Resolutions.

I like new years as a time of new beginnings and a time to refresh. Two examples would be schooling and loosing weight. I went through and evaluated everything the girls have learned this year compared to what they still need to learn for the year. Figuring and turning in grades for the semester. It is not a "resolution", but a time to evaluate what needs to be done. The second area is my weight. It is imperative for my health that I loose weight. I have been steadily working on it. In the past 2 years I have lost about 40 lbs, but I still have a long way to go. Thanksgiving and Christmas it is easy to get off track. New years is just a reasonable time to re-group and get back on track.

I like Laurie's interpretation that it is more about a time to set some positive areas of focus instead of looking to try to "fix" things that are "wrong" with you.

So my goal is to stay in this sort of positive rut that I've worked myself into with this pregnancy. I am eating well, getting about an hour of exercise a day but not stressing myself out about it, and in general being more forgiving of myself and the idea that it's almost impossible to do everything all at once. For example, I have a tendency to stress when my house is less clean and tidy than I would like. The truth is, I work all day, then I pick up T, run errands, make dinner, clean up from dinner, put T to bed most nights because we both love reading the How to Train Your Dragon books before bed, I already do a load of laundry most nights ....by the time it's all done, how much time do I realistically have to get the place spotless every night if I would also like to sit down and unwind for a little while too? For whatever reason, this pregnancy has made me much more blase about it, like "Oh well, if it's not spic and span tonight, it will still be there for me tomorrow. C'est la vie." I want to continue on all of that, because I feel like I'm in a really good place right now.

I used to always set the goal to lose weight, but I was never serious about it until 2 years ago. I think the fact that I turned it more into creating a healthier lifestyle at that point was what made it stick for me. 2011 was when I joined Weight Watchers and started Couch to 5K. I set fairly small goals to start out with, such as finishing my first race and losing 10% of my body weight - much better than saying "I'm going to run a marathon and lose 60 lbs". Before I would start cutting back on calories and work out for about two weeks, planning to lose the weight right away. When I didn't lose 10 lbs right away, I just gave up and said screw it....this will never work.

I think, like Laurie said, it's more important to focus on the positive side of your goals. Turning it that way for me helped me lose 62 lbs, finish two half marathons, and set my sights for finishing a marathon this fall.

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Originally Posted by mommydearest

I think, like Laurie said, it's more important to focus on the positive side of your goals. Turning it that way for me helped me lose 62 lbs, finish two half marathons, and set my sights for finishing a marathon this fall.

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Great job!

Thanks Bonita! If someone told me two years ago I'd run a half marathon, I would have laughed in their face. And it's kind of shocking to look back at my pictures from a few years ago...I definitely didn't see myself as large as I was (keep in mind that I'm about 5'2")

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...psb29a8a84.jpg

I made one New Year's resolution many years ago that I've been able to keep: to not make any more New Year's resolutions.

I actually consider every change of the seasons to be an opportune time to reevaluate things in my life, reinforce the positive, and do what I can to minimize the negative. It's part of that whole Taoist thing I do. I just noticed the other day that winter is (as it always does) drying out my skin so I'm trying to incorporate a moisture treatment into my nightly routine, and while I appreciate not having scaly skin, I'm also finding those extra few minutes of "me time" are rather nice!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mommydearest

Thanks Bonita! If someone told me two years ago I'd run a half marathon, I would have laughed in their face. And it's kind of shocking to look back at my pictures from a few years ago...I definitely didn't see myself as large as I was (keep in mind that I'm about 5'2")

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...psb29a8a84.jpg

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I think you look great in both pictures! It is hard for me to see what I look like too, until after you have lost it.

Carolyn, you look amazing!!!

I am working on eating healthier. This is convenient in that we have to move in 3 months and are saving money for it. So we have banned the purchase of most junk food until after we move. I am going to allow a couple of small payday purchases like a bottle of pop or two for the family, but other than that no junk. Hopefully this will help our bank account and our diets. I would like to lose some weight to help my back feel better.

And, I am going to actually remember to write 2013! I failed already and my first date of the day was fixed from 2012. lol.

You look great Carolyn!!!