Sunday, January 3, 2010

RESOLUTIONS

Since many people use early January as a time to make new resolutions, I would like to make a few comments.
Resolutions once a year generally just don’t work. And the year that I lost the most weight was a year that I did NOT make a weight-loss pledge. It was the year that I decided to take care of myself. Losing weight was a natural result of an overall effort to listen to my body and to take care of myself.

RESOLUTION GUIDELINES:
1. Pick one SMALL thing to work on. Small changes can bring results if you actually DO them. And one small change added to another (and another) over time, can be a very effective tool.

2. Pick a goal that is an action. Rather than “lose 30 kilos” (the result of action), choose a goal like:
-measure portions at lunch
-take an early morning walk on Wednesday and Friday
-drink 8 cups of water daily
-keep a food diary

3. Implement a monitoring system. No resolution will work if you do not have a monitoring system to remind you to keep the change going.

4. Decide on prizes, and mark them in your calendar, which you will buy (or give) yourself during the year if you consistently keep your resolution. It can be a material item or an activity. You can give yourself big prizes on occasion, or even small daily ones (any day that you do a half-hour of aerobic walking you reward yourself at 12:30 noon with a half-hour of reading time, for example.....).

GOOD LUCK!

My resolution is to be in bed by 1 o’clock AM every night.

4 comments:

Julie Lehmann Weisman said...

Dear Rickismom,

GREAT POST! here is my take on new years resolutions for jewish moms. http://www.metroimma.com/forum/topics/resolutions-1 I think you'd find it interesting, and it hits on your themes as well. If you like it, please consider joining, you'd be an asset to www.metroimma.com. We have groups for moms who blog and social network, and even a group for moms of special needs kids, but everything with a Jewish twist.

Glad to have come across your blog and hope to read more from you in the future.

Julie
www.metroimma.com

Terri said...

Wonderful advice. Happy New Year to you and yours!

Trish said...

Oooh, prizes! That's what I need. :)

I've posted my resolution and committed to blogging about it, but I didn't think about prizes. What a great idea!

Batya said...

very wise
very "fly lady"