Every year, thousands and thousands of people make New Year's Resolutions to begin a fresh beginning to the year. And every year, thousands upon thousands of people break their resolutions. I must include myself in those numbers because every year I seem to break what I resolve to change. Last year for example, I set a New Year's resolution to stop texting while driving (I know that's bad... I don't need any lectures). The first few days of the year went well and then I just fell of the wagon. I will say though, that I do not text and drive nearly as much as I use too and I will only do it when I am alone in the car. When the girls are with me, I have them answer my texts (with my responses of course).
I guess this is why I didn't start my weight loss journey on January 1st. Instead, I chose to start it on an obscure Sunday in November 2 weeks before Thanksgiving (also not a good idea!). But the point to this is, I was not resolving just to lose weight for the New Year... thus setting myself up to fail. I wanted to make lasting changes to my lifestyle, including watching what I eat and exercising. Now I am not saying that all New Year's resolutions fail, but by far more people fail than are successful.
So this year, because weight loss is at the forefront of my mind, a few of my resolutions are in place to help me along with this weight loss journey. For one, I am striving to eliminate diet soda from my diet. I am and probably always will be a diet soda junkie (I can drink about 5 20oz bottles a day). I can drink it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I prefer Diet Decaf Pepsi, but honestly I will drink Diet Coke if it is the only thing around. Drinking diet soda, according to some recent studies, can actually increase your appetite and also has been linked to craving more sugary foods. OUCH! That's not what I want from anything that I put into my body, especially when I am working so hard to eliminate the overeating and the sweets that I sometimes crave. So diet soda is out for me and it will be interesting to see how long this one lasts. It is now 3 days into the New Year and yes I want a soda! But I know that these little changes can mean bigger rewards down the road.
The next resolution that I set is that I want to work out at least 3 days per week. Now that doesn't sound like much, but I am a person who never worked out. And this is the minimum. If I get 4 or 5 days in... that's a bonus. Again, I didn't want to set myself up for failure and say work out 5 days and then disappointment myself when I only made it 4. It is all about making the necessary life changes to take the weight off and keep it off. Working out 3 days a week will definitely help to make this happen. So far this year... I have worked out 3 days already. Does that mean I am done for the week; absolutely NOT! I am planning on working out at least 2 more days this week. This means that I will be over for the week, but that's certainly not a bad thing. One more note about this topic of working out. I decided to join the local YMCA so that I could use a variety of equipment. This variety will allow me to work different muscle groups and strengthen my whole body and not just one specific area. I have used thus far the elliptical (one of my favorites), the stationary bike and today's adventure was with the stair climber machine (which I must report that I hate because my thighs and butt are killing me!!!!). I do enjoy going to the gym, especially since my almost 13 year old daughter has been working out with me. This healthy adventure has become contagious in my house :)
My next 2 resolutions were personal things that I want to accomplish this year, and not related to weight loss at all. I have been inspired by a friend of mine who last year set a goal to read and review 200 books last year. Tiffany actually was able to reach her goal and to me that is such a wonderful accomplishment. I love to read, but did not think that I could undertake such a lofty goal. Instead, I have set the goal of reading 50 books this year. I know that isn't many, but when I normally take my time reading and often will put a book down for weeks in between each reading, this is incentive for me to keep plugging along until the end of the year. Who knows, I may even add in reviewing the books that I pick up on Amazon as well... Thank you Tiffany for your inspiration!
Finally, I must admit that I am a terrible mom. Yes I love my kids with every ounce of my being. Yes I would do anything to protect my kids. Yes I want to provide my girls with everything in the world so that they can be even more successful than their father and I. But... I have boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures just sitting around my house. I use to scrapbook, oh like 10 years ago (before Abbygail). I have 2 beautiful scrapbooks of Makaela as a little girl. I have NOTHING done of Abbygail. To be quite honest, I am not sure if I even have that many pictures of Abbygail
So that's it... Sam's 2012 New Year's Resolutions. I pray for the strength from God to continue to persevere through this weight loss journey. I pray for continued strength as I press on to work out and build my physical strength. I pray for understanding that I may not accomplish each of these resolutions but that I will do my best to uphold what I want to accomplish in this new year. Finally, I pray for the ability to accept that I may break a resolution (like the no diet soda) but not beat myself up and just get back on board with the changes that I need to make to provide positive changes for my future.
Happy 2012 Everyone!
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