For the next year

[eimarra]

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It’s my birthday, and purple and blue hair to the contrary, I’m not as young as I used to be. (In fact, when I was young, I probably would never have worn such hair, being too afraid of what other people would think.) As we age, our bodies go through lots of changes — and as exciting as it might be to watch my daughter as she works at climbing higher in a tree because she can reach that next branch, or as worrisome as it can be to try to decide whether my son’s upper lip shows signs of darker hair, changes don’t stop when we become adults. We lose flexibility. Muscle tone becomes harder to retain. Weight becomes harder to lose.

This year, I’m trying to do something about that.

My goal for the next year is to lose one pound of weight for each year I’ve been alive. Sadly, this is completely doable without becoming underweight. Once a week, I’ll do a post about a new recipe I’ve tried or what exercise I’ve managed or how bronchitis has knocked me down once again. And I will end the post with the number of pounds lost since today. I don’t expect it to change very fast — a pound a week is a nice goal.

I’ll be making changes slowly, trying to make sure each has become habit before worrying about the next. Some changes will be bigger than others.

Food:

1. Three meals a day. No snacking, browsing, grazing, noshing. If there’s a specific social occasion (meeting a friend at a coffee shop, or, say, birthday cake for dessert–tonight’s plan being angel food cake with Nutella ice cream), that’s allowed, but it’s not an everyday thing. (This will be one of the harder changes.)
2. Skip the butter on toast.
3. Switch to 1% or fat-free milk. I used to do skim milk all the time but got out of the habit. Shouldn’t be too hard to switch back.

Exercise:

1. Walk more often.
2. Do yoga-type stretches for flexibility.
3. For core strength, do crunches, Pilates, and push-ups.
4. Start running again when the weather warms up, and come back to it if I get sidetracked.

So that’s the goal. Next year, when I say happy birthday to me, I want to be healthier and lighter.

Have you ever set a goal for yourself for your birthday?

Originally published at Erin M. Hartshorn. You can comment here or there.