Ahh yes, that time of year: when everyone is posting about diets and workout regimes they plan on taking up on January 1.  Well, those may be your cup of tea and they may not be, and if they aren’t, I’m here to encourage you that this is 100% okay.

Look, breastfeeding does weird things to bodies.  Some women lose weight breastfeeding, some don’t. Having children does even more things to a body. Being sleep deprived probably doesn’t help either.  Add in stress, and exhaustion, and looking at the January 1 date on the calendar with the expectation that now you’ll magic away everything that’s frustrating you can feel like both the obvious choice, and a totally unattainable goal.

So in the spirit of body solidarity, here are a couple suggestions that have nothing (N O T H I N G) to do with your body when it comes to 2019.

Read harder!  The Read Harder challenge is a great bookish project to take on.  Bonus: Audiobooks are great for breastfeeding and pumping sessions. And yes, audiobooks absolutely count as reading.  Your brain is absorbing the story! If that’s not the point of reading, I don’t know what is.

Buy fewer plastic toys and kid’s items this year.

Visit as many playgrounds and parks as you can.  This can mean National Parks, or school playgrounds.  It’s up to you!

Plan to gather more friends together for meals this year.  Potlucks never go out of style.

Instead of signing the kids up for hobby and learning classes….why not sign up for something yourself?  There’s so much joy to be had in lifelong learning. Kids shouldn’t be the only ones enjoying themselves or learning new things.  Indoor rock climbing, hula hooping, glass blowing, quilting, archery….these things are all available to you. Funtivities for everyone!

Perfect your French braiding technique.  (Full disclosure, I suck!)

Learn Double Dutch with your older kiddo.

Be kind to yourself.

Seriously.  Don’t flog yourself over your body this year.  If you’re breastfeeding, your body is working hard.  Don’t hate it. (I know. That’s hard. Society makes it so hard not to hate our bodies.  But I see you, I see your struggle, and I’m advocating skipping the diet book aisle in the bookstore this year.)  

Happy 2019, mama.