Hi everyone! I’m Maggie from Things I Love. Meggy and I are blog swapping today,
so I’m here to chat with you about New Year’s resolutions. I’m so excited and
honored to be here, and glad she’s on my blog today chatting with my followers.
First I want to wish you all a (belated) Merry Christmas (or Happy Holdays)! I hope
you all had a fabulous 2010, and that 2011 will bring even better things for you and
yours. 2010 was a complete whirlwind for me –my man came home after a year long
deployment to Iraq, we got engaged, I graduated from college, got a big girl job, got
married and honeymooned in Hawaii. Kind of a lot, hey?
While 2010 was amazing (and crazy!) I’m really looking forward to 2011. I’m
looking forward to a few more home remodeling projects with my hubs, continuing
to further my career, running my first half marathon and some surprises – who
knows what’s going to happen!
So about those resolutions … to be honest, I have mixed feelings about them. Don’t
get me wrong - I am a big believer in goal setting, but I get a tad bit irritated with
the frenzy that happens this time of year. The gym is always super crowded, new fad
diets pop up (and generally they are terrible ideas!) and people are so gung ho about
making changes that they typically burn themselves out after a few weeks.
However, it’s also a great time to start fresh. You start out with a clean slate – it’s
a whole new year! My advice is to set small, achievable goals. Saying “I’m going to
go to the gym every day this year” is setting yourself up to fail. Instead say “I will
work out for at least 20 minutes 3-5 days each week”. And don’t beat yourself up if
you miss a week or two. These are goals, long term changes - sticking with it is what
matters!
So, are you wondering what my resolutions are this year? I chose several of the
larger goals on my 101 in 1001 list as my “resolutions” for the year. Read on!
1. Stick to a monthly budget for at least 6 months. This is a goal my husband
and I discussed quite a while ago. Our wedding threw our finances totally out
of whack. And to further confuse us, I got a new job about 4 weeks before our
wedding and my student loans entered repayment in December. Our finances
were as much a whirlwind as our year was! So we’re using www.mint.com to
track our spending starting January 1st.
2. Run a half marathon. I’ve slowly built my running repertoire, starting with
my first 5K in May of 2009. At this point, I’ve done lots of 5K’s, a 5 miler and a
10K – I’m ready to add a ½ marathon to the list- I’ve already signed up! I’ll be
chronicling that journey here. Feel free to follow along!
3. Lower my BMI by two points. I’m so close to dropping it one point already – I
just need to hang in there. In addition to exercise (which I’ll be getting plenty
of once I start my marathon training), I also like Weight Watchers online
quite a bit. I don’t work for them or get paid to endorse them, but they’re
based on real science, they support slow, achievable weight loss and the
online version is completely affordable.
4. I have one other resolution but (shhhh!) it’s a secret. It’s on my 101 in 1001
list, but I listed it as “Private”. You’ll have to stay tuned to my blog if you want
to know what it is! Gotta keep a little mystery alive!
Are you setting resolutions this year? If so, I’d love to hear what they are and see
if you have any advice for me! If you have your own blog, leave the link in the
comments section and I’ll pop over and say hi. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll
come visit me on Things I Love. And I’ll conclude with a big THANK YOU to Meggy
for hosting me today! =)
