A New Year, A New Me?!

I don’t really “do” New Years’ Resolutions.  I certainly don’t try to remake myself every year with the  “It’s a New Year, and a New You!” gimmicks that are out there.  I do like to take some time at the New Year and my birthday (which are six months apart) to evaluate how things are going and set new goals for myself.  I haven’t done much of that in the last couple of years since everything has felt so chaotic.  This year, though, is a little different.

I have been working with my counselor for almost a year to help manage my life and my headaches.  We worked through a workbook on chronic pain which was very useful to help me learn to manage expectations while living with pain.  Now, she and I are working on diet and exercise issues.

I have been overweight for most of my adult life, but it was mostly an annoyance until about three years ago when I gained even more weight because of some medication changes.  Unfortunately, the weight didn’t come off when the medications were stopped because I have become something of a couch potato.  I never liked exercise much before, but I have been less active than usual over the last three years, partly because of headaches.

My counselor and I are now working to get me to exercising as much as possible for my situation in life.  Mr. Math Tutor and I got a family membership at a local health club.  The kids will get to swim there as well.  So far, I have been very good about walking on the treadmill at home.  My trainer at the health club wants me to do weight training three times a week.  I think that’s optimistic, but I’m going to give it a try.  I’m also looking forward to doing some cross-country skiing this winter.

I am also reading Never Say Diet and the Never Say Diet Fitness Planner by Chantel Hobbs by Waterbrook Press.  I will be doing a full review and giveaway in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, I have enjoyed Hobbs’ candid writing about her struggles with healthy eating and exercise.

From Chantel Hobbs’ website, I came across sparkpeople.com.  This is a website that allows you to keep track of eating and exercise for free.  I really like the interface.  They have preset diet and exercise plans or you can just keep track of your own plan.

I don’t like to make big resolutions, but prefer to set reasonable short-term goals.  For the next two weeks, my goals are to eat a healthy breakfast (not a big problem for me), exercise every day that I don’t have a debilitating migraine, and keep track of my eating and exercise.

I don’t have any desire to have a “new me”.  Frankly, I’m pretty happy with who God made me.  I do hope, though, to work on some of these smaller goals to get to a healthier me.  Do you do New Years’ Resolutions?  What are they?  How are you going to meet them?