5 New Year’s Resolutions for a Natural Lifestyle

If you want inspiration for natural new year’s resolutions for the upcoming new year, I’ve got your back!

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Say goodbye to those boring standard new year’s resolutions like ”eat healthier, loose weight and exercise more” that you never follow through anyways because they lack deeper meaning.

In this blog post, you will read about five meaningful New Year’s resolutions for a more natural lifestyle. Not only will they improve your quality of life, health and well-being, but they will also benefit the earth and all its living inhabitants!

To follow through with a new year’s resolution, it is important that it has an important meaning for you. You have to know why you want to achieve that specific goal!

Remembering the why behind your resolution can help you through the difficult times when you are about to give up.
That is why it’s so important to choose a something that has deeper meaning than only fitting in those jeans again.

5 New Year’s Resolutions for a Natural Lifestyle

Here are five ideas for meaningful New Year resolutions that help you live a more natural lifestyle! These natural new year’s resolutions  all lead to beautiful outcomes, which weight much more than what little effort it requires from you.

1. Reduce your plastic waste

The first of the five natural new year’s resolutions for a more natural lifestyle is to reduce your plastic waste. This was my personal new year resolution for 2021!

Plastic takes 1000 years to be ”broken up”. Because it doesn’t simply break down and turn to dust, it turns into a million small pieces called micro plastics. Those micro plastics then pollute our soil, water, animals and make it up the food chain into our bodies causing health issues.

Except for polluting the earth, plastic is also really bad for our health. When plastic is heated up, gets in contact with oil or fat or is stored for a long period of time, it leaches toxins. When we then eat food that has been in contact with plastic for a long time, use plastic utensils in the kitchen or warm up leftovers in plastic containers, we ingest those harmful toxins. This is really bad for our health!

As you see, there are plenty of reasons to go plastic free! To begin with I have made a starter guide with 27 ways to reduce your plastic waste here!
You can also follow Kate Nelson, known as @PlasticFreeMermaid, on Instagram and get her book ”I Quit Plastics: And You Can Too” for inspiration and useful tips for a plastic free lifestyle! 

Quitting plastics will lead to:

• Helping towards a cleaner and healthier planet!
• Decreasing the demand for plastic products!
• Improving your health by reducing contact with toxins that leach from plastics!
• Preservation of the planet for future generations (not only humans)!
• Needing less trips to the recycling station/go out with the trash less often.

It will require:

• You to be flexible and creative.
• Some time when you are figuring out the alternatives.
• Giving up some convenience.

2. Spend more time in nature

Another natural new year’s resolution is to spend more time in nature. Going somewhere where trees and plants are growing and simply spend some time there!

Spending time in nature has a lot of benefits for your health. For instance, studies show that spending time in nature makes us feel more alive, reduces stress, stimulates creativity and makes us happier! If that isn’t enough, exposure to nature is also linked with a higher sense of well-being and having more energy. 

Go outside and intentionally connect yourself to nature to receive all the wonderful benefits she has to offer and improve your quality of life!

✧ Read: 10 Ways to connect with the Earth

Spending time in nature will lead to:

• Improving your well-being by stimulating positive feelings and lowering stress levels!
• You feeling more connected to nature, the earth and life itself!
• Improving mental health because of the grounding effect of being in nature!
• Increased feelings of happiness and presence!

It will require:

• Leaving your warm and cozy couch. 
• Having less time to spend scrolling on social media 😉
• Maybe a warmer jacket?

3. Switch to natural and organic self-care & beauty products

You can start to live more naturally by switching to natural and organic self-care & beauty products! There can be many harmful chemicals especially in self-care & beauty products. Conventional beauty products from the supermarket contain things that your skin doesn’t need, but is put into the product to extend its shelf life. For example to avoid the product from going bad to quickly, make all the ingredients blend or to prevent a chemical reaction from happening.

The skin is our largest organ and everything you put onto your skin ends up in your body and bloodstream. A good rule is: if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin.

It is not that the conventional products don’t work, because usually they work just fine. It is that the long term effects on both your health and the health of the earth are more important than perfect skin or armpits smelling like cotton candy!

