It’s that time of year again!! I always find New Years to be a funny time of year because it seems to be one of the only times where we ALL sit down and reflect back on our past year and set these big audacious goals for the year ahead … and sometimes those big goals are hard to stick to because we tend to overwhelm ourselves right off the bat by telling ourselves that we have to eat salad for dinner every night and go to the gym 7 days a week!! I’ve definitely set those sorts of goals for myself in the past and then I get frustrated when I can’t keep up with them, so, this year I decided to do things a little differently. This year I really took the time to sit down and figure out 5 resolutions that are the most important to me and I turned them into goals that I can work on every day but also won’t overwhelm me!! Here they are …
1. Reduce My Waste
I’ve been really focused on this lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about fast fashion, the excess of paper and plastic used in packaging and just the overuse of plastic in general (have you seen the news on Plastic Island?! It’s HEARTBREAKING!!!) … it’s insane how this waste is harming our planet so I am making this my top priority this year … I am determined to reduce the amount of waste that comes in and out of our household!!
2. Continue to Work on My Plant-Based Lifestyle
I love cooking and coming up with creative plant-based recipes that I can share with all of YOU so I’m determined to spend more time having fun and playing around in the kitchen this year!!! Actually, while we’re on the topic, below are some of my FAVOURITE vegan recipes, if you haven’t yet tried them, make this one of YOUR goals for 2018!!
- Captain’s Plant-Based Kale Ceaser Salad
- Vegan Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
- Vegan BLT
- Vegan Monster Sub
- Crispy Buffalo Tofu Wrap
Ps. Here are a few of my favourite plant-based cookbooks!!
3. Refine My Schedule
I’m pretty good at scheduling EVERYTHING into my iCal but there’s still room for improvement and refining it even further. This year I would like to incorporate MORE downtime with Leo and my family!!
4. Up My Fitness Game
Notice how I didn’t write “Go to the gym more”?! Welp, it’s because I literally DREAD going to the gym … so, knowing that, I want to make this achievable and desirable for me soooo this means going out for walks with Leo and Nacho, tobogganing with Leo and running (who am I kidding … WALKING) us back up the hill, going for more skinny dips in the summer (where I have to swim and RUN back to my clothes) … LOL! Just being more active outside doing things I enjoy, that also gets my heart rate up at the same time!
5. Drink More Water
This is on my list EVERY single year and every single year I always feel like this is a struggle for me … so, I’ll definitely be keeping this listed on my top 5 New Year’s Resolutions for 2018!! Maybe I’ll invest in a new water bottle which will help me tackle TWO of my goals, reduce waste by eliminating plastic water bottles AND encouraging me to drink more H2O.
What are your New Year’s Resolutions for 2018??
xo
Jilly
Love the resolutions 🙂 Where can I find your white sweater and jeans in that top photo? Looking very stylish and cozy!
Awesome goals thanks for sharing … mine are eating cleaner and ONE reward meal a week . I’m going to the gym now … so that’s a positive I’m going to keep. I’m mentally cleaning as well saying goodbye to drama and standing my ground more. And taking my own advice rather than taking survey from friends! I’m excited to try a few of your recipes even though I’m not a vegan – plant based recipes are a GOOD change.
Love those goals. Instead of resolutions, I focused on one word: in my case, joyful. And, of course, it’s hard to be joyful when you eat two bags of chips while binge-watching the shopping channel all year long! Wishing you a happy, healthy, and joyful 2018.
Hi Jillian,
Thanks for sharing a few of your new year’s resolutions! I am quite excited to take some me time tonight to sit down and make a list of my own.
Wishing you and your family a happy new year!
