2011 - A Year of Promise

A Year of Promise. That is really what every year is, isn't it? A year full of possibilities, of dreams, of questions, of wondering where I will be and what will have happened in exactly one year from now and is it at all what I was hoping it would be? I am not one to wax philosophical so I won't but I really do love new beginnings and wondering ever so much about the journey that lays ahead!

I am not as keen on looking back at what as happened mostly because I hate looking at my shortcomings! Exactly one year ago today, I made these choices:

1. No sweets. That's right - no chocolate, no Kit Kat bars, no cheesecake, no Pepsi, no Saucy Hot Fudge Pudding, no homemade Hot Fudge Sauce to smother my ice cream, no Slurpee's, no homemade iced tea - get the point??!!
2. Run 500 miles. That sounds a little extreme, however, if you break it down, it is only 1.36986301369 miles per day or 9.61538461538 miles per week. Totally doable! Check out the running woman on the side to watch my progress.
3. Lose weight! #1 and #2 should help with this. So will Jillian Michaels and Billy Blanks. One of the reasons I love being pregnant is because I don't worry about my weight. If I have a big tummy, it is for a reason. Now I have no excuse (and I don't consider 5 kids an excuse!!). So, by the time 2011 rolls around, I'd like you to see about 15 pounds less of me.
4. Read through the entire Bible. I see this one as being the most difficult. I tend to get bogged down in Leviticus and Numbers. Something about all those lists. Okay, so if I get through most of the Bible, I will consider this done! After all, just watching the state of your physical being and ignoring the state of your spiritual being is pretty useless. Hell couldn't care less if you are thin.
   There you have it. My goals for 2010.

Oh, boy! How did I do?

#1 - Success! A whole year without sweets! Some people say they could never do this! You know what, you totally can! There are sweets people and there are salty people and I am far over on the sweet end of the scale. It is simply a matter of saying no to that sweet option. Not that hard. You could totally do it. Not that I am suggesting you need to but it is a great way of stretching your will-power. At times I felt like this was a dumb decision but it was made and I am stubborn so I persevered and here I am!

#2 - Running. Oh, how I hate running. I actually did run for a few months. And I hated pretty much every minute of it. Well, some of it wasn't too bad but really, on the whole, I hate running. This was the dumbest decision I made (dumber than no sweets) and I really failed. But I am still okay. I still like me. I just don't like running! I also realized that sometimes I may set my goals just a teensy bit high. Maybe just a tad unrealistic. You think? So maybe just setting more reasonable goals (for myself and those around me) would be a really good thing to do!

#3 - Lost weight! I started the year at 142 pounds and am now comfortably at 130lbs! I fluctuate between 129 and 132 but that is to be expected. I am lighter now than I have been my entire married life. I guess no sweets and no pregnancy probably helped! I have now dropped from a size 8-9 to a size 6 and I am no longer wearing medium but size small. For as long as I can remember, my whole adult life, I have been a medium, a size 8-9. It feels really weird to be shopping in the small section or looking to see if they have a size 6. I swear the selection is smaller! But, I am so excited to have lost about 12 pounds and couldn't be more proud of myself!

#4 - Read through the Bible. This is my greatest disappointment and, unlike running, I really feel I failed in this. I admitted when I made this choice that it would be my toughest and it was. Why is it so very hard to take a few moments a day to spend pretty much zero energy (as opposed to running) to read my Bible. I know it is a battle but this is one I really want to win. I will not give up on this. I will read through my Bible in a year one of these years!

That brings you up to speed on how last year's goals went. I am not one to make resolutions. I rarely do, actually. But I will make one this year. Only one. One that is very important to me. READ MY BIBLE! I bought myself The 365 Daily Promise Bible in the New Life Version. It features one of God's promises for every day of the year. Each day contains a OT passage, a NT passage and a passage from the Wisdom Literature (Psalms, Proverbs). Hopefully this year will be my year of victory. Hey, if I can go a whole year without sweets, I can read through the Bible, right? I mean, how hard can it be??!! :)

Now I am off to have a steaming cup of hot chocolate, something I haven't indulged in in over a year and accompany it with some Death By Chocolate Trifle! Mmm, mmm, good!