✧ Read: Why Organic & Natural Makeup is Better for You & the Earth

But wait! Don’t throw away all your conventional products after choosing this natural new year’s resolution. It is way better for the earth (and your wallet) to buy a natural alternative when you run out of the product you already have! Also, if you don’t have the money for organic beauty products, you could always make a DIY version!

Switching to natural & organic self-care products will lead too:

• Better health by removing the toxins you apply on your skin daily!
• Naturally beautiful skin, hair and nails!
• A cleaner earth with less toxins leaching from your shower water into the earth!
• Less waste because natural & organic skincare products more often come in glass containers!
• A feeling of luxury because good organic products contain high quality ingredients!

It will require:

• Investment because natural & organic products often are more expensive (does not apply to DIY products!).
• Patience, because natural products may need time to do their magic.
• You to read the ingredient list to find real natural & organic products, because of ”green washing” (brands that market to be natural but actually aren’t).

4. Start to buy more local & organic food

 

An amazing new year’s resolution for a natural lifestyle is starting to buy more local and organic food. It is a well worth investment in your own health, the health of the planet and the local community you live in!

Organic food is the better alternative because it is not sprayed with harmful pesticides, that both harm our health when we consume it and the earth by how the products are grown/produced. Also animals have a better life and are being fed organic food, which makes the quality of animal products you eat better and healthier.

Local food is also better because it is not transported from the other side of the world. Therefore choosing local will reduce the environmental impact of your food. Also shopping locally will keep the money within your community and you’ll get the chance to get to know like minded people!

Lastly, shopping local and organic food will make you feel good because you trade your money with honest farmers and contribute to making the world a little better. Even if you are not able to buy everything organic & local, it will be an improvement when you choose organic & local when you can!

Investing in local & organic food will lead to:

• Fresher and better tasting food!
• Improving your health because you won’t be ingesting (as much) pesticides or growth hormones!
• Contributing to a better planet by spending money on local & organic food and therefore increasing the demand for them!
• Improving well-being and quality of life by shopping and consuming honest and healthy foods!
• Supporting your local farmers & community!
• Lessening CO2 emissions by not buying food that’s shipped from the other side of the world!

It will require:

• You to do your research on when and where you can buy local & organic foods.
• Spending more money because organic usually cost more.
• Needing to go to more than one location to get your groceries.

5. Start to cook more things from scratch

The last of the five natural new year’s resolutions is to improve the quality of food you buy and eat. And you can do that by starting to cook your meals from scratch! That means making your meals from raw, wholefood ingredients.

Even if you already cook most things from scratch, there is always room for improvement! Have you considered to make things like canned tomato sauce yourself, using from fresh tomatoes? Or granola? Herb mixes? Salad dressings? Tortillas?

Processed foods often contain many additives to keep the product lasting longer and tasting better. But even if those additives technically are edible, it is not healthy or natural to consume. When you cook from scratch you know exactly what you’re eating because you are the one who made it!

Preparing the food you’re going to eat will make your eating habits healthier and save you money in the long run! Aim to make the things you and your family consume the most from scratch.

Cooking from scratch will lead to:

• Improving your health and well-being by eating wholesome foods that provide your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive!
• Less waste because you will now avoid processed food often packed in plastic!
• More connection to what you eat because you took the time to prepare it!
• Slowing down, because taking time to make a home cooked meal with love and eat it with attention!
• Saving money, because even if all the ingredients may cost more than the product you’re making, the quantity will be more!

It will require:

• More time in the kitchen.
• Some effort to cook and prepare the food you usually buy pre-made.
• Grocery shopping all the ingredients you need.

Improve the quality of your life – without harming other life

All of these natural new year’s resolutions will lead to an improved quality of life, better health & well-being, healing of the earth and saving money in the long run.

We need this planet in good health to thrive ourselves. It is sometimes easy to forget that we drink rainwater, eat foods that sprout from dirt, and breathe air, when we just turn on the tap when we need water, buy what we need in the supermarket and are walking around not even aware of that we are breathing.

If the planet isn’t healthy, humanity can’t be either.

Don’t forget that nobody is perfect, and do not give up when you make a mistake! Just try better the next day and do your best. I hope this blog post inspired you to live more naturally this new year!

// By Bo Smit