20 Intentions for 2020

As we look forward to the New Year and everything that it will bring, I would like to take a moment to write down 20 intentions for 2020. Some are related to food, some to the blog, and some to random other things in my life like my house or well-being. If you like the idea of creating New Year’s Resolutions, but never actually keep them past January, I urge you to set some intentions instead. Use them as a guide to the months ahead, or use them as a long-form to-do list for everything you want to accomplish in the coming months. It’s up to you!

1. Complete an elimination diet in January. No sugar, alcohol, “flour” food like bread/pasta, and dairy. I wanted to do a Whole 30, but I don’t like the idea of cutting out things that make my body function like whole grains. And the whole paleo trend is not sustainable (in my humble opinion), so my elimination diet will sort of be a modified Whole 30.
2. Eat more vegetable/plant-based and/or vegan meals.
3. Use cookbooks more often. Still trying with this one!
4. Embrace my creativity more often. Paint/draw/craft even if I’m not “good” at it.
5. Publish on here more frequently. Make the blog a priority.
6. Read at least 75 books. Follow my 2020 journey on Goodreads!
7. Continue working in our garden. Maybe do an autumn/winter garden this year.
8. Laugh often.
9. Build a new dining room table.
10. Do some internal work. Read more self-help books.
11. Get rid of the junk in our basement. We still have boxes from our move in 2017!
12. Complete Dry January. Cut back on the alcohol throughout the rest of the year.
13. Focus on my skincare. Try and battle the early-30s acne I still have.
14. Start an exercise routine. Keep up with it for the entire year.
15. Keep writing even when you don’t know where the story is going yet.
16. Go to bed earlier. Wake up earlier to help with the whole exercise thing.
17. Embrace the positive more often. I tend to dwell in the negative too much and I really want to break that because I have so much to be thankful for!
18. Listen to more music. 2019 was the year of podcasts for me, but I rarely listened to music. I want to find a nice balance of both!
19. Balance the budget. Introduce a side hustle when needed to get ahead.
20. Stop measuring my success but what other people think of me.

And, for the sake of clarity and transparency, let’s take a look back at my intentions for 2019 and see what I kept up with throughout the year and which ones fells by the wayside:

1. Meal prep more. I didn’t keep up with this as much as I liked. I’m planning on doing a modified Whole30 challenge in January, so meal prep will be a huge help. I plan on carrying this one over into 2020.
2. Bake more bread. Take homemade bread into work so I don’t eat all of it. Yeah, no, this one didn’t happen. I might have baked 5 loaves of bread all year.
3. Eat mindfully. Don’t eat mindlessly. I was doing this for maybe the first half of the year, but depression and anxiety around planning our wedding got hold of me around June and bad eating habits stuck with me well into the holiday season.
4. Incorporate different vegetables into my meals. We rediscovered bok choy in 2018; I wonder what vegetables we’ll rediscover in 2019! Another one that just didn’t happen in 2019. Here’s hoping it will in 2020!
5. Use cookbooks to meal prep more often. Still trying with this one!
6. Accomplish more on the weekends. Now, they often fly by without me doing much of anything. I feel like this definitely happened more often than not. I’ll call that one a win!
7. Try making puff pastry from scratch (ala Great British Bake Off). Nope, this one didn’t happen either…
8. Start sending out the Bookish Kitchen newsletter weekly. I’ve changed up the newsletter and now it’s sent every week a new post is out. So, I’ll call this one a win.
9. Bake a Victoria sandwich, and eat it with glee. Nope, and it makes me sad!
10. Publish on here more frequently. At least 3 times a week. I’m sensing a theme…2019 was the year I didn’t accomplish much outside of my full-time job and wedding planning.
11. Read at least 50 books. (I know it’s a low number for some, but I never seem to have free time anymore.) I read 31, which is better than in 2018!
12. Expand our vegetable/herb garden. Yup! Hoping to do even more in 2020.
13. Laugh often. Always with Joe!
14. Plan a wedding with no stress. (Wish me luck!) We tried, we really tried…still got married and we really enjoyed our wedding, but it was stressful at the end.
15. Eat more meals at the dining room table. HA! I think we may have eaten 5 meals at our dining room table in 2019. I want us to DIY a new dining table in 2020 so I’m hoping that will encourage us to eat more meals there.
16. Spend more time with my cats. (Yay for more fluffy cuddles!) Yes, all the time.
17. Drink more water. Yup, but can still do more.
18. Exercise more often. I hate it, but it’s good for me. Nope, but I have a plan for 2020!
19. Write more often for fun. This one is a nope too, but that’s okay!
20. Wake up earlier. I actually started waking up later somehow…

Do you make a list of intentions/resolutions every year? What is on your list for 2020? Leave a comment below or tag/message me on Instagram (@bookishkitchen #thebookishkitchen) to continue the conversation.