~ Julia
Have you seem the vegan cookbook Edgy Veg? We bought it the other week, so far the recipes are good and the intro to her book sounded like you could’ve written it
Happy New Year Jillian to you and your family, one of my goals is as well to drink more water. Just before Christmas I invested in a Hidrate Spark smart water bottle. (I have zero association with the company) I have now been using it for a few weeks and realized I did up my water intake. For me the reminder glow light works, the reminders sent to my phone and seeing my progress on their app helps a lot . It is not perfect by any means and have a few things they could do to make it better, but it is a great start and it helps me to get one step closer to my goal and reduce waste as I bring it everywhere and refill it instead of buying bottle water. Wishing success in 2018 you deserve it!
Water! I feel like a fancy water bottle would help me! Top and jeans source?
I love your number one as that is one that my husband and I have also made for ourselves! 🙂
Try the 10 gulp rule. Every time you drink, you take 10 gulps. You can finish a litre in no time
Interesting!!! I haven’t heard of that!! I’ll have to give that a try!! xoxo
Happy New Year! Great idea for the goals and keeping them reasonable – setting yourself up for success!! I’m rather embarrassed by the amount of waste that leaves my house. I think it’s worth adding to my goals and teaching my kids early. I’ll be following along on your journey and will be making changes myself! Thanks for the inspiration!! XO
Your Awesome!
Where are those jeans from??? Top picture
Have a great New Year!
I am new to your instagram and reading your blog. I love your energy and your style and decor!
Buying a glass bottle always works!!! I have about 3 cups that I cycle through and am always refilling, especially the one I keep at my desk! They also have flashing lights that you put on your water bottle and it flashes every so often to remind you to drink! Happy New Year to you and your beautiful family!
Jillian…thank you, thank you! I consider myself pretty good at reusing, recycling etc. But you’ve made me realize I need to do far more! (All my timmies teas with those plastic lids!!)
I have a small business…and am in the process of revamping my packaging. I was going for pretty…but I know now I MUST go for pretty and good for the environment!! Not sure what that will be, but I don’t want my packaging to be here down the road…just the jewelry I create!
Thank you for helping me to see more.
Kelly
My String Beadz
What about a sibling for Leo
It teaches them so much in life
Nice one!!! I like your thought process … might have to get practicing 😉 LOL!! XO
Great goals. Thanks for sharing! Have you tried any of Chloe Coscarelli’s recipes? She has three cookbooks (Chloe’s Kitchen, Chloe’s vegan desserts, & Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen). She has a fourth cookbook coming out in March. I’ve found her recipes to be very easy to follow as well as delicious. My non vegan family requests her recipes all the time. Have a happy New Year!
I’ll have to look for those!! Thank you!! XOXO
Great goals…I drinks ater all day with a Yeti water bottle. It keeps it cold all day! The ice is still in it after 8 hours! Highly recommend it!
OOOhhhhh Justin would be all over that Yeti waterbottle!! XOXO
Happy New Years! Loved reading your goals, and hurray about the plant based, we have been 1 full year and will never go back! Last years resolution was to say YES to new adventures, and to step out of my comfort zone. This years resolution is to feed my soul. To feed it with love, self growth, and do the things that I love to do and have always wanted to do (like buy a kayak)!
I am going to take in all the beauty that surrounds me and that makes my heart smile.
Cheers Jill!
I love your list! So realistic and meaningful:) I’m not much of a resolution person but this inspired me to think of some of my own!
Omg LOVE where you’re going with all of this! Been watching your IG stories and was so happy to hear you talk about fast fashion and now about reducing waste. You have such a positive influence in this world and your voice helps to normalize all of these things. If more people become aware and educated, together we WILL be able to have a positive impact! Thank you for being such a positive influence Jillian! Together we can help protect the world’s resources for our kids!
My New Years resolutions are almost the same! It’s time to change the way I do things! And in that topic, you should check out this green startup company in Halifax, NS and what it’s doing with our waste!
http://www.sustanetech.com
The future is looking brighter!
Cheers to 2018 and years to come! ?
Hey!!
I also have been an avid recycling queen for about 8 years now so totally love your number 1 resolution! I wish more peopl would jump on this band wagon! I throw about 1 bag of garage a week away and most of it is food which is sad so I need to learn to cook less!!
