Making New Year's Resolutions DOESN'T Work-for-me! I do not make New Year's Resolutions in the way of announcing them as "GOALS" for the upcoming year. Instead, I usually focus on one area of my life and try to improve upon it through-out the year. This Works-for-Me because it removes the pressure of "proving" my "improvements" to anyone else. As I get older and realize just how precious time is...I don't sweat the small stuff anymore...and..."proving" myself to others is "small stuff" to me.
Last year our decision of, downsizing our home and our stuff to live here at the Love Shack {actually turned out to be a really BIG one ;} was really one that was made for us by the lousy economic conditions. However, DH and I decided to grasp the situation as an opportunity to simplify our lives and we turned it into our next adventure together...we have had many!
Over the years, we have learned that making small changes in our eating habits and lifestyle has made for some really big improvements in the quality of our life. So this year we are continuing on our quest to add more plants and super-foods into our daily food plan...especially after watching the movie Food Matters and then discovering David Wolfe:
Wow...once you watch one of these videos you will want to watch the entire series ;)
So for Christmas this year DH and I bought each other a Breville Juice Fountainand I have been spending the last few days learning how to operate it and reading Suzanne Somers latest book: Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat after Forty (aahhhheemmm...or in my case over Fifty ;)
Life is always about finding the balance between what you actually do and what you want to do. For me, that means making a lot of small changes along the way that bring me closer to what I have I want to do. For instance, in buying the juicer, we are going to try incorporating one raw, vegetable/juice drink per day into our diets. Which transforms into the actual activities of:
1. Finding some recipes that include the items that I am not allergic to (NO RAW carrots, apples, celery and cherries for this blogger ;)
2. Going to the grocery store and buying the fruits/veggies that are in season and grown locally to insure their optimal nutritional values. Staying away from canned foods and buying frozen organic when needed. The amount of produce needed to make one drink for each of us daily might require me going to the grocery store more than once a week.
3. Bringing them home and NOT letting them actually rot in my refrigerator...big step here!
Consuming raw foods on a daily basis is a habit that I hope to incorporate this year and it just might take me ALL YEAR to master it...but I'm okay with that because we've already taken the first step in making ourselves aware of the fact that WE ARE WHAT YOU EAT!
So tell me...what doesn't work-for-you? New Year's Resolutions anyone?
Hop on over and do tell...and be sure to leave a comment and let Kristen know that Roberta sentcha!
Have a great week!
Fondly, Roberta
Well!!! I feel better now...I'm all caught up on your blog...that was an accomplishment in itself...NO resolutions here...I never keep them anyways...what am I going to do go to the gym...like you,NOT!!! Since the big move it has given me the opportunity to actually get rid of stuff...if it doesn't have a place in the new house it's GONE!!! Moving a full car...a full SUV...a 26 ft truck and a 22 foot truck and I still had to leave some things in NC to come get...made me realize "Denyse, you have too much crap!" But, I'm on it!!
How's your juicer working for you?
Posted by: Denyse | January 10, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Happy New Year! I don't have NYresolutions either. Like you, there are things I try to improve, but I don't seem to have time...or do I not make the time? You may remember I had to purge our last house considerably (I called the Kidney Foundation 3x to bring a truck) before moving to our current home 6.5 years ago (can you believe it has been that long???) I doubt it was as difficult as your Love Shack move, but I vowed then that I would de-clutter this house 2x/year (~Dec./Jan. and June)and not allow myself to collect so much schtuff again. Even though this house has ~the same square footage as the last house, we have little closet space. We had two floors in Harrisburg, but we have 3 floors (finished basement) here...so why so much less storage??? E.g. We had 3 (2 large and 1 small) linen closets in the last house, 1 small one here. Anyway, I look at it as a good thing; when I de-clutter my house, I feel cleansed and a renewed energy.
Doug & I are doing a healthy whole-house purge right now. I can confidently say (craft room excluded!) that we have less schtuff now than we did when we moved here! It's a step in the right direction :) When I purge, I always think of YOU. You are my hero, Roberta!
Hmmm...I may blurf on this topic...
Posted by: June Houck | January 09, 2011 at 06:32 AM
happy new year! i don't usually do resolutions, but did this year. but none of them are things i am running from. they're all fun. simplifying is always a goal for me and it feels good whenever i do it- just cleaned out my closet and LOVED getting rid of all that stuff and donating it to people who can use it!
Posted by: kerri | January 07, 2011 at 07:16 PM
I LOVE David Wolfe. Are you juicing yet??
Posted by: toni | January 06, 2011 at 03:40 PM
Hey Roberta! Just stopping by. Happy New Year to you and Kevin. Email me your address so I can keep in touch.
Take Care,
Sean K. Langston
Posted by: Sean K. Langston | January 06, 2011 at 12:47 PM
We would be doing better on the new plan but seems like every night we're meeting some couple somewhere that always includes food. Just told Don I think next time I'll just eat when I get home. Everything out here is fried.
Posted by: Donnie | January 05, 2011 at 07:36 PM