Happy New Year! by Lady G

Good resolutions are simply checks that people draw on a bank where they have no account; and we should make resolutions when we are ready to change and not merely wanting to change.

New Year’s Top Ten Resolutions:

• 1. Stop smoking
• 2. Get Fit
• 3. Lose Weight
• 4. Enjoy Life More
• 5. Quit Drinking
• 6. Get Organized
• 7. Learn Something New
• 8. Get Out of Debt
• 9. Spend more time with the Family
• 10. Help Others

Success is not an accident it begins with a well-conceived plan. You can and will achieve more in the next year than you have in the past ten with a disciplined plan of action. By investing your efforts into a New Years Resolution, you give yourself a launch pad for starting your new year and your new life.

Every year it seems that the same popular Top Ten New Year resolutions crop up. Why? It's obvious. Because they are just so hard to keep! I have trouble keeping my resolutions, but this time I'm determined to finally do better.

I have narrowed mine down to Five New Year Resolutions. These are lacking for me and are important that I keep them so that I can become a better person.

Get Healthier – Exercise/Nutrition

This always sounds easier than it really is! I am not going to tell you the number of times that I've started some exercise program and gradually cut back (with one excuse or another) until it was non-existent. The best exercise I've found is walking. Plus I want to try the Wii Exercise Package.

If you saw a bottle of pills on the supermarket shelf that promised to strengthen your heart, manage your weight and boost your spirits, you would surely dismiss it as a commercial gimmick and probably try them anyway. But walking does this! Walking is simple, natural, and doesn't cost a cent. If you haven't been active for a while, it's a gentle low-impact exercise to ease you into a higher level of fitness and health. Overweight and obesity is a very good reason to get healthy:

• The risk of death rises with increasing weight

• Even moderate weight excess (10 to 20 pounds for a person of average height) increases the risk of death, particularly among adults ages 30 to 64.

• Overweight and obesity are associated with an increased risk for some types of cancer

• For every 2-pound increase in weight, the risk of developing arthritis increases by 9 to 13 percent.

• The incidence of heart disease is higher in persons who are overweight or obese

Staying healthy includes a balanced diet, staying clean, getting plenty of exercise as well as keeping your heart strong and free of drugs.

People who practice good nutrition, hygiene and exercise patterns develop a lifetime of habits that will keep them healthy for many years. Especially when they are older!
The older I get, the more conscious I am of my health. So I really need to keep this resolution. The Food Guide Pyramid helps to promote the 3 basic rules for a healthy diet: Variety, Balance, and Moderation.

Variety means that you must include many different foods from each level of the Food Pyramid because no single food can supply all of the nutrients that your growing body needs on a daily basis.

This can help to expand your food choices. It is best to eat foods of all colors. The more colors and textures in your daily meals, the better range of nutrients you'll get.

Balance means that you must eat the right amounts of foods from all levels of the Food Pyramid each day. This way you will get all the calories and nutrients you need for proper growth and development.

Moderation means that you are careful not to eat too much of any one type of food.

Spend More Time With Family/Friends

At least one day a week, sit down to dinner (Sunday) with my family. Eating together, talking together, you can share your successes, and create an atmosphere safe enough to share failures.

Since my friends are spread out geographically, I am going to at least twice a month make contact (via email, text, phone, or visit) with my friends.

Get Out Of Debt

Gas prices are through the roof, food prices aren't far behind, jobless roles are increasing, the mortgage mess is continuing, the housing market is still tanking, and the "R" word is on everyone's lips.

More and more people are turning to credit cards and home equity loans just to stay afloat and some are even using credit cards to pay their mortgages.

I am going to m\Make a determined effort to cut back some of my debt this year – I have to start somewhere.

The Zen Habits 12-Step Get-Out-of-Debt Program

 Acknowledge the problem
 Stop any non-essential spending
 Make small cutbacks
 Start an emergency fund
 Take inventory
 Make a spending plan
 Control spending
 Pay bills on time
 Start paying off the smallest debt first
 Find larger cuts
 Grow your income
 Track your progress

Bonus step: Celebrate! It’s important to celebrate, not only when you’re out of debt, but along the way as you eliminate each debt. Find free entertainment, make it a challenge to be frugal and save money and find cheap used stuff. Pat yourself on the back along the way.

Patience

The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.

"THE TWO MOST POWERFUL warriors," wrote Leo Tolstoy, "are patience and time." One thing you can do when you're being patient is think. Patience gives you the power to control yourself and control your life. And you don't really need to learn to be patient. It isn't a skill.

You don't have to do anything to be patient. You have to not do something. Patience isn't a skill — it's a decision. Patient people have simply made it a habit to make the decision to not do something. Instead of getting tense, they decide not to. Instead of yelling at people and getting mad, they decide not to. Instead of driving too fast, they decide not to.

I have such a time being a patient person. So I am going to try really hard to work on this one and pray for patience.

Help Others More

Volunteering is an important expression of citizenship and an essential component of democracy. It means the commitment of time and energy for the benefit of society and the community. It's undertaken freely and by choice, without concern for financial gain and can be a fulfilling and gratifying experience.

Helping others brings good feelings to the giver and the receiver of the good deeds. Using your special gifts to help others can be a gift to yourself as you enjoy a self esteem boost for making others’ lives better, and make the world a better place. You feel more worthy of good deeds yourself, your trust in the decency of people is reinforced, and you feel more connected to yourself and to others.

In fact, research shows that those who demonstrate more altruistic social interest tend to enjoy higher levels of mental health, above and beyond the practical benefits of receiving help and other known psycho spiritual, stress, and demographic factors that you would expect.

Creating a balanced lifestyle that includes service to others can help you feel less stress as well, as you feel more connected to your spirit, more grateful for what you have, and less invested in the ‘rat race’ that causes stress for so many of us.

So there you have it, my five New Year Resolutions, I will let you know in December 2010 how I did:

Get Healthier – Exercise/Nutrition
Spend More Time With Family/Friends
Get Out Of Debt
Patience
Help Others More