Remember when I told you that “New Year’s resolutions suck”? Yeah, well I still believe that. But I don’t think making goals sucks.
I do hate publicly stating my goals and failing at them, however. (See here, here and here. ::hangs head in shame::) So on January 1, 2010, I set out to accomplish one very immediate, very doable thing today. I decided I would drink nothing but good not horrible stuff. While it was a simple, short-term goal, I decided not to tell anyone about it until I knew it’d be accomplished.
A few things to explain: my motivation was mostly health. I have a bet with a coworker and I need to lose some weight pretty quickly (think 20 pounds in 3 months…doable, but still). Anyone who has ever been on any type of weight loss program knows that Americans consume far too many liquid calories. I also have fear about what a lifetime of drinking soda has done or will do to me. I’ve dramatically cut back in recent years but when going out, I often indulge. Cutting it out certainly won’t harm me.
I had a hard time figuring out exactly what counted as “not horrible” because the primary issue is calories, but I believe strongly in drinking milk (I am 31 years old and have already been diagnosed with arthritis in my neck!). Because I wasn’t sure what I was counting and what I wasn’t, I had one non-alcoholic beer and two glasses of tomato juice early in the month.
But since then, I’ve had nothing but water, milk, coffee and tea. Absolutely nothing.
I still find myself craving something with flavor in the afternoon or early evening so I’ve got to figure out a good long-term solution. Perhaps I can figure out a juice spritzer type thing with real juice but not a lot of it. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I definitely don’t want to go back to having a Diet Coke every afternoon but after February 1st, if I have a craving for one I may just give in.
What this exercise taught me is that a month is not a long time even if those first few days seem impossible. And that it’s easier to accomplish your goals with help. (OK, so I didn’t announce it publicly but I did have some help from my friends.)
So now I’m thinking about figuring out something to do or give up every month this year. I’m not sure what that thing will be for February, but I’m looking for suggestions on that too.
If you set a New Year’s Resolution, how is it going? Do you need suggestions to make it easier to stick to? Perhaps we can help each other out a bit.










