と after listing things with たり

Question

根本的なところから変えようとしっかり睡眠をとったり、食生活を見直したりといろいろ取り組んでいます

Should I interpret といろいろ取り組んでいます as "doing various activities like a and b" or "doing things like a, b, and working on various activities".

I'm not sure if と is quotative or is just an "and".

I ask this because the translation I have is: "I've tried to make some changes on a fundamental level by trying to sleep properly, look over my eating habits, as well as making other various efforts", which goes along with "doing things like a, b, and working on various activities" instead of "doing various activities like a and b"

Answer 1

I'm not sure if と is quotative or is just an "and".

I will start by saying that 「と」 does not mean "and" nearly as often as Japanese-learners seem to think it does. "And" simply happens to be the first meaning of 「と」 that they learn, so it kind of sticks with them for long.

The golden rule is that 「と」 can only connect nouns. You can say 「パンとバター」、「日本とアメリカ」, etc. It is utterly incorrect to use it to connect adjectives, verbs, etc. I have seen quite a few J-learners use it to connect even sentences.

Let us look at the words that come immediately before and after the 「と」 in:

「しっかり睡眠{すいみん}をとったり、食生活{しょくせいかつ}を見直{みなお}したりといろいろ取{と}り組{く}んでいます 」

Neither 「たり」 nor 「いろいろ」 is a noun. Those are a particle and an adverb, respectively.

So, what is this 「と」? It is quotative.

The speaker has been trying to fundamentally change his/her life. S/He is making efforts in a variety of areas of his/her life and the two concrete examples that s/he gives are 「しっかり睡眠をとる」("sleeping well") and 「食生活を見直す」("re-examining my dietary habits").

Thus, between the two translations you listed, "doing various activities like a and b" is closer to the original as far as literal TL goes. It is not that the other TL is so off. I am only saying which one is closer to the original in sentence structure.