Happy New Year!

A brand new year is upon us.  It's hard to believe that it's 2010 already!  Where has the time gone?

Over the past few days, I've been thinking about resolutions.  You know, the promises we make at the beginning of a new year of the things we want to change or accomplish?  Well, I'm not overly keen on making new years resolutions.  The reason is because I never stick with them.  Yup, I'm one of those people.  To be fair, I do work at things for awhile and then for whatever reason (usually lack of motivation or forgetfulness), I stop.

I do have some goals that I want to accomplish this coming year, though.  So, I guess in a way, I will be setting some resolutions - no matter how I look at it.  Here is a list of what I hope to accomplish this year:

1.  Lose weight.  This is something I've been meaning to do for awhile now, but I want to lose a lot of weight by the summer.  I haven't set a goal of how many pounds yet, but that will be soon.  I want to feel and look healthy this year.

2.  Exercise.  That dreaded eight letter word that so many people dislike, including me.  However, since I want to become healthier (and lose weight), exercise is a key factor in accomplishing this.  I don't want to overdo things, so I will start of slowly.  I have an eliptical machine and will use that for the bulk of my winter exercise regime.  I also have a couple of yoga DVDs (one is for weight loss and the other is for people who are unflexible - basically to help get you more capable of doing yoga, lol) which I plan to use as well.  Once the weather gets better, and the days aren't too cold, I will add walking to the plan.

3.  Jogging.  I hear so many stories of how people ruin their knees from jogging, but I want to be able to jog long distances without fear of collapsing after 30 seconds.  I think the longest I can jog for is about a minute, and then I need to stop and walk.  That's not long, I know, but my goal is to increase that.  However, because I'm not fond of running/jogging/walking on ice and falling and breaking a leg (or worse), this will probably only start in the spring after the ice and snow have melted enough.

4.  Eat healthier.  Again, this ties in with the first goal.  I want to eat better foods - less of the fast food/junk food.  Included with this, would be to decrease my portion sizes. 

5.  Drink water.  I don't get nearly enough water consumption.  I drink lots of pop, and I know that's not good.  So, included in this goal is to wean out the pop so that I drink very little of it, and increase the amount of water I drink per day.

6.  Write a novel.  This is something I've been working at on and off for several years.  This year I want to focus on getting it written.  I will be tracking the progress for this over on my writing blog, Ink Scrawls.

7.  Grow in my walk with the Lord.  I want to get closer to God, to have a great relationship with Him and just do more for Him.

So, there you have it.  Some of my goals for the upcoming year.  I have a lot of changes for myself in store, and I need to keep motivated to accomplish things.  I also need accountability so I'll be working at that as well.  I've done these things before, in the past, and I know I can do them again.  But, it's going to take time and I need to remember that it's a long, slow process and none of these things will be accomplished overnight.

What are your goals/new year's resolutions for 2010?  Let me know in the comment section.