Happy New year!!
We don’t do resolutions in our house, seems too easy to let ourselves down when we give up and don’t achieve them. Every New Year’s Eve or New Years Day, me and my husband do VISION Boards ! What do you want your life to look like next year? Next month ? Or in 5 years? Paste it to your vision board and we keep it on our bedside tables for a couple months. It’s amazing when you look back on past years and realize how much you accomplished and how similar your life looks to the life you created on your vision board. I’d love to see a blog or post of your team doing vision boards, I’m such a strong believer. Anyways love watching your instastories ❤️
For your last goal there’s a really helpful (cute) app to meet your water drinking goals called Plant Nanny! Everytime you drink water you track it on the app and your cute little plant keeps growing and growing and you unlock rewards to get even cuter plants and accessories.
Reading this blog post reminded me of this app and how I’ve been ignoring it so I’m going to start tracking my water again!
Being 32 weeks pregnant, I am not making any resolutions this year because I know there are going to be a lot of changes, and a lot of things I won’t be able to do as I become larger and then heal after birth.
The one thing I’m going to add as a goal this year is to do more yoga. It’s such a fantastic daily or weekly practice to get into. It builds strength, both physically and mentally. I use http://www.doyogawithme.com at home most of the time and I highly recommend it. Fiji McAlpine (yes that is her name!) has a 14 days challenge that is amazing and you’ll feel phenomenal afterwards. Even if you do it every second day, you’ll be surprised by how great you feel!
Jill! I am so stoked to hear that one of your goals for 2018 is to reduce your packaging waste! Good on you! I bought reusable linen bags from Augbunny on Amazon last year for bulk foods and they are a 10/10. I use them for all sorts of bulk and even got small ones for spices and herbs (essential for plant based diets right?!) Also, Ikea is the best place/price for wire bail jars for glassware for good storage. Anyway, yes! I would love to see more posts about your sustainability efforts!
Hey Jillian,
I’m so happy to hear you’re going to work on reducing our waste. As much as I love your brand and content, one of the things I’ve noticed a lot is the amount of waste that is seen in your stories. That said, if you haven’t already heard of these folks, here are some people who can greatly help you reduce your waste in 2018.
– Bea Johnson (Zero Waste Home)
– Lauren Singer (Trash is for Tossers)
– Kathryn (Going Zero Waste)
– Daniel (Zero Waste Daniel)
– Anne Marie Bonneau (Zero Waste Chef)
– Shia (Wasteland Rebel)
– The Soap Dispensary
There’s so many more people and blogs to check out, but this is a start. Good luck!! ?
Love the goals!
There is a “smart” water bottle that tracks how much you drink in a day.. I struggle drinking enough water, so this is something I’m going to try using this year.
Good luck!
I love your goals! My goals is to cut all soy based products out of my diet as I have a thyroid issue because of the pill, back to getting fit, reduce my waste, be better at time management and most importantly drink lots of water
I fill a large mason jar with water and juice of lemon or lime at night and put at my bedside, chug it before getting out of bed in the am and that’s 1lt of water down the hatch 🙂 Orgerwise I struggle all day to get in my 2lts!!!
Loved this! Your goals are not overwhelming but really impactful. I think about the waste thing a lot too because every time I clean out our bathrooms and bedrooms I seem to come downstairs with a trash bag of just crap (not literal) and I’m like where does this come from!? I will be interested to see how you reduce everyday waste. I also plan to be more plant based but in a different way! My goal is to have two plants in every room. It’s better for the air in the house a nice way to keep the outdoors inside during the freezing months but I always kind of dreaded the maintenance of another thing to keep up with. We’ll see how this goes! :0)
Amazing resolutions Jilly! They really reflect your heart to make this world a better place and to put those you love (Justin, Leo, Nacho – and all other animals) first! Thanks for inspiring my own resolutions!
The biggest tip I can give you about drinking water is to drink out of a reusable water bottle that has a STRAW. My favorite is this starbucks one that keeps drinks cold all day (I am obsessed with it too as yellow is also my favorite color) though I am sure you could get one similar to this from anywhere.
https://store.starbucks.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-starbucks-master-catalog/default/images/api-images/GR/11070167_stainless_cc_yellow_16_us_ca_GR.jpg?sw=400&sh=450
Anyway, it is CRAZY how much more water I drink when it is literally accessible at all times and I don’t have to open a lid (it seems SO easy to open a water bottle lid, and YET I am being completely serious, you will drink WAY more out of one that you don’t need to open…. just try it!!!!)
I’m totally on for reducing waste! I’ve been using more glass containers for storage and using less paper towels. Have you heard of Norwex?? A friend of mine turned me onto them, and they have been a life-changer! They are towels that are self-purifying… with only water!! It sounds totally skeptical, but look into them. I use them to wash my face, my body, my countertops, my glass and stainless-steel have never been more shiny. The best part? I haven’t had to use any chemicals at all, just water. Girl, you really need to look into these things. They are right up your alley!! Good luck with all of your goals!! I’m right there with you!
Excessive waste has been on my mind a lot recently too. What are some ways that you reduce the amount of waste coming into your house?
One of the main things I’ve done to reduce the waste coming in is, I’ve actually started requesting less packaging from brands!!
Love all your posts. Remodeling my kitchen.. your thoughts on using Pigeon for cabinet color. Can I mix handles unlacquered brass, with polished nickel faucet?
One thing that has helped me drink more water is to take big gulping drinks vs. sipping. Every time I drink I down at least half a glass at a time per ‘sip’. Makes the water intake go a lot faster.
OOhhhhhh good call!!!
HI Jillian.
Thanks for sharing your resolutions and keeping it real!
I’d also be curious to know where your white top and jeans are from, as well as the pink sweater and leggings.
Thanks.
#1 – THAT WHITE SWEATER! In the first picture? Can you tell me where to get this??
#2 – In an effort to be more environmentally friendly in an age of online shopping for nearly everything in a home, I try to find brands or retailers that ship or sell at least within Canada. For some of the obvious reasons – shipping from the US incurs MEGA duties and taxes, emissions from vehicles needing to transport the goods across two countries just to get to me, and a matter of eating within season from our own regions… I look to bloggers like yourself to give us Canadian gals great product ideas from home! Many of the fashion posts are Nordstrom based – which I imagine you have a deal with so that is AWESOME for you (way to go Jill), but for all of us spending that extra $50 on shipping, duties and taxes, makes it not worth it.
When I try and buy better garments, they are usually already a little more expensive than I am comfortable with, to know they’ll last more than one season, but then our US retailers tack on the extra and it’s almost impossible for a large majority of us to purchase the items.
I love finding Canadian based retailers that either sell the same thing, or local places that have something similar to offer! And our favourite bloggers help finding those items save even more time!
I already LOVE how much you post about local people and businesses – if the fashion side of that could be too, you’d have the perfect blog and I’d never have to go anywhere else!! :p
Thanks Jill and team!
Love outfit at top! White shirt and jeans… where from???? Thank u!
Ahhhh! 1 and 4 are also on my list for this year and I also decided NO Resolutions just GOALS, that way I can work on them and not try and stress myself out by going cold turkey.
I also just decided to cancel my gym membership this week because a few gyms closed down that were close to me and the others are so out of my way I just wasn’t getting there. It actually bought stress to me 1. Because I was paying for something I wasn’t using and 2. I kept letting myself down by not making it to the gym. So I decided NO more. I am going to try and find more things I actually enjoy, more activities outside and find new fun activities that I might fall in love with. Life is too short to dread something every day and constantly feel you should be doing something you really don’t want to do.
Cheers!