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Realistic Resolutions

The hubby and I had a conversation yesterday morning about resolutions.  He said he doesn't make New Year's resolutions because most people he knows can't keep them.  I've known my husband for over 22 years and I didn't know that about him :) I asked him if it was because most people make unrealistic resolutions and he said yes. I was watching a story on our local news station last night and they were interviewing the managers of different fitness centers in the area.  They were saying that they get a big increase in gym membership at the very beginning of the year, but then after a little while it drops off.  The reporter was asking why and one of the managers said something like, "most people want instant results, if they aren't losing two pounds a week they get discouraged."  One of my resolutions for 2013 is to continue to strive for good eating habits and make sure I find time for a 20-minute walk at least three times a week.  During different times last year, I would come up with excuses not to exercise  and I wasn't always eating as healthy as I could be.  Having a couple heart "issues" means it is absolutely essential I limit my sodium intake.  I don't want to have to add another medication to the four I already take!!  As moms, it's not always easy to find times in our schedules for ourselves. Another resolution is to get our whole house less cluttered. I had planned on using the holiday break to get things more organized, but the last couple of weeks of December ended up being kind of chaotic. My hubby painted all of our kitchen cabinets as a Christmas present to me, so we had drop cloths all over the place.  After he finished with that, we got our new kitchen floor after two months of a subfloor. At one point, we had our refrigerator and stove in our family room and our washer and dryer in the garage.    Both Lauren and Dominic have been sick the entire Christmas break and are almost back to feeling 100%, but not quite.   Lauren has had pneumonia and Dominic has had both an upper respiratory and stomach virus. All of my focus has been on getting them feeling better before next week when they go back to school.  Once things get back to normal with the "kids",  I am spending part of a day organizing all my papers, one stack at a time!  When I look at something I need to do in it's entirety, it can be very overwhelming.  Instead I'm going to look at projects I need to do and break it down into smaller chunks.  It's seems easier to handle that way :) One last thing I want to do before 2013 is over is to finally write the cookbook I've been talking about writing for years.  Since it's only the beginning of January, I think it's realistic to think I can have it ready to publish in time for Christmas. My approach to resolutions for 2013 is to make them more realistic for myself.  I know I'll have a much easier time keeping my resolutions if I do that!!

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