Sunday, December 30, 2012

New Year's Resolutions

I dislike New Year's Resolutions.

On the one hand, they seem like a good idea:  out with the old, in with the new . . . full of hope for a better and brighter year.  But they end in guilt and self-recrimination when they inevitably go unfulfilled.

Nevertheless, after starting on my MILF Project at the beginning of the summer . . . and being derailed from it by an ill-advised cartwheel at the end of the summer, nowish is coincidentally a good time to pick up fresh again.

So call it my New Year's Eve Eve resolution:  I am back on the wagon to lose the baby weight and get my 37 year old figure back before I turn 43!  (Thirty-seven = the age I was when I married The Working Dad . . . plus, it's a workable goal, you know?  Not like trying to look like I'm 18 again.)

New plan, friends, starting tomorrow (because why not start on a Monday):

  • Stop eating crap.  That means less white stuff, especially sugary stuff, but starchy stuff too.  (So I'd better get to eating up the rest of it before midnight tonight!)
  • But no strict dieting.  I rebel against prohibition and end up eating a whole bag of Funyuns or something if I tell myself I cannot have it.  (But saying to myself, "you ought not to have it," is a lot easier.  It presents an element of choice, kind of . . . .)
  • Exercise at least 30 minutes at least five days a week.  (This means getting up early to do that, and that's okay, if I do the next thing, which is . . . .)
  • Go to bed by 10:30 p.m. (I fall asleep on the sofa anyway by that time, so I might as well be in my bed when that happens.)
And, too, I have set rewards for myself for when I have met certain weight loss goals:
  • 10 pounds:  Congratulations, Working Mom, you've earned yourself a pedicure!
  • 5 more pounds:  Woo-hoo!  Looks like it's time for another pedicure!  (Also, Working Mom, by this time, you might want to consider starting to run again, but don't push it if your cartwheeling injury to your tushy is still bothering you.)
  • 5 more pounds:  Twenty pounds?!!!  Wow, you get to go shopping for a couple of nice new items of clothes for your slimmed down self.  Give your good friend and CAbi Rep a call, and buy something pretty!  (Oh and, hey, go ahead and have another pedicure, you've earned it!)
  • 5 more pounds:  Is it pedicure time again?  I think so!  Plus, you've met your goal, have a manicure too!
Yes, pedicures . . . an infrequent treat for me, and something that I can definitely hang out there as a carrot.

So that's 25 pounds that I want to lose.  Losing exactly that much weight would get me to the weight I was when I married The Working Dad.  And I mean, exactly the weight that showed up on the scales on our wedding day . . . weird, huh?  (There are some things that you just will always remember....)  Those 25 pounds are 10 pounds of baby weight and 15 pounds of reproductive endocrinology weight.  And today, on New Years Eve Eve, it seems totally possible.

Happy New Year, Friends!

P.S.  Another resolution, of sorts, that I have made, is to write more frequently on this blog.  There have been a lot of things happening in the news and the world that affect parents, working women, and women in general, and I would love to explore them through writing.  I will try to do that more in the new year.  Good for the soul to examine one's heart through words.  In public . . .  Anyway, they have a Blogger iPhone app that I'm going to try out as a tool to use for more frequent posting.  Cheers, everybody!  Stay safe in the New Year!