I Resolve To NOT Make Any Resolutions in 2013..

Happy New Year, everyone!

Do you make and break resolutions year after year? This year I'm going to skip the resolutions and instead set some goals.

1. BLOG.

I started this blog last summer and suddenly stopped posting. No rhyme or reason, I just stopped. I don't know why. I'm doing myself a disservice. Blogging is very therapeutic for the mind, body and soul. I also know it makes my dad proud. As a writer, he has always encouraged me to write.

2. Relax more.

I don't know about you all, but when Crohn's has me down, I'm REALLY down.  I don't mean sad. I mean ill. Unable to move without discomfort, too exhausted to do the simplest tasks such as emptying the dishwasher and doing laundry. When I feel good, I want to maximize my day. This means on the go non-stop until I drop.  I do this because I know there will be a day or two, even months, where I won't feel well or am recovering from surgery. My justification is that I need to live it up while I can. My goal is to create more time to relax, sleep more, read more, just hang out at the house and not feel like I need to be cleaning, cooking, etc. It is OK to just sit on the coach and veg.

3. Get in the best shape of my life.

I don't mean just losing weight. I want to put on muscle. I want awesome biceps, impeccable legs, and a killer back. Weeks before the new year began, my friend, Melissa, and I decided to start going to the gym for pre-work workouts, 4-5 mornings per week. We also signed up for personal training with our Zumba instructor and decided to meet her at 6:30am twice a week. Within the first two weeks both of us began to see results. Muscles popping out in places I didn't know existed. The high I get from knowing that I'm doing something good for my body is unreal. It's easier to make healthy food choices when you are taking good care of your body.

4. Don't obsess.

I don't know a single person that doesn't have their obsessions. Whether it's counting points or calories, material possessions, clothing, thoughts. Everyone has an obsession. I have obsessed about many things in my life; money, health, work, calories burned at the gym, having a baby and so on and so forth. There are lots of things that I cannot control- the actions of others, the next time I am going to have a flare up, when Brad and I are going to be chosen to adopt (that's a biggie). I've decided that if I just relax more often, the obsessiveness kind of goes by the wayside. Oh and Prozac helps too...

5. Be happy with what I have.

Do material possessions make people happy? HELL yes. Do they make me happy? Sure. Is that the only thing that makes me happy? NO. If everything was taken away from me tomorrow I'd be pretty upset. It would be a huge upheaval in my life. But if you take away my laptop, iPad, TV and Lululemon, I am left with fantastic friends, a wonderful, loving husband, amazing step-children, a terrific brother and almost sister in law and the best parents a gal could as for. As an insurance agent, I've seen people lose their homes, all of their "stuff", their cars, their wedding rings. While it's awful to lose those things, they're all replaceable. Is it a pain to lose it all? Of course, but as the Beatles put it best, sometimes "Love is all you need".