New Year and new goals....mmhmmm

The New Year is approaching soon, and people are contemplating how to make the upcoming year better than their last. New Year’s resolutions are popular among so many people. I think I gave up setting one year’s ago. I always slacked and gave up. Sometimes I set them just way too high. Plus I always told myself, why the hell I didn’t ever attempt to make this resolution during the summer, or fall? Why now? The ideology kind of reminds me of an active teenage girl. She is freaked out that her period is five days late. She prays to god (something she rarely ever does) to give her period, and if he does, she will wait to have sex until marriage. Now is that a realistic promise? Definitely not, but we make them anyway at desperate times.
Some people think its ok to binge drink all year long or at least months leading up to the New Year. Then they will plan about 3-5 months following of pure sobriety. I guess detoxifying their liver for a while isn’t such a bad idea. I suppose I’m just a believer in trying to do things right, oh let’s say every day of your life! Which reminds me of my senior year of college, I figured I was close to being done, so it was the time to party. I went out a lot, and somehow thought I could avoid the beer belly. This then led to late night eating, which then led to not exercising the next day and sleeping off my hangover. When I couldn’t fit into my pants I was totally shocked. It only takes a few months to put on a lot of weight, and sadly what feels like 8 million years to take it off. I remember setting several new week resolutions. I couldn’t even get that far. Every night I would tell myself that the following weekend I would do better. Of course when I decided to go out that night, or feast on a scrumptious, massive dinner, I would postpone my goal until the next week. This seemed to be a vicious cycle. Especially when you feel like you’re going through it on your own. I’m not saying that goals are bad, because I feel they are great! But for people like me, we need to stumble a few times before we really lock it in. It wasn’t until I graduated and saw the photos of what was supposed to be my happiest day. I didn’t even recognize myself. I knew I needed to set a goal and follow through.
Portions, portions, portions, that is truly what I needed to focus on. After a few beers your judgment flies out of the window. I knew that cutting back on my partying was a must as well. I was grateful for Tucson’s 24 hour Mexican food drive thru. However, they were also my worst enemy. I lucked out living in Santa Fe where everything closed by 10pm. I also looked into the ways of Weight Watchers. My mother had been a member several years back, and I also had a great friend who was on the program. Their message made complete sense; follow your stomach’s signals. Are you hungry? Are you just bored? Are you full? I used to push my limits all the time, especially when the food was so good.
Ok, every food has a certain amount of calories, we all know that. Unless you’re drinking some gas causing diet soda. That’s just my opinion, I love them, but they’re also the devil. I found that certain low calorie foods made me feel satisfied, and the feeling lasted longer. Mainly those were fruits, vegetables, and protein. That’s Weight Watchers plan, to make you chose the foods that keep you feeling satisfied longer. Rather than snacking on empty calories and feeling starved 20 minutes later. I’m currently trying to become a Weight Watchers leader to help encourage others that some goals are possible to accomplish. Also, some can truly change your life. The optimism is important, but I definitely know being pessimistic is easier. I think this was the only goal that I truly set and accomplished, with several struggles in-between. Also, it was a life changing goal, something that will hopefully last forever. I think I will continue setting little goals in my life, but the big ones have to be ones that will greatly influence my life for the better, and last.
Realistic, life changing goals totally make sense to me. Short-termed goals that you know you will ignore are the ones to rethink. I do wish that some people would set a New Year’s resolution, like my father. Only because I feel his life depends on it. Maybe my New Year’s resolution will be trying harder to put back together our relationship. But that is a completely different blog, different story….and I will quit before I ramble even more…….