A New Year

Happy New Year to my blogger friends! Making New Year's resolutions is a serious business, and sometimes a scary, challenging, and even discouraging endeavor. Time to stop all that. The last thing we need on these cold, dreary winter days. I'm going to suggest some "out with the old, in with the new" ways to make resolutions.

Old way: "I'm going to lose weight." This is a biggie and pretty much doomed to fail. Our bodies don't want to lose weight in the winter, they want to store weight for hardships ahead. Not our fault - this is cell and DNA deep. 
New way: "I'm going to pay attention to what my body wants to eat." Yes, a little nebulous, and really not a resolution . . . but "I'm going to try two new homemade soups every month," could be. Search out some delicious soup recipes that have good-for-you things in them. Yum. Think of the smell of soup simmering on the stove on a frosty evening.
Old way: I'm going to relax more and have less stress. This is a very wide-range statement. Work? Home? Kids? Figure out what stresses you and decide what would make you feel better. Then set your resolution to do that thing.
New way: "I am not going to volunteer for any fund-raisers until April." "I am going to take one class at a time instead of four." "I am going to stop cleaning my kids' rooms every five minutes, instead I will set a certain amount of time each week and keep the doors closed in between." (This may be a difficult resolution to keep, but you must soldier on - have a glass of wine.)

Old way: "I'm going to finish all these old projects." What a dreary resolution that one is. If you were enjoying the projects, they would be done by now - right??

New way: "I'm going to package up these UFOs and donate them, then buy some new scrap-booking paper, fabric, soft knitting yarn, beads, project books, etc., without guilt." Working on a project you enjoy will make you happy and less stressed (see above). Someone else will be thrilled with your old half-finished project. You will be doing someone a great favor!

I guess the idea is to make resolutions that you will enjoy keeping. There is a huge difference between blending an orange, a grapefruit and a banana with a little yogurt (yum), and throwing a handful of kale into the juicer (bleh!!). My apologies to those who like kale juice.

Happy New Year, Love, Linda