Journal to a Muse

New Year's Revolution

OK, so it is January 3rd. It has taken me a while to get brave enough to think about making New Year's Resolutions. I don't seem to be able to find where I wrote down any resolutions for last year, but I feel like a failure anyway. Which sucks. I mean, I didn't even try anything and I messed up?!! And now, two people nearest and dearest to me have taken the plunge and made THEIR resolutions known.

My Darling Daughter is going for goal weight. She's already lost 50 pounds. Isn't that awesome? So I can hardly just loaf around being a weenie (and a scared, ashamed FAT weenie at that).

My husband has already spilled the beans about two resolutions he's made. He didn't make a big fanfare about it, he's just let me know that he's going to be more vigilant about checking his blood sugar (and thus managing his diabetes). That's huge! Unless you are, or know a diabetic, you might not have thought about how unpleasant it is to stick yourself with the needle for the reading, AND then stick yourself for the insulin, AND deal with having a chronic, un-ignorable disease that otherwise doesn't have overt symptoms. His other resolution is to be "nicer" to me. I haven't the foggiest notion why this crossed his mind, because he is the best. Human, to be sure, but he is ALWAYS doing things for me. Changing the cat litter. Making dinner. Taking me out to lunch. Rubbing my feet. Folding my laundry. Listening. Encouraging.

I got Alexandra Stoddard's most recent book Happiness for Two. She wrote about she and her husband making recommendations for each other's resolutions. That sounded daring and intimate to me. Without making any recommendations for DH, I asked him what he'd want MY resolution to be.

Eat healthy.


That's it. One big, fat, fat-related goal. Day in . Day out.

And I'm actually going to "operationalize" this goal, rather than rely on magic. (Magic seldom seems to work when you really need it, OR when carbohydrates are available.)



How will I know I did it? Ressurect my Food Journal. (What gets measured gets done, right?)

Writing down what I eat forces me into better eating. For some reason, I will STOP making entries in my food journal, but it would never occur to me to LIE in it. If I eat pie, I say I ate pie, not green beans. But if I were to eat a WHOLE pie, I'd tend not to write that down. So I'll write.

I will use Calorieking.com and Weightwatchers.com to get food values.

What's healthy? I'm going to verge toward Michael Pollen's recommendation: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I don't expect to be 100% on this. NOT going VEGAN! But I'm going to aim for real food instead of processed food-like products. (Still like my grilled cheese sandwiches with Velveeta, though... but maybe just once a year!)


Cook at home more often. I think we ate out almost 100% of our meals in December. Any home cooking would be an improvement: REAL food. Weighed portions. The chart above, is the American Diabetic Association's recommendation of how many servings of things to have every day. When I've done a month of food journal keeping, I'll add this step. Don't want to get overwhelmed.

Drink Water with or without orange juice when I'm not sure I'm hungry. (Thanks Naturally Slim)

Drink 2% milk. AND keep up with my calcium supplements.

Refuse to take myself or my "issues" so seriously that I give up on myself.

Nora Ephron's list of resolutions is here. I completely agree with her about Chris Dodd, ending the war in Iraq, and closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. I'm not so sure I want to kill anybody, but I'd be glad for dictators and psychopaths (subgroups with seem to overlap) to be coralled to a separate planet... with or without a viable atmosphere.

Oh, and if you want suggestions, check this out.