1. Exercise 3 times a week.
Admittedly, this is the most unoriginal resolution in the history of resolutions, but whatever. It's something that's important to me, so I'm listing it. While I'm pretty happy with my post-baby weight, I am not as happy with my post-baby body. Let's just say that I'm a little more jiggly than I used to be. But it's no coincidence that the jiggliness remained throughout the loss of my badassery because I was spending too little (if any) time focusing on myself. Heck, I spent so little time at the gym last fall that I finally canceled my membership altogether in November.
But instead of just putting "exercise" out there and hoping it happens, I'm trying to be specific and practical. So here's my plan:
On days that Molly goes to daycare, I get up at 6:30am to wake Molly up, feed her, and get her dressed before Dave takes her to daycare at 7:15 on his way to work. On three of those days, I will then, as soon as Molly and Dave are gone, head to the (very small) gym in our apartment complex to use the elliptical. Eventually I'd like to do an hour on the elliptical four times a week, but to start with I'm aiming for 30 minutes 3 times a week.
The benefit of this plan is that not only will it get me exercising, but it will also help me kick-start my day. If I immediately go exercise, come home, shower, and then go straight to my office on campus, I'm much more likely to have a productive day than if I have to summon my get-up-and-go out of nowhere.
Day 1 starts tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.
2. Stop drinking soda.
I can no longer remember a time when I didn't drink soda. Of course, this is probably because I have a horrible memory. But at least since high school (and especially since I started driving), I have consistently been a soda-drinker. Post-college I have cut back, rarely keeping caffeinated drinks in my house but almost always drinking them at restaurants and picking up a 20oz in most check-out lanes. (Primarily Coke if you're interested.) I've tried to give sodas up before and have (obviously) never found permanent success.
It's not the caffeine, though that obviously doesn't help me give them up. It's just that I prefer the taste of these (high-sugar) drinks. I can't stand to drink water, but I know that I need to drink more water. And I did do much better with it while I was pregnant, only drinking soda rarely if ever (though still drinking non-caffeinated sodas like root beer and 7-Up). But in the last six months I have found myself drinking more Coke than ever.
And now that Molly is old enough to notice what I'm doing and want to take part in it (just try to eat an apple around that girl by yourself), I feel more seriously than ever that I need to give up soda, for me and for her.
Precedence tells me that this won't be easy, though. So, hoping to be SMART, I'm going to take this step-by-step:
- Quit drinking caffeinated soda at home. [This is the step I'm on now and so far it's going really well. To help me out, I'm drinking Cherry 7-Up, which helps me avoid craving caffeinated soda.]
- Quit drinking caffeinated soda anywhere.
- Quit drinking any soda, caffeinated or not, at home. [This will probably be a juice-heavy period of my life.]
- Quit drinking any soda, anywhere.
So that's it. My SMART goals. Maybe they'll happen. Maybe they won't. But the least I can do is try, right?
What are you resolutions like? SMART or lofty?
2 comments:
May I suggest flavored no-sugar carbonated water? It's been proven that carbonation is picked up by differently by our tastebuds, so sometimes when we crave soda, we're craving that carbonation. If I am craving a coke, I have a can of carbonated water and I'm satisfied. Worth a shot, anyway.
Thanks, V! I've never tried just carbonated water, but I do know that the carbonation is a big part of it for me. I also love carbonated fruit juices (like Izze), but it's too expensive to keep on hand at home. I'll check out the carbonated water, though!
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