Instead of punishing yourself with a New Year’s Resolution based on depriving yourself, resolve to add a little variety to your life by trying something new.
Birdwatching
With a $50 pair of binoculars you can start interacting with nature in a whole new way. Identify and log birds with the Audubon Society’s free app. If you’re lucky enough to have a yard, a birdfeeder can bring interesting species right to your door. Or add an element of discovery to your walks, like a grown-up, reality-based version of playing Pokémon Go.
Pub Trivia
Need an excuse to see your friends regularly? There’s a boom in Pub Trivia Nights right now with cover as low as $5 or even free. For a couple hours, you and a few friends can have some laughs and engage in friendly competition. As a freebie, when it inevitably comes up, Richard Bachman is a pseudonym of author Stephen King.
Hydroponic Gardening
If your kitchen doesn’t get much light, but you’d like to have fresh herbs on hand, countertop hydroponic systems have gotten pretty advanced and surprisingly cheap. Despite Canadian winters, you can now garden year-round, all while enjoying your morning coffee. By growing your own basil and cherry tomatoes, you’re only ever the bocconcini away from a caprese salad.
Pickleball
If you haven’t gotten in on this craze, you might not understand it’s appeal. Pickleball straddles the line between a sport and parlour game, requiring way less athleticism and effort than tennis and bringing the silly fun of ping pong. A couple of paddles and a wiffle ball and next thing you know you’ll be picking a team name for a local rec league—how about, Gherkin Remotely ?
Start an eBay Store
You can set up an eBay store to both declutter and make a little extra spending money. With a $20 digital scale and a printer, you can calculate and print your own shipping labels, saving you trips to the post office. It’s a bit of work to set up at first, but once it’s up and running, receiving a notification that you’ve made a sale can be absolutely thrilling.
Photography
Almost everyone takes photos now that we all have decent cameras in our pockets. But people might not realize how much better their photos could be. There are plenty of free courses online that can elevate your photography from merely documenting things to something that’s recognizably, art. No guarantee it’ll increase likes on Instagram unless cats are involved.