I don’t know about you, but every year my spouse and I go off somewhere on January 31 and discuss our goals for the year: personal, mutual, and the one’s we did (or did not) do last year. This is serious New Year’s resolution stuff and we’ve been doing it for decades, not on January first, but on our wedding anniversary.
Unfortunately, many goals/resolutions end up on the DND or “did not do” list. Were they too hard to achieve? You be the judge. I’ll give you my best example.
Every year I put down “lose 20 pounds.” It’s always at the top of the list, usually written as I lick my chocolate covered fingers. And every year it goes on the DND list, usually with an asterisk, noting how many pounds I managed to squeeze off or worse, gained.
What can I say? I love to eat. Food is my drug of choice. I like to shop in grocery stores, look up great new recipes, smell the food as it cooks, and serve it in attractive dishes, or ugly ones, or chipped ones. I don’t care. I love food.
My salvation is the boat. When living on Sea Bear I have access only to the food that makes up our pre-planned meals. I have no storage room for anything else, including snacks. Now I’m off the boat at least half the time and back to my old unhealthy habits…sitting, eating, sitting, eating, repeat. Oh, throw a little exercise in there. I do wrestle a wine cork out of the bottle every so often.
This year, once again, “lose 20 pounds” goes on the list. It’s the priority. Why? Because I should lose 50 pounds, but I know I’ll probably not get there. A 10-pound loss gives me clothes that don’t cut off my circulation, so that’s what I’m really after. It’s psychological. I set the goal higher, hoping I’ll lose an ounce or two so I can tell myself I almost got there.
This past year I know I lost weight. How much will be determined by my end of the year weigh-in. My clothes still fit, despite overindulging during Christmas, so surely the scale will register lower.
What else is on those yearly lists? How about “complete America’s Great Loop.” We did that one with flying colors. Took eight months, but who’s counting. While I cannot yet locate my 2015 goals (truly, they seem to be lost), my long term list from 2014 has a few goals worth keeping: become a successful author, learn something new every day, volunteer but not to excess, be kind and patient with Captain Mark.
I’ll keep those…even if I don’t lose weight.