaps it would be more effective to look at January 1 as “New Year, Nude You.”
This isn’t about being a nudist. It’s about taking a moment New Year’s Day or in early January to strip nude in front of the mirror and take stock not only of our bodies but everything in our lives. What is serving our goals and what is just clutter? What if we could start with a blank slate? It’s a new year, after all. Let’s take a look at five key areas of our lives where it’s possible to press the re-set button.
PHYSICAL: Body acceptance is a wonderful thing. If you’re concerned, however, that an unhealthy lifestyle is contributing to current or future health problems, get nude and take a long look in a long mirror. Everyone wants to look good in a swimsuit or birthday suit, but getting healthy for aesthetic reasons rarely is sufficient motivation. Instead, consider the consequences of your current lifestyle. Might you be contributing to an early death? At the very least, does your body provide you with enough energy to accomplish what you want? Are you able to provide for loved ones? What if you’re no longer around? That is stronger motivation.
MATERIAL: Are you dreading spending the better part of a day taking down holiday decorations? Consider purging half of them, keeping only what’s truly special. The stuff you didn’t put up this Christmas should be the first to go. Vow to spend 2016 experiencing life rather than acquiring and maintaining belongings. The more you purge, the more time, energy, and resources you’ll have. We always assume possessions make us happy when they actually rob us of our time, money, and energy. Strip down your belongings this year, clothes and everything else, and embrace the freedom.
DIGITAL: For the most part the digital revolution has helped us streamline. There’s no need for photo albums or physical collections of music, movies, or books. Even important documents can be kept in digital form. Indeed, make it a goal this year to put as much of your life in the cloud or on backup drives and free yourself from clutter.
At the same time, the digital world robs us of time and focus via email, texts, online browsing, and social media. The Internet can be a time saving tool, but it’s more often a time drain. Make it a point in 2016 to get “nude” digitally by stripping passive time online from your life. Limit television to an hour a day or less.
It’s also a good time to back up important digital files. If you’re like most people and have lots of photos, keep them on external drives rather than on laptops, tablets, and phones that can fall into the wrong hands.
CONSUMABLE: It’s not just that we eat too much food. We eat too many kinds of food. When we view food as fuel and not as a sensory experience, we’re more likely to eat healthy, fiber-rich, colorful food that fill us up and provides a big bang for the calories.
That’s easier to do by eating the same things on a daily basis. When we eat mostly the same things, shopping is faster and cheaper, and we’re less likely to overeat since we’re in touch with portion size. Swapping soda and sports drinks for water is a healthy way to save money. So too is minimizing alcohol, which fattens stomachs and cleans out wallets.
RELATIONSHIPS: Some people find it tough to cut back on alcohol. That’s because many of their relationships are built around drinking and parties. When activities are geared more toward the physical – hiking, biking, swimming, paddling, even golf, tennis and volleyball – you still might enjoy a drink afterward. But the focus is on the activity not drinking. When we surround ourselves with people who place a premium on experiences, we naturally cull unhealthy relationships and establish healthier ones.
There’s nothing wrong with the occasional celebration, of course. In fact, come December 31, 2016, you’ll no doubt raise a toast to 2016, when you discovered a Nude Year and a “Nude” You.