New Year's Resolutions for 2009?

[EricNoah]

I haven't quite crystalized mine yet. Anyone care to share theirs?

 

[Darkwolf71]

I have a long standing resolution to not make any resolutions. Been going strong for years.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Since ruling the world seems out of the question...


I don't know... I guess to be the opposite of Darkwolf I resolve to have a Resolution by the end of the next year.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I resolve to eat way less junk food. I've already resisted temptation by only eating a quarter of an Entemann's cheesecake tonight rather than half.

I'm saving the other quarter for breakfast.

 

[Phaezen]

Get more exercise, preferably outside. To this end I have already started rounding up friends to form a walking/hiking group. There is a wealth of short scenic walks around Cape Town.

I am also considering putting one Sunday a month aside for driving and exploring in the countryside around Cape Town, a sort of lets see where this road leads experiment.

Phaezen

 

[Plane Sailing]

Eat less, exercise more!

Compete in at least one 10k race by the middle of the year.

Publish my Sci-Fi RPG.

Cheers!

 

[EricNoah]

So far mine are very similar to last year's. What I typically do is make resolutions not for the whole year, but just for January and February. Those are tough diet/exercise months for me. If I can get through those, the rest of the months usually take care of themselves pretty well. So, for Jan/Feb:

Continue standard practice of recording food daily
--aim for that 2000 calorie mark a bit more
--No food after 7pm

Exercise every day
--Sign up for weekly yoga class w/ Mrs. Noah
--Get 20-use pass for our local rec center's exercise area
--continue to take walks as possible and do light weights on alternate days

There are some work, home improvement, hobby, and relationship resolutions too, but nothing all that interesting to share with the general public.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Exercise every day

My wife and I are coming up to our 10th wedding anniversary, and we decided to treat ourselves to our first ever games console - Nintendo Wii. Using the Wii Sports this week has been giving us at least some exercise every day (although at the moment is more arms than anything else!)

I've tried generic 'exercise more' resolutions before, but they tended to peter out, while having a mid year objective which will necessitate training to get there (e.g. the 10k run) has worked better for me in the past.

Do you find you are well disciplined enough to keep the exercise up every day? Any 'tricks' which help you?

Cheers

 

[EricNoah]

Do you find you are well disciplined enough to keep the exercise up every day? Any 'tricks' which help you?

Yes - I know I can do it. Two years ago at this time I set the same resolution (for Jan and Feb only, remember) and I did it. Each day I either walked 30 min or I did an exercise routine in my home I call "triple threat" (3x25 pushups, 3x12 presses with a pair of 20lb dumbells, and 3x12 curls with same dumbells). Given the choice between a walk and triple threat, I'll always do the walk if the weather permits.

Last year, I set the same goal and didn't do quite as well, but still exercised something like 5 days a week on average.

One motivational trick is to keep records. I do this in my food journal and I see that every day, but an even more visible place for me is a kitchen calendar. I have a blue marker and Kara has a red marker, and when I exercise, I mark the day with a blue star. Filling up an entire month with stars was pretty motivating for me.

My ipod is another key to my motivation - I am in an audiobook club and so I always have something I'm eager to listen to on my walks.

One thing that never worked for me was rewarding myself. I am just not very good at bargaining with myself.

This year I've gone a step further - Kara and I signed up with our local community/rec center and are going to take a yoga class on Monday nights. And I bought a 20-visit pass for their weight/exercise room. The place is like 3 minutes from my house, so that should help from now until March.

Once spring and summer roll around, the idea of "forcing" myself to exercise is less important because it's more natural for me to go on walks, hikes and bike rides when the weather isn't sub-freezing.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

--No food after 7pm

What time do you usually wake up?