In this edition:
My reset programme for January
PoP Club health support & accountability group
Downsizing: January special
Things to listen to and read
Remembering Pope Benedict
Finding your Lodestar
If you’re quoting from this newsletter, please mention “Tom Watson’s newsletter on Substack.” Thank you.
Five tiny changes
Happy New Year.
I eventually drag myself back to a reset programme after a setback. Last year I had so many resets I was nearly into double figures. 2022 was tough. Grief, terminal illness in a loved one, relationship worries and housing difficulties were sometimes overwhelming.
As I face 2023, the issues are still around, but I’m determined they won’t leave me stranded in wallow mode - being so introspective you are paralysed into inaction.
I’ve been writing a list of things to do in January to get on the front foot. I need to make tiny changes that cumulatively have a significant impact. If any of them resonate, let me know.
Back to 10k steps a day. This is hard to achieve during a bleak winter unconsciously, so I will have to work on it. I wrote ‘how to walk 10,000 steps a day’ a few months back. By the end of January, I hope to have made 310,000 steps. I hope you find it helpful.
Log my food. I use the My Fitness Pal app to log food. It’s not so much calorie counting but more about conscious eating or helping eliminate unconscious and impulsive eating. I’ve not found a better app in five years of food logging.
Fitness snack. I’m not sure if I like this phrase, but I’m going with it for now. My goal is to lead a more active life, spend less time sitting down, being sedentary. Apple Watch nudges my wrist if I’ve been sitting still for an hour. The idea is that you stand up and move around for at least a minute. I’m going to use it to do a bit more than that. If I get a nudge, I will do a minute of standing squats if at home or walk down and up the 31 steps from my office at work.
Eat more vegetables. I honestly don’t know how I drifted from a keto diet to a hardly any veg diet, but it is not what I want. Broccoli is my friend. I need to eat far more veg in 2023 and a wider variety, cooked better. All recipes welcome.
4-7-8 Breathing. I started doing this about six months ago and set a daily reminder to do it. It’s started to work for me. If I do this four to six times in a single sitting, in relative quiet, I find it centring, calming and, well, a little bit uplifting.
Need some accountability?
Accountability is a big motivator for me, that’s why I selfishly set up the PoP Club health support and accountability group. We’re friends who keep in touch via a monthly Zoom call and Facebook group. We try to keep each other on track, sharing our goals, celebrating wins, and letting each other know when things get tough.
Our first call of 2023 will be this coming Tuesday, January 3rd, at 7 pm UK time. If you’d like to join us, you can upgrade to become a paid subscriber here.
Downsizing - January special
If you haven’t already read Downsizing, it’s the story of how I transformed my health and lost eight stones.
It’s received hundreds of five-star reviews, is a Sunday Times best-seller, and is unbelievably cheap to purchase on Kindle (99p) and Audible (2.99) for the next few weeks!
Reading
My last book of the year was my best read of the year. The Partisan is a debut novel by Patrick Worrall.
The Racing Post. I subscribed to the online edition a couple of months ago, and though pricey, I’m glad I did. You get a ‘horse tracker’ function that allows you to follow your favourites. You can watch all their previous races. It’s a joy. Plus, this is data-driven journalism at its best.
Thinking
I’m thinking about my friends who are mourning the loss of Pope Benedict today.
Of all his teaching, the one that reached me was his notion of hope. “The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.” We all need hope to get us through.
Listening
Nature’s Pantomime from A Point of View by the lovely Howard Jacobson. This week, about unfulfilled cockatoos and their contempt for homo sapiens. He gives dry humour new aridity. Wry is his middle name. God bless this near-miss national treasure.
On Substack
I recently subscribed to the free version of
. Earlier today, the editor sent this 20-minute meditation: Lodestar - a beacon for the year ahead.It seems a neat way of welcoming 2023. As well as hope, may you find your Lodestar this year.
Tom
Thank you so much Tom for featuring my column. I hope people enjoy the meditation and reflection. We all need a lodestar to guide the way. Happy New Year to you and all your readers.