Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Resolution Time!

I love New Year's resolutions. I know, it may sound weird, but I do. As soon as December starts, not only am I looking forward to my birthday, but also to putting together my New Year's Resolution List. I try to set some goals for myself that are attainable but not necessarily easy. I also have some ground rules.

Rule #1 is that I can't resolve to do anything that is going to cause an extra expense. For instance, I won't resolve to workout at a gym 3 times a week because then I'd have to buy a gym membership.
Rule #2 is that I can't resolve to lose weight. I think losing weight is a horrible NYR. So that's never on my list (even though I could afford to lose a pound or two - or 50).
And my last rule is that I can't resolve to do anything that will inconvience someone else without first talking to them about it. Usually this person is Kevin. For instance two years ago I resolved to stop eating fast food. No more McDonald's, Arby's or Burger King. I defined fast food as food establishments with a drive-thru window though, so I still go to Subway all the time. Because that resolution meant that Kevin would be affected we talked about it beforehand. He agreed and 2 years later we're still fast-food free. It was hard at first, but now I don't even get the urge anymore. Except when I see commercials claiming the McRib is back (AGAIN!). I love the McRib!
So with all those rules, here's my preliminary list of NYR for 2009:
  1. Workout on the elliptical machine at least once every three days. We bought one last year and I was really good about getting on every other day for about a month. Now it just sits in Les' room folded up.
  2. Stop snacking during the day. I use to never snack between meals. And then I moved in with Kevin and that boy eats ALL DAY LONG! So since I was having to buy him snacks to get through the day, I bought stuff I liked as well. At my desk now I have trail mix, saltines, chewy granola bars, fruit cups, yogurt (in the work fridge), clementines, apples, a banana, gum and salad dressing (for the mythological salads I have for lunch). So I'm cutting back. I'm keeping the gum, clementines and apples but everything else is going.
  3. Only going out for lunch once a week. Yep, gotta keep my El Paso Thursdays. But I'm brown bagging it the other four days a week. Dave's agility class fees have to come from somewhere.
  4. Volunteer at BARK once a month. I can give up one Saturday morning a month to walk/clean up after dogs that don't have a home.
  5. Get to church every Sunday. And confession at least 4-5 times. I got really good about this earlier this year then in October we stopped going.
  6. Vacuum at least twice a month, sweep twice a week. I'm really bad about this and I've got two very hairy dogs. I won't tell you how bad, but it's bad.
  7. TBD
So that's all I've thought of so far. I'm sure I'll think of more soon.

4 comments:

Becky said...

Awesome post. I just have to tell you my 2008 new years resolution, to eat left overs! Isn't that hilarious! I used to be so bad, i never ate them. I would bring them home from restaurants, and store them in really nice expensive (tupperware) storage containers and just let them rot! I did this with veggies and fruit too. So this year i made a decision to use them and i do about 98% of the time. Not bad. I even make it a game to see what i can make with the left overs.
I love not making the loose weight one. I'm going to start thinking about my 2009. I'm going to make it like my 2008, something kind of fun and light!

Andrea said...

lol about the vacuuming and sweeping. I'm the SAME way! Except I have two very hairy kitties. It's so embarrassing how much cat hair is all over this house. Sweeping/mopping/vacuuming are my least favorite things to do. And now we have wood floors so the hair is very visible. Oh well!

Good for you for making NYR! I can never stick to them. If I did make any it would be to start eating a balanced diet everyday and to workout every other day (we'll see if that happens!).

Anonymous said...

I too am obsessed with new years resolutions! I usually have a long long list, and then I keep one or two. The loose weight thing, the go to church one, the get out of debt one, the get pregnant one. I am working on a list now. We will see what makes it this year.

Anonymous said...

good list! it makes me feel a bit motivated for starting my big long list. maybe soon...

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