Better New Year’s Resolutions

When you set goals, breaking down the goal into its smallest parts makes it easier to visualize. So, I’ve decided just to concentrate on not eating while standing up. This habit will be my New Year’s resolution.

Yes, I would love to eat better and lose those pounds. Actually, for all of my adult life, I have been gaining and losing 20 pounds. I max out at 185 or so, which for me is when I can’t buy clothes in the regular women’s section, about a size 16. Then one way or another, I will lose weight.

Exercising more and counting calories are both effective methods until I lose motivation. If I am lucky, I will get busy with a work or home project that will keep me busy.

My job keeps me close to the current diet trends. I have even counted calories for school lunches every week for a year. I consider myself very knowledgeable about the nutritional content of most food. But regardless of all my knowledge, it doesn’t make me eat better. I’m almost like the doctor that smokes. I have always wondered why, even though I know all of the things that I should do to lose weight, I cannot follow through with what I know.

My most significant weight loss came when I committed to making all of my food. I ate nothing processed further than wheat flour. This method allowed me to eat what I wanted as long as I could make it myself. I am a big fan of bread and bake sourdough bread, I’ve gone gluten-free for about 36 hours. Luckily, I have no food sensitivities.

The last time I lost 30 pounds, I saw the weight loss on the scale and that I needed new clothes.

But I never felt like I was skinnier.

I finally realized that losing weight wasn’t going to make me a better person or more attractive or more popular.

I do need to lose weight for health reasons. I am at an age that getting out of bed is noticeably difficult, and it scares me to lose my mobility.

Since having a baby, I would love to lose the baby weight. Not so much the physical weight by the mental weight.

Parenthood has been good for me. I have realized I want my son’s childhood to be different from mine. Being a parent has forced me to learn what I want out of my life and my son’s life.

An understanding of mindfulness practice has made a compelling impact in a short period. Listening to my feelings is a journey that I have just begun, and I have a long way to go, but getting started has been eye-opening.

So on to the resolution.

I have realized that I eat a significant portion of my food on my feet. And not for any good reason. I have plenty of time to spend eating.

I will make lunch and start snacking in the hall while walking to my room to work. I will finish my son’s cereal over the sink before throwing out the milk. I have a motto of tasting when cooking, but I shouldn’t be eating dinner while cooking for everyone else. I know that I often sit down to eat dinner with a full stomach.

The worst part of the holidays is not the food in general, but the fact that we eat it while standing up chatting with relatives.

I decided after Thanksgiving that it would be an excellent experiment to try not eating while standing. I never realized how much I did this until the past month. I have caught myself eating while standing or thinking about eating while I was doing something else several times every day.

When it comes to eating better, if you don’t see what you are eating and can’t remember eating it, you can’t even keep track of your goal. If I can eat my food with some amount of mindfulness, I will have a better baseline to know what I am eating and also to enjoy it while eating.

The other part of resolutions.

Starting this resolution a month early made for good practice without feeling like I was failing if I did not follow through. I know I need to keep this attitude throughout the year. You can’t make a change in behavior without slipups. If I achieve this goal, I will completely revolutionize my eating habits. So if first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.