I’m planning some significant life changes at the start of 2025 and want to establish a lifestyle that will support good health and wellbeing as I enter this phase of my life. There are specific outcomes I’d like to achieve, but I’ll focus on tracking what I’m doing.

I’ve therefore identified five key behaviours that I’ll track every day. These are:

  1. Physical exercise
  2. Minimalism
  3. Nutrition tracking
  4. News and social media avoidance
  5. Eating a plant based diet

Physical exercise

Physical exercise has a significant impact on my sense of wellbeing. I’d ideally like to go to the gym or run on about half of the days in the year. I’ll initially focus on consistency and build up from there.

Gym and running

Exercise in this context typically refers to a strength session at the gym or going for a run. It might also include going for a swim but wouldn't include, for example, a cycle commute or going for a walk.

Minimalism

I started experimenting with minimalism in early 2024 after reading Things That Matter by Joshua Becker helped me recognise it’s all too easy to sacrifice happiness in the pursuit of money and stuff.

No buying new stuff

I have a document that outlines my goals and parameters for minimalism, but it can be summarised as not buying or researching new things. There are, of course, exceptions - all of which are detailed in my document (for example, experiences are allowed as are necessary consumables)

Nutrition and calorie tracking

This is simply recording what I eat and drink. I have a tendency to overeat which leads to weight gain and I’m entering a stage of life where I need to lose weight and get on top of this. I use the excellent Nutracheck app to set calorie goals and record what I’m consuming.

Updated to reflect calorie restriction

On 4 March (Pancake day) I blew past the calorie intake recommended by Nutracheck by consuming 2,648 calories. This was partly because it was a day that I didn't exercise, but mostly because I just ate too much. I've therefore updated success to be both tracking and not exceeding the calorie limits set by Nutracheck. I've also retrospectively updated the visualisation.

News and social media avoidance

I’ve written about why I avoid the news and social media previously but I’ve found a few occasions where I’ve got sucked back into doomscrolling.

Strava is OK, doomscrolling is not

My issue with the news and social media is how the attention economy negatively impacts people's mental health and social cohesion. There are exceptions which I feel are OK.

Plant based diet

Another very straightforward behaviour I’d like to maintain. A plant based diet is well suited to my health goals, so I’d like to stick to it consistently.