For the past few years, my New Year’s resolution has not changed at all, mainly due to the necessity of me achieving it. 

For most of life, my weight has been a huge issue, between me getting made fun of for being too small and my doctor telling me that I needed to gain weight. Now I understand that to some, my weight wouldn’t be an issue for them. People like to tell me that they’d kill to have my weight, but what they don’t realize is the everyday impacts I struggle with due to my low weight. My temperature regulation doesn’t work so I’m always either too hot or too cold, I have a weaker immune system and I get tired super easily. So my New Year’s resolution is to gain enough weight to be healthy.

Now once again, this has been my resolution for the past couple years. I have actually achieved my resolution before but I promptly lost most of the weight I put on. This was due to me starting to eat less due to stress and not being able to keep my calorie intake up high enough. Because of this setback, I had to come up with a new plan this year. 

This year’s plan contained similar aspects to the plans of previous years, such as eating more foods high in fat and protein but also calculated for the times I would eat less due to stress. My doctor mainly wanted me to gain fat weight so temperature regulation would be less of an issue. This previously led to some more unhealthy choices in meals, such as ice cream for breakfast.

My plan to achieve this resolution is pretty simple. I have purchased a weekly calendar so I can plan for two out of three meals in a day since my stepmom usually takes care of dinner. I also calculate for snacks and for the days when I can’t eat as much, a meal replacement, usually a high calorie protein shake. My meal planning can be a bit skewed, especially for meal times on the days that I work because I generally work through what would normally be dinner time. To make sure I don’t starve during my shift, I have to shift breakfast and lunch to a later time. While it’s okay for one day out of the week, if it’s for more than that, my entire eating schedule gets screwed up and I can’t eat as much.

I have a lot of anxiety surrounding weighing myself because I always fear that I won’t ever gain the weight I need to. Because of that, I can only weigh myself once a month. I have given myself a monthly goal weight so it is easier to measure progress or see when I need to account for weight loss.

There are a lot of challenges that I will have to work through in order to achieve my resolution this year. However, I have several people encouraging me and helping me to succeed. That alone is such an important part of achieving your New Year’s resolution. Overall, even if my plan doesn’t work out this year, it will eventually and I just have to be happy with that.