New Year

I always get a little chuckle when the new year rolls around.  I am amused (not in a sarcastic way, mind you) by all of the inspiration and pledges for change, for improvement, for new habits to be formed and old ones to be broken.  I always end the old year and start the new year with the best of intentions to do this, that, and the other.  But shortly I find myself back in my old ways.  Just like a lot of people who make resolutions.  Why?  Well, I think that self-control and discipline are a lot like muscles.  The more you work them, the stronger they become.  That said, there are limits.  I've read that we start out each day with a finite amount of discipline.  When that store runs out is when we crash.  That's why it's easier and better to exercise first thing and eat healthier in the morning and early afternoon.  That's not to say that it's excusable to binge in the evenings, but it's more likely that we'll binge at night because we ran out of self-control.

Um...I got off topic there.

The point is that I ended last year with the intention of doing a lot of things--diet, exercise, reading, and writing related.  But I haven't really done any of them.  However, because they are all important to me, I have to start small and force myself to be disciplined so that they become habit and then just get done.

Diet wise--I am starting the Dukan Diet tomorrow.  I've read the book and I feel like it is the best plan for me to follow because of the variety.  A lot of diets out there push me to eat stuff that I just don't like.  Namely fish.  Also, I'm not huge on vegetables, so I can stick within my comfort zone when it comes to vegetables.  I really like the mix and match strategy.  I like how it strips you of the food groups you don't really need to survive and then slowly reintroduces them so that you have a greater appreciation of the science behind nutrition and diet.  I've also decided that I am not going to let politeness destroy my work.  Zach and I have started diets before, but fell off of them because we don't want to inconvenience people and then we get busy and then this and that happen and we were back to our old habits.  Not going to happen again.  My diet is pretty easy to have stuff right there that I can eat without a lot of preparation.  I know that my family will support my decision to do this.  And everyone else is just going to have to understand.  Besides, most places have a plain old grilled chicken sandwich.

Interesting Factoid:  Did you know that the more times you start a diet and fail, the more difficult it is to be successful on any diet?  Your body finds ways to combat the perceived panic mode it finds itself in when you change eating habits.  

Zach is going to start the Abs Diet.  I'm not sure how it will work out with both of us on different diets, but I think we've each found a plan that we're willing to commit to instead of trying to find something that will work for both of us.  He knows my restrictions during the first two phases of the diet and that they will affect Valentine's Day.  I should be past that by our anniversary and can use one of my "celebratory meals" that day.  But our anniversary is also Opening Day, so we'll probably wind up going to Coney Island to watch the game and then it will be something within the framework for supper.

Exercise-wise--In the first phase, the Dukan Diet calls for 20 minutes of walking per day.  It fluctuates between 20 and 30 minutes of walking for all four phases.  Naturally, you can do more, but it's not pushing you to do more than you're already used to do because there's no sense in wearing yourself out by jumping in over your head.  But seriously?  20 minutes?  Of walking?  That will be completely cathartic in addition to getting in the walking.  I'm also thinking about eventually adding in the stair stepper at the gym.  I do not encounter many opportunities to park far away or use stairs in my daily habit.  I toy with the idea of yoga, but I don't want to add on too much initially, but add things by degrees.  Walking first, stair stepper second, then yoga.  Eventually, Zach and I both want to jog.

Reading-wise--I'm really off to a nice start on books this year.  I've finished reading Reading Jackie:  Her Autobiography in Books.  I loved it and I'll be writing a review before long.  I am close to being done reading Gone Girl and The Dukan Diet.  I also have a project, inspired by a friend's, that several of us on Twitter are going to be doing.  But I'll give that its own post because I am really excited about it.  I have been doing a good job of making time to read instead of wasting the day watching TV.  Naturally, once school and work start back up, I'll have more stuff to contend with, but I think I can manage.

Writing-wise--Well, I have three online places I'll be writing--here, The Broke and the Bookish, and QuirkBooks, so I'll be writing quite a bit.  I am doing better about writing in my journal.  I find that it takes a bit of time before the entries stop being "So, this happened, then that happened" sagas and start being more reflective, thoughtful, interesting to read.  (I don't know how long it's been since I shared that I am basically writing my journals with the idea that my future children will find and read them some day and I want them to realize that I was a person--maybe even an interesting person at times--before I became a parent)  Also, I have started a writing group with a good friend.  We're going to talk once a month over a glass of wine about how our writing has been going.  Kind of like an accountability partner.  Did I mention that wine is going to be involved?  I am really excited about this group.

So there you have it.  My scaled-back, more realistic plans, thoughts, hopes, and dreams for 2013.