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I normally don't do New Year's resolutions, because they last about week, and I blow them, and I don't get back to them because there is always tomorrow. Also because in general I find big goals don't take the vagaries of life into account.
This year, I made a resolution. I read an article about how "process" goals are easier to keep to than "target" goals. I suspect it really should have had the caveat "for some people" attached, but it immediately resonated with me.
I've been frustrated with my health - I have not been active enough, I get winded too easily, and I'm slowly gaining weight. (The last is not in and of itself a bad thing - there was a time in my life when that WAS the goal, and my doctors agreed - but in my case I do not need that weight and it's indicative of both poor diet choices and a fairly sedentary lifestyle, as much as one can have with two active small children.)
So my "process" resolution has been to log my exercise and food every day. I set up a tracker program that handles both, plus I'm using Nexercise to time exercising (and gather mPoints). I don't care if my numbers are good or not: if I logged them, then I kept my resolution.
It's working. Most days my numbers are within the targets I set. (Not so much for the company holiday party or my birthday. So it goes.) But even more...today I exercised a half hour in the morning, only to have Scott and the kids want to go to the zoo less than an hour later. Our zoo has a long down at entrance and a long up for the exit. We did the whole loop, with a break at the bottom for food, and I pushed the kids most of the way in the rented double stroller, including up the exit path. And I emerged not winded, not exhausted, and grumpy only for reasons that had nothing to do with the physical effort. (Small kids: still small kids, not miniature adults. Sometimes, this is annoying. Heh.)
So. WIN.
This year, I made a resolution. I read an article about how "process" goals are easier to keep to than "target" goals. I suspect it really should have had the caveat "for some people" attached, but it immediately resonated with me.
I've been frustrated with my health - I have not been active enough, I get winded too easily, and I'm slowly gaining weight. (The last is not in and of itself a bad thing - there was a time in my life when that WAS the goal, and my doctors agreed - but in my case I do not need that weight and it's indicative of both poor diet choices and a fairly sedentary lifestyle, as much as one can have with two active small children.)
So my "process" resolution has been to log my exercise and food every day. I set up a tracker program that handles both, plus I'm using Nexercise to time exercising (and gather mPoints). I don't care if my numbers are good or not: if I logged them, then I kept my resolution.
It's working. Most days my numbers are within the targets I set. (Not so much for the company holiday party or my birthday. So it goes.) But even more...today I exercised a half hour in the morning, only to have Scott and the kids want to go to the zoo less than an hour later. Our zoo has a long down at entrance and a long up for the exit. We did the whole loop, with a break at the bottom for food, and I pushed the kids most of the way in the rented double stroller, including up the exit path. And I emerged not winded, not exhausted, and grumpy only for reasons that had nothing to do with the physical effort. (Small kids: still small kids, not miniature adults. Sometimes, this is annoying. Heh.)
So. WIN.