New Year's Resolutions and Why I Don't Need Them

I think think this E-Card pretty much sums up my feelings about New Year's resolutions. Many people - and that includes me in years past - make well intentioned, but ultimately doomed-to-failure resolutions. You start out with goals that are either too unrealistic, vague or both. You know what I'm talking about. Like the time you (read ME) said on New Year's Day "I am going to lose 50 pounds, get 6 pack abs and sport a string bikini in 6 weeks." Yeah right. So on day one you go out and buy Slim Fast shakes and join a gym. You go to the gym 6 days a week the first week and drink those shakes and eat your sensible dinner meal of dry chicken breast and a salad with nasty tasting fat free salad dressing. Week two - Monday rolls around and you find lots of excuses not to go to the gym, the main excuse being that your ENTIRE body hurts from overdoing it at the gym during week one, like an idiot. You drink that Slim Fast shake for breakfast and by lunch time you tell yourself that you DESERVE that Big Mac because you worked SO HARD at the gym last week and you are so sore, that surely one little Big Mac won't hurt. Plus, you are super cranky and hungry from that horrible diet and you are sure that this will cure the headache that you have had for an entire week. And sadly, it WILL cure that headache. It will also cause the death spiral for your diet and exercise resolutions and by summer time, not only will you not have 6 pack abs or a bikini body, you will be on the phone cancelling your gym membership, all the while trying not to crunch those potato chips too loudly into the phone as you make your lame excuses to the person on the other end of the conversation. And you will buy a new, bigger and uglier bathing suit than the one your wore last summer.

So several years ago I stopped making New Year's resolutions altogether. This absolved me of all guilt when said resolutions were broken by Valentine's Day. Fast forward to New Year's Day 2014. This year things are really, really different for me. I did not make a New Year's resolution. Instead, I made a New Year's reaffirmation. A reaffirmation of the lifestyle change I made on August 1, 2013. I try not to refer to it as a diet and exercise plan because it really is a lifestyle change. Exercise has become a habit and not something that I have to talk myself into. In fact, I feel downright antsy if I miss a few days, like I did earlier this month due to a combination of the the polar vortex that coincided with a really nasty case of bronchitis and laryngitis. By the time this was cleared up it was time to get in my car and spend two days driving home to Florida - no exercise there! I just didn't feel right the whole time. Now that I am back in warmer climes, I am back to walking and it feels good and right and my life is in balance again. And I really only missed a couple of weeks of exercise in total but I hated it! Go figure. The couch potato me of a year ago would not have given a crap.

The other reaffirmation was my eating lifestyle. Although I allowed myself a mini-break from my strict little-or-no-carb lifestyle over the holidays, I had set a goal for December to not gain weight. I don't live in fairy-dust and unicorn-land. I know that is unrealistic to think that I was going to actually lose weight over the holidays when I was going to be baking cookies and pies and making fudge and chocolate peanut clusters. And CHEX MIX! Homemade Chex Mix is a family tradition and that is the one thing I can not say no to. Can. Not. It's like crack. I love me some salty, savory, crunchy Chex Mix heaven. So I knew that I would indulge, possibly to excess. Don't judge - it is only one time a year! My only goal was DON'T. GAIN. WEIGHT. DON'T undo all of the hard work of the previous months. And you know what? I accomplished that goal. Yay me! You want to know how I did it? With the exception of a couple of pretty pathetic Chex Mix binges, I practiced excellent portion control while indulging and I kept up my exercise (except in early January when I was sick) and I did not gain any weight. None. To me, that was a big win and a good test of how the weight maintenance phase of my lifestyle change will work once I have lost the rest of the weight that I would like to lose.

I went to the doctor yesterday for a regularly scheduled weight and blood pressure check since he is monitoring my weight loss closely. In the slightly over two months since my last visit I had managed to lose an additional 12 pounds. He was super impressed! He said he didn't know of anyone that managed that kind of weight loss over the holidays. He was really proud of me and told me over and over how impressed he was. He also cut my statin dosage in half, based on the excellent (read PERFECT) numbers in my last lipid panel, combined with my weight loss. In fact, he is pretty certain that I will be able to stop taking a statin altogether in the very near future. That blew my mind! Oh, and my blood pressure was even lower, so the possibility of getting off from THAT medication may be in my future too. So, I guess this counts as a minor milestone of sorts. Another medication dosage cut in half. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Here's to a Happy, Healthy, Reaffirmed New Year everybody!