Ugh...resolutions

Don't get me wrong, I love a day off work just as much as the next person, but can anyone explain to me how New Years Day became a holiday?  It's the first day of a new year, and though we've made the day a celebration with football games, parades of roses and sleeping in after a long night, I often wonder which came first, the partying or the national holiday.

But I admit, there is something about beginning a new year that allows a person to turn the page in their lives and start anew.  And of course, that's the reason behind New Year's resolutions.  What thing do you want to do this year that you've failed to do before?  But for some reason, resolutions suffer from being possible but unlikely to be kept.  In fact, I've never actually met a person who has succeeded in their New Year's resolution.  It just seems like resolutions are destined to fail.

But I think it's important to have goals for ones self and now, with the whole year ahead of us and endless possibilities, it makes sense to set a course to follow for 2012.  So, this year I'm giving myself one task, one goal.  It looks simple, but it will take a concerted effort to succeed. 

My 2012 goal is: treat myself better.

Three little words: treat myself better. How hard can that be, you ask? Well, those three little words convey a whole lot of tasks.  For example:

1.  Eat better.  I hate diets.  I hate the word diet.  I will never be able to understand how it is healthier to eat a quarter pounder with cheese (skipping the bun, of course) than it is to have an apple or a banana.  Anything that doesn't make sense to my logical brain isn't something I will follow.  So here's what I am going to do.  Eat whatever I want, but eat less of it.  I will be one of those people who counts calories and makes trade-offs during the day.  Dessert is fine, but if I want it, I have to cut back elsewhere.

2.  Get moving.  I'm not talking P90X, or participating in a triathlon, but I need to move.  It can be as simple as walking or as complex (and assuredly humorous) as dancing to one of my Just Dance games on Wii.  Troy and I decided to walk the 500 Festival Mini Marathon again this year, and we are looking forward to some distance hiking this spring and fall.  The thing is just to get up and go.  I often forget how good it feels in the moments after a round of exercise when your muscles are burning a bit and they feel energized.

3.  Water, water, water.  I've kind of got a rhythm down for drinking 8 glasses (4 bottles) of water a day.  One bottle with breakfast.  One bottle with lunch.  One bottle in the late afternoon when my energy starts to sag (that one usually comes home with me). One bottle with dinner/exercise.  But if I don't make a conscious effort, I let that slip.  I tend to forget what one good week of hydration does for my skin.  No amount of lotion can moisturize like drinking water can. 

4.  Journal.  I enjoy blogging, but somethings just aren't for public consumption.  And I've found that, along with exercise, the best way for me to cut my stress level in half is to journal.  I'm actually not really good at keeping a journal however.  I currently own half a dozen journals and all but one has just a few entries.  In this case, turning the page is quite literal.

5.  Relax.  I need to make a concerted effort to do things that allow me to relax.  Journaling and exercise will help relieve stress, but I also need to calendar in down time where I can sit with a good book, sit on a battlefield, or go out to dinner with Troy.  Someday soon, I expect that that time will be spent playing peekaboo, speaking in baby talk and making homemade baby food.

6.  Quality not quantity.  I am an avid reader, and lately, I've enjoyed reading things that go quick, aren't too complicated and don't require me to think: historical romance.  I won't stop reading these, because I enjoy them, but I have lots of books that are more intellectual than those romances and a number of them will help us to become better parents and to understand how to address particular issues that come up in adoptions.  Time to pick up a few of them.

7. Take a class.  There is so much I want to learn to do: speak Hungarian, play the piano, learn a craft (I'm not picky here since my only artistic talent to date is photography).  But the more practical side of me will win out when I sign up for the second of three classes needed to earn a designation from the Wharton School of Business's CEBS program for work.  And when that is done, I'll be one step closer to becoming a Group Benefits Associate.

I believe that 2012 will be a good year for us.  Hopefully, this will be the year that we become parents, and that is a primary reason that I've set out these goals to become fit in body and mind.  We're getting ready for parenthood in other ways (a few home improvement projects, setting up the nursery, buying baby items), why wouldn't we take this opportunity to work on ourselves to become the best we can be?  After all, soon (we hope), we'll have other things to concentrate on!