New Years Resolutions

So many of us make New Years Resolutions, but how many of us actually achieve those goals we set our for ourselves? Resolutions often fade in our minds around tax time, and then right around the Holidays, we start to feel guilty for wasting a whole year doing nothing to work on our self imposed ambition. I think that's why in January, the gyms are packed with people, and by April, the population waiting in line for a stair stepper has dwindled to none. Like most women I know, I tend to have the same resolutions each year: to lose those 5, 10, 15lbs I feel I need to lose-even when I was a slight size 2 and weighed only 115 on my 5'6 frame, I thought I could stand to lose a little more fat from my butt. But I guess that's a folly of being an early twenty something girl. Sure, I'm reaching 30, not young, not old, but I'm starting to see age on my face and body from stress and life, and while I'm starting to realize just how foolish I had been and how I'd KILL to only need to lose a few tiny fat spots from my derriere.

Resolutions can be a good thing, though, a source of motivation or the impetus to self improvement. But more times than not, it's a cause for finding the acutest faults with oneself, or your life. And you feel guilty when you fail to reach the goal.

I think the best kind of resolution is the realistic one, where you enlist the help of friends and family, people who know you best, to help you get to where you want to be. My husband and I have decided to start early. We are redoing our home offices so that they are more relaxing, more organized, and overall a nicer place for us to work and relax. We think it'll help us be happier, more productive and less stressed if we improve our surroundings. We're painting huge rooms, lifting heavy furniture, running up and down stairs and working hard. Neither one of us would do it alone, but we're doing it together, so it's getting done. We've also decided to move my letterpress workshop to our cellar and turn the old workshop into a work out space. I'm taking my treadmill back from my parents, we already put the inversion table out there (this thing is awesome, I love it-but consult your Dr. first!). We're putting down mats, moving our weights from the attic and planning to get our gym ready to use by early Spring, at the latest.

Having someone to monitor and motivate makes resolutions attainable, and gives you someone other than yourself that you don't want to disappoint. We'll push one another to work out instead of eating out, just like we did redecorating the office. I'll keep him motivated, and he'll do the same for me. We'll look better, we'll feel better, and we'll keep one another on the right track. I'm counting on him to give me the gumption to get back to my pre-wedding fitness routine. Plus, I feel a little safer hanging upside down from my ankles after an exhausting workout knowing that he's there behind me.