Another Year

It's the most depressing time of year....January. I hate January, always have. It marks the end of my favorite holiday season. The Christmas tree comes down, the decor is packed away, family leaves, and the spirit of the holiday season slowly disappears. The house feels bare. There are no more 'feel good' holiday movies on lifetime, no more Christmas music, no more light shows. Fatty foods are replaced with vegetables and low calorie dressings. Only crumbs of sugar cookies and assorted chocolates are left on the platters. The scale I'm avoiding is a haunting reminder of just how much I ate the past few weeks. This is making you feel good, isn't it...?

However, New Year’s offers us a chance to start over. Who doesn't love to put their their problems of last year to bed and have a new beginning? I do. I'm excited for a fresh start; I plan to make the best of it, which brings me to New Year resolutions. I try to be realistic with my resolutions. Goals such as hitting the gym six days a weeks or getting to bed by 10 pm weekday nights aren't realistic and painfully original, at least for me. I've come up with the following resolutions--what I like to call the three C's:

Cleanse

Capture

Create

How's that for simplicity?

Cleanse.

Mind. Body. Spirit.

For mind: I've been on a self-discovery mission lately.  I'm realizing how important it is to know and understand myself. The last two years I've discovered how I cope, grieve, move on, deal with stress and most importantly, breathe. Life is tough. There will be rough patches, and sometimes we'll have no control of things. However, the one thing we can always control is our attitude. Every morning we wake up and choose to be happy, choose to smile and laugh, we choose to make the best of things. It’s simple, the world is how we choose to view it; our happiness is up to us and no one else. I plan to read more books, more articles, more. I want to learn about cultures, people, traditions, history. I want to grow in every way possible.

For body: I hate the word diet. I don't believe in diets. When I think of dieting I think of starvation and/or deprivation, both of which are no good. I believe in lifestyle changes and listening to your body. You know when you feel good and you know when you feel bad. This year my goal is to cook more meals. I've found several recipes I'm going to try off of pintrest, they look delicious!  As for exercise...hhhmmm... well this summer I tried to get myself to like running, really, I tried, but I hate it.  The following picture is an accurate description of my feelings.

I think I'll stick to Zumba, weights, and the elliptical.  I'm thinking of taking up Yoga and getting back into tumbling once or twice a week.  We'll see...

For spirit: I want to spend more time on my knees listening. I need to enjoy that quiet, peaceful solitude you feel after you pray. This way I can reflect on my day and the things I need to do and/or improve upon.

Capture.

Take more pictures. Simple as that.

Create.

Some of you may know about my obsession with pintrest. I've coined the site Martha Stewart on steroids, it's great! I have so many crafts I want to try, but it's always hard to find the time between work and school. I'm going to start squeezing in a couple hours per week to make scarves, learn to sew (???), make hair pieces, etc. I'm pretty excited!

Happy New Years my faithful blog readers!

***Note to self: 

I will not hate January....I will not hate January....I will not hate January....