The prominent psychiatrist and bestselling author of Games People Play has this to say about resolutions: (I paraphrase and cite a food-related example). If resolutions are made before the fact (this is the last time I shall eat chocolate cake for breakfast. I'll eat an apple instead), they risk being broken. If the announcement is made after the fact (it has been six months since I've eaten chocolate cake for breakfast. I now eat an apple), it's a project. The chocolate-at-breakfast-eating person has made the change.
What I infer from it is this: Don't talk about it. Do it and then talk about it.
Which has me pondering why we talk about it in the first place. I have just eaten a humongous piece of a Theobroma grain-free chocolate cake and ponder away I must. I owe it to my 2018 self, the guilty, indisciplined, reckless self who ate too many bad gluten-free things all year long.
Why indeed make New Year resolutions? Timepass party conversation? Validation? A legitimate platform to share one's innermost thoughts, fears and desires, my buddies and I wonder as we draw up a list. We limit it to ten points. Easier to stick to, we decide. Mine is the gluten-free version.
1. No sugar (or only 1 teaspoon).
2. No hydrogenated and trans fat (unless we pass the wada pao stall at Churchgate).
3. 1-2 cups of coffee or tea (with or without daily quota of sugar).
4. Very very very little alcohol.
5. Fewer simple carbohydrates (preferably none after 5 pm).
6. Limited social media, shopping and people who drain us with negative energy.
7. More raw food (we differ on its ratio to cooked food - half, a third, a fourth)
8. More 4 am friends (to ring for heart-repair).
9. More 6 am jogs.
10. Good grooming, good choices and good sleep.
We shall follow the commandments after the first week of Jan 2019, we concur. Our systems need to recover from PTS, the post traumatic stress stemming from the decision to follow this amazing new and challenging lifestyle.
We wish ourselves luck and a joyous 2019.