My New Year’s resolutions

I’ve heard, that if you want to achieve your goals, it’s a good idea to write them down. So, under the guise of “new year’s resolutions”, here are my goals for twentyten. I will not be offended at all, if nobody reads this, as it’s really all about myself.

Goal, #1 - I want to get down to 240 lbs. (approximately).

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  I have lost about 7 lbs from last year at this time. Since, on average, the average American gains 2 lbs. a year, it’s almost like I’ve lost 9 lbs. In any event, I want to be down to 245 by June 1st, and 240 by November 1st, and maintain that through the end of the year. Slow and steady wins the race, I say, and I’m not going on some diet or other goofy crap that I’ll never be able to stay with. Also, when I say approximately, I know that my weight can swing around 3 – 4 lbs at any given time, so if I consistently hitting the numbers listed above by those dates, I’ll consider the goal achieved.
  

Goal #2 – Decrease fast food to once a week (breakfasts & lunch)

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  I love getting breakfast from Tim Hortens. BK’s wrapper things are a close 2nd, but Horten’s sausage & egg biscuit are to die for, at least for me. Generally, I’ve been getting these twice a week, so I want to cut that down to once a week.
  
• I used to get lunch out a couple of times a week, but I’ve managed to cut that down to once a week, generally. I’m going to try to eliminate those completely.
  
• I understand that there are going to be times where this is not going to happen, for whatever excuses I want to come up with. I’m giving myself the latitude to accept these as they come, and not kill myself over them, but to get back on track as soon as I can.
  

Goal #3 – Make my lunches the night before.

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  This will help support goal #2 (which in turns supports #1). Also, it will save time in the morning, help me get out the door faster, and hopefully lead to some better eating habits. Also, in conjunction with this, I’m going to try to plan to have smaller lunches, but have a mid morning snack & something ready for the drive home in the afternoons. This last part, the late afternoon healthy snack is important. Too often, I don’t have anything, so when I get home, I’m starving. I’ll start eating while we’re getting dinner ready, and it really compounds my caloric intake.
  

Goal #4 – Cut down sodas (or pop to some of you) to once a day.

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  I generally drink two diet cokes a day. I’ve seen mentioned in several places where the diet soda’s help pack on weight. I haven’t seen any research on this, so I don’t know how true it is.
  
• More importantly, in our area, diet coke is getting more and more expensive. It used to be we could get 4, 12 packs for $12, and now it’s up to 3, 12 packs for $13. Diet Pepsi, on the other hand, is still at the same old pricing level. So fuck those greedy corporate bastards at Coke. I’m cutting back and they are not getting as much of my money.
  

Goal #5 – Engage in more physical activity with my wife.

• Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m not talking about that.
  
• Our kids are getting older and certainly don’t require as much “hands on” time as when they were growing up. My wife and I are developing a habit of sitting on a couch all night, watching TV and surfing the net. Sure, we’re on the couch together, 3 to 4 nights a week, but we’re turning into vegetables.
  
• My goal, which I haven’t shared with her, is to do some sort of physical activity 3 days a week together, before vegetating out. Not necessarily long or intense, but anything is better than nothing. When the weather is better it could just be sitting outside together, walking the dogs, walking on any of the numerous walking paths near us, anything at all.
  
• In 5 years, our youngest will be a freshman in college and the other two will be out. I’ll be 51 and hopefully we’ll have 20 to 30 good years left. I think that it’s important, both physically and mentally, to be active and engaged with each other, and hopefully this goal will be one step along that path.

Five simple goals. None of them are that difficult to achieve on their own, nor life altering, but if I achieve them, I’ll alter my current and future life.