A New Kind of New Year's Resolution

On Saturday, it will be March.  By that time, most of the people that made New Year's resolutions have long broken and abandoned them.  The odds are against any one who makes them anyway since change is hard and takes a while for a new behavior to become a habit.  Life gets in the way and sooner or later, most people fall back in the same routine, more than likely feeling like a failure that they couldn't do the one thing different they wanted to do this year.

Sound familiar?  This happens to me almost every year.  In reflecting why my New Year's resolutions don't stick, it's more than like because my list of things I want to do differently usually looks something like this...

No mom, I didn't start smoking and you and I both know I call you...but you get the point.  Our resolutions turn into more of a shopping list than one or two attainable goals.  No wonder we give up.  We set ourselves up to fail.

Now, ideally, I would like my attitude about resolutions to look something like this...

Unfortunately, I've never had that good of an opinion about myself.  That's when it hit me.  My resolution for this year...

"Do something about it or stop bitching about it."

This can go for anything in my life that I don't like.  Too often I find that instead of taking an active role in fixing the things I'm unhappy with, may they be physical or otherwise, I complain more that I try and change them.  And that's what I want to change this year.

I'll be honest, it hasn't been the easiest journey so far.  I brought back more than a few extra pounds from France...thanks to all that wine, cheese and yummy bread...so I knew I wanted to get my diet back in shape and loose some weight.  I thought what better way to jump start this than to complete another Whole30?  I'd done it before, so what would be so hard about doing it again?  Until the hubs and I had our first date night in months and I wanted a drink...or two...and my dad turned 60 and I wanted to eat the cake I made him.  Call it lack of will power, but life events combined with the fact that I just started a new job as an Assistant Pastry Chef...and the Whole30 just wasn't going to work for me right now.

THIS time, instead of getting discouraged and completely throwing in the towel, I decided to take a step back and reevaluated how I was going to approach the "diet" aspect of loosing some weight.  I'm starting small this time and working up from there, beginning with making Paleo dinners for the whole family.  Last night I made this yummy recipe for roasted chicken:

This was everything I love in a recipe...one pan, quick prep, healthy and oh so yummy!  It's Whole30 compliant and flexible to change up to use what you have on hand.  Give it a try, I know it will be a hit!

Crispy Roast Chicken and Vegetables adapted from Stuff I Make My Husband


1 whole chicken (cut into 8 or 10 pieces...if you feel like it, throw some water over the bones, add a little salt and pepper, put it on low heat for 10-12 hours and you have homemade stock!)
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
2 T dried rosemary
2 T dried oregano
2 T dried thyme
1 bunch asparagus; trimmed to 2 inch lengths
10 oz box frozen artichoke hearts; thawed
1 red bell pepper; cut into chunks

*Recipe note: If you look at the recipe, you see some of the veggies I used are different.  Here's where this recipe is great.  You can put any vegetable in you have on hand...which could help lower the monthly grocery bill (Yep...another goal...)

1 - Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2 - In a bowl, combine olive oil and herbs.
3 - Toss the veggies in the olive mixture.  Remove from the oil and line the bottom of a roasting pan with them.  I had a disposable one on hand which made clean up even easier!
4 - Arrange the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top of the veggies.  Pour the olive oil mixture over the chicken.  Cover with alluminum foil and cook for 45 minutes.
5 - Remove the foil and cook for an additional 15 minute.  Turn oven up to broil for the last 2-3 minutes to really get the skin crispy. 

So here's my new start for my New Year's resolution.  Along with starting my new job, I've also agreed to supply healthy treats for the hubs to take to doctor's offices to help drum up some business for the pharmacy.  We've also talked about me doing a blog once a week focusing on a dietary concern or healthy meal to post on the pharmacy Facebook page.  Lots of new things coming up!

What are your major health or dietary concerns?