Just one more thing

I've continued to ponder whether I'm going to make any other New Year's resolutions besides the Whole30, and I realized something important: The things I want to do, I'm going to do with or without a resolution. (I'd put in that category several exercise-related ideas, finishing with Romans, doing a sprint triathlon this summer, reading more, experimenting with new foods, and so on.) But if my resolutions are things I DON'T want to do, then I'm going to really struggle and probably not succeed.

Some might conclude that I'm an idiot for not having had that amazing revelation about 20 years ago and that there's no point in my making resolutions at all. But I tend to conclude that I actually enjoy setting goals and that New Year's Day would be a pointless holiday without them. I just need to resolve to do something I wouldn't have done otherwise but is totally manageable.

Gretchen Rubin had an idea in The Happiness Project that fits the bill perfectly: "Suffer for 15 minutes." The idea is to set a timer for 15 minutes each day and use that time (and only that time) to gradually tackle a huge, daunting project that you know should do but you never seem to get around to. She used her time to organize her photos and make albums for each of her kids. That chore is on my list, too, but it's actually SO daunting that I'm going to postpone it for a while and start with something easier. I think Job One will be to clean up my disastrously outdated address book and digitize it. I can also clean out my file cabinets, organize my pile of loose-leaf recipes, purge and clean the laundry room, and get some photos in frames. (It all sounds dreadful, doesn't it?) So…any digital address book recommendations?

Happy 2013!

Back from Disney World

Wow, nothing like two weeks of horrible eating to get a person on board with a dietary New Year's resolution! We were in Orlando over Christmas, and while it was really fun to indulge in every junk food known to man (except for the funnel cakes, which for some reason I drew the line at), I am more than ready to clean up my act. It should be pretty easy, since my husband and about a thousand other people on the ten thousand blogs I read will be joining me.

In case you're curious, we'll all be doing this. Except M.H. says he's doing a Whole180, and more power to him. Maybe I'll even join him if we're on a roll and I magically lose all desire for pizza.

Thinking about New Year's resolutions

I've been trying to decide if I want to make some New Year's resolutions or set some goals or intentions for 2013, and if so, what those resolutions/goals/intentions should be.

I don't want to make the mistake I made last year and set a bunch of goals so ambitious that I don't end up achieving ANY of them. Well, I could still give nine more items to charity to meet my goal of getting rid of 100 extraneous things, but even that wouldn't technically count since I had originally intended to sell those 100 things on eBay (ha ha ha ha ha ha). And anyway, I can't see "trip to Goodwill" even making it on to a to-do list that already includes work, editing M.H.'s new book, sending out cards, hosting an early Christmas party with my in-laws, and getting ready for a trip to Florida.

M.H. has told me that he plans to drastically clean up his diet starting January 1, so it would be pretty easy to jump onto that bandwagon, but I'm not sure I'm in the right mind-set for extreme self-denial. I'm pretty happy with my normal, medium amount of self-denial, which actually feels like no self-denial at all, since I was pretty successful at permanently changing my eating habits in 2012, which is funny since it wasn't even one of my goals.

No guts, no glory

I had a breakthrough of sorts at swim posse this week: I did the workout, and then I didn't feel drained and exhausted for the rest of the day. I guess that means I'm ready to make the jump from one practice a week to two, maybe. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the class at first, but now I really do. It's actually nice to have somebody else write the workouts, and to have friendly lanemates in the pool.

See, that's the kind of class my gym should offer more of. That spinning instructor from last week is still bugging me. I think it's because the message a class like that sends is, "The way to be healthy is to beat your body into submission." Honestly, even though it's not really my thing anymore, I have nothing against a nice, hard workout. It's just that if the class has to be shouted through the whole thing, presumably to overcome the screaming in their legs or chests, then something's not right. (To say nothing of the "it's never good enough" mentality, but I can't believe the instructor actually meant that. I suppose all sorts of stupid things come out when you have to shout for an hour straight.)

I think the motivation in swim posse is a lot closer to healthy: a) fun, b) friendly competition, and c) wanting to be a faster swimmer.

…And d) unsuccessfully trying to relive my glory days, but that's not really the gym's fault.