A fair start

How are your New Year's resolutions going?  I decided to devote the first couple of months this year to improving my health. The new habits I'm trying to establish are:

1. Eating breakfast. And by "breakfast" I mean something somewhat nutritious, prepared at home, and eaten shortly after waking up (as opposed to a muffin or scone purchased at work in the early afternoon once I'm starving).
2. Taking vitamins with breakfast.
3. Packing a healthy, appetizing lunch for work. Limiting fast food or eating out midday.
4. Drinking 8 (8oz) glasses of water, and cutting way back on sodas. I could drink Cokes all day long, and have been for some months now. That's not good.
5. Go for an extra walk (or do something else active) for 30 minutes, three or four days each week. I already take a long walk with my husband and dog every night, but I still feel the need for some extra exercise in my life. Most of the things I really enjoy doing involve sitting in a chair. Which leads me to my last health resolution for the year.......
6. ....take up some new hobby or sport, something active, that I will enjoy and can incorporate into everyday life.

I felt that these six goals were do-able, and not too intimidating. So far, I've had total success with numbers 1, 2, and 3. Number 4 has been harder. Although I've cut down on my Cokes, I haven't been drinking as much water as I need to replace them. It's so hard to learn to like plain water when you have a soft drink habit, even though we have a nice filter and it tastes OK. It's just dull and I forget to drink it. I need to get better at this!

As for the extra walks, I haven't done those even once yet. The weather has been bad--cold and rainy and miserable--so even my nightly walks with GB and Ginger have been somewhat shorter than usual. I'm trying to be realistic about it. I figure that getting more active is going to be a process, something I won't be able to accomplish all at once, and when I'm genuinely deterred by bad weather that's nothing to beat myself up about. I haven't been purposely avoiding it, which is all that really matters.

I would love some suggestions for number 6 (a new hobby or sport) if anyone has any ideas. I need something fun to do besides walking to get me up and moving! I've considered fixing up my bike and riding, but after that I'm fresh out of ideas. Anyone have any thoughts about this? Something you enjoy that gets your heart rate up? (Besides going to a gym. I shudder at the thought of that.)

How are your resolutions going? I hope everyone's New Year has gotten off to a good start this week!

Happy New Year all!

Just popping in to wish my all blogging friends a wonderful New Year!

At my house, we saw 2013 in sitting on our front steps, watching the most amazing fireworks being set off by two groups of neighbors! It was a really nice show--somebody really forked over some money to make it happen! GB and I used to buy fireworks on NYE, but they're crazy expensive, especially if you want the good ones. We had to give it up years ago, as we're (sadly) not made of money, and can't afford to literally "blow" that much cash for a few minutes of fun. Naturally I was thrilled when we started to hear explosions and cheers outside our windows at 11:30pm. I opened my bottle of champagne, and we bundled up in warm clothes and and went out to sit on the front steps and watch. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously (for free!) while the two houses alternated lighting their fireworks. It was just like holidays I remember growing up...in between the explosions you could hear kids laughing and shouting and running around, adults talking and laughing and cheering after each burst of color and noise, and general merrymaking (and drinking!) all around the neighborhood. GB and I agreed it was the most fun NYE we've had in years. Here's hoping all of 2013 will be as merry as it's beginning!

Happy New Year everyone!

Thoughts about the New Year

In just three days, it will be a whole new year! I'm excited about the arrival of 2013. I can't help but feel that the universe owes me some karmic balancing good fortune this year, after what 2012 has been like!

Do you make New Year's resolutions? I love the idea of a whole bright shiny new year, full of possibility and a chance for self improvement. I have a whole list of things I want to do and accomplish in the next 12 months. I'm trying to break the list down into small manageable steps to be spread out throughout the year; I don't want to do the classic resolution thing: a big burst of initial enthusiasm followed by increasing apathy and then finally total abandonment of the goals by mid February! The only changes that stick are the ones born of slow, steady, consistent small steps. So those are the things I plan to concentrate on, small changes that can be easily incorporated into everyday life. I'll let you know how it goes!

In the meantime, with the New Year only 3 days away, I have things to get done to accommodate the superstitions my family implanted in me growing up. Certain tasks need to happen before January 1st: the Christmas tree must come down, the laundry must be done completely (including sheets and towels), and the floors have to be swept, mopped, and vacuumed. Failure to do any of those things could lead to bad luck, according to my crazy superstitious relatives. My mom will call me up without fail on December 31st to make sure I've done the laundry and swept the kitchen. Doing those tasks on New Year's Day, according to her and my late grandma, will "wash away" or "sweep away" a family member in the upcoming year. Then on January 1st, you have to eat black eyed peas (for good luck) and greens (for money) and "whatever you do that day you'll do all year" and so on and so forth. Of course it's all nonsense, but I can't help myself!

Does anyone else have superstitions and rituals about ringing in the New Year? Are you making resolutions? If so I'd love to hear about it!

Unity, Trust, Nonjudgment

Happy New Year! I am hoping for a fresh new start since 2010 was most definitely not my year.

I began it living 30 miles out of town with a car I had bought the previous summer which turned out to be a total lemon. I had it towed a total of 5 times in the five months that I owned it, and in January it died a final death (after draining a good portion of our savings for repeated repairs). Thus began the first month of the year......30 miles out, sharing a car, (with very different work schedules, and afraid of being in debt due to the economy). We had to get over that and start looking for a car to buy...with no credit history. Needless to say, it's easier to get a loan if you've got bad credit than to do it with no credit at all. Sigh. And we thought we had been responsible all these years by avoiding credit and living within our means!

Finally, in March we managed to buy a car that is almost new, and still well under factory warranty. Our interest rate is terrible (see no credit, above) but it's totally reliable and a gas saver. Great. Then we moved back into town, closer to work. Spring was busy with the move, and while that was going on I got a new boss. I had had a great relationship with the previous one, but this guy....well, after a couple of months, I knew I was in for it. Everyone swears the man is bipolar. He can be super nice, supportive, helpful....but let him get stressed out and he can turn on you in a minute! And he can turn into a totally unreasonable, shouting, insulting monster. I spent the whole summer feeling that I had to walk on eggshells with this guy. The only thing that made the situation tolerable was the he works out of Charleston and only visited my store about once a month. He still made me plenty miserable at times, though, but he liked me reasonably well. Some of my peers told me real horror stories about his behavior! Most of the time I was under his radar, thank goodness.

Then came  the rush of the holidays, and I was busy, but at least I was starting to settle into the way things were. I felt a bit more at ease with the boss, the car situation was resolved, I liked the new house and the time I got back from no longer commuting. I felt that things were finally settling down. But the year had one last sucker punch to deliver at the very end.

My boss showed up unexpectedly one week ago today to let me and my employees know that our lease was up, and a new business had offered a better bid for the space. At the end of February I will be unemployed after almost 8 years with this company. Many of my coworkers have been around 5-10 years and feel like family at this point. We're all scared and unhappy and it feels like someone has died.

So I have no idea what 2011 holds for me. I am lucky...I have two months to work, and then I get two month's severance pay. So I have some time to prepare a resume and to begin looking for something. I hope this year will bring me a new job that I enjoy more than the last one, even if I have to accept a bit less money for it. I haven't been happy at the current job for awhile. Maybe this job loss is a blessing in disguise; I sure hope I look back on 2011 one day and think so!

I have been intrigued for awhile with the practice of drawing a word (or three!) at the New Year to divine the purpose of the year ahead. I found a great list at another blog I read, so I printed it, cut out the words, and
drew three. For 2011 my three words, in order, were: Unity, Trust, Nonjudgment. I am still pondering what sort of significance those three words could have for me in the days ahead. Thoughts?