New Years and New Resolutions

So this year was a less than spectacular New Year's eve compared to previous years. I would guess that you are now wondering what we did, I will start by an explanation of the past two years first. 

In December 2006 we sold our first home which we had converted into a rental property the year before. We used some of the money that we made to go on our first (and definitely not the last all inclusive trip) and spent a week in the Dominican Republic

In 2007 we decided to ri

ng in the New Year in the most iconic way we could think of, and cross one of my many items off my bucket list. So we headed off to New York, New York and spent the night in Times Square!

This year -

We spent the night at home watching movies with our Daughter. We ordered in Chinese Food, Sushi, and Cheese fondue!
(we watched - "Get Smart" "Marry Poppins" and "Nanny Diaries" and still have several movies to watch!)

So you ask what are the resolutions because everyone has to have resolutions. Well in fact this year I did decide to make a few and I wanted to keep them achievable but more importantly I wanted to keep them realistic!

My Resolutions revolve around two principles. The first principle is that I want to loose weight but I feel that having a goal of "loose x amount weight" is non-specific and very likely to be thrown out too easily.  The net result is that I am aiming at loosing 100 lbs. but I would rather not focus only on the number. If I achieve the other goals on the road to being healthy the rest will follow. The second principle is that I feel that our house needs to be more centered for my daughter. Things are hectic and crazy being that my husband and I have what I would term high-traffic jobs and that I have the added fun of completing my bar admission course. So to make life easier I have designed some of my goals around this idea.  

So the Health related goals:

1. Run at minimum every other day for a total of 30 minutes (increasing speed, intensity, and duration over the year to hopefully be able to run a half marathon by June, and the distance equivalent of a full marathon by next New Years);
2. Cut the junk food out of my diet and life (this means purging the house of all bad foods after today);
3. No more trips to fast food restaurants for anyone in the family;
4. A maximum of eating out once every six weeks with health choices;

Home Related Resolutions:

1. Get the house organized and keep it that way. This means keeping the bills and mail organized, keeping the information that comes in recorded;
2. Get up and go to sleep at regular and consistent times;
3. Participate in the 50 book challenge (although I may modify that because some of my books are extremely long e.g., Roots) so I am aiming at reading 15,000 pages based on 50 books with an average length of 300 pages);
4. Finish my assignments before Friday of each week so that the weekend can be family time;
5. Set up a meal plan for the week and follow it;
6. Cook one new meal each week;
7. Track and organize all the food in the house (deep freeze, cupboards, etc.) so that we can help with the meal planning;
8. Take and post a picture a day!
9. Keep track of all money spent (including cash);
10. Finally, the most important, post to the blog in a regular fashion to keep