Friday, January 2, 2009

New Year's Resolution

Many people begin the new year by making a resolution to do something new or different in the coming year, as a way to improve themselves. For most, it's a new diet, a new health club membership, or a promise to start a new exercise regimen like running or walking. For some, it could be as easy as planning to read more or play less video games. Then there are those who dare to do something really hard, like quit smoking. Very few people actually attain their goals. By February, the majority have already quit or given up their new year's resolution. Why? Why do most people fail at this? I think it's because they do not write down their resolution and share it with others. So if they quit, who knows? Who cares? Now again, like most people, I make new year's resolutions, too. But this year I thought of a new twist. Now that I have a blog, I can share my resolution with everyone. And it's a written record that I will see almost every day. In fact, to make it even more visible, I am going to keep a daily log of my progress! So what is my resolution?
I have never been big on diets. I don't think they work because they are too hard or have too many weird rules. Who wants to count calories, ditch their bread, or eat nothing but grapefruits or lettuce? And who want to buy a whole bunch of pre-packaged food that will hog up your pantry and is over priced anyway? So my idea is this...I will diet a new way, an easy way, and a way that will make it easy to tell the difference, because there is only one thing I am going to do different. Drink water! Yes, I'm going to call it the Water Experiment. As a regular consumer of soft drinks, mainly Coke, Mt. Dew, and an occasional, Diet Dr. Pepper, my strategy is to drink water instead of soda. For the whole year! Whenever I go to a restaurant or fast food joint, I will ask for water instead (with a lemon)! This will be the only thing I change. I will not change my eating habits or my exercise (or lack there of) routine. Only water! I began yesterday, New Year's Day. A day when I would usually drink a soda or two (or three) as I watch football games and visit with my extended family. So to get myself motivated and on target, I am going to keep a daily log of my progress. You can see it on the right hand column called New Year's Resolution meter. I will now post my beginning weight and make my first entry into the meter: 198 lbs! OK, this is a few pounds more than I guessed before I weighed myself yesterday, and many, many pounds over my high school weight when I ran track. My wife expects me to lose 12 pounds. My goal is 20. So let the games begin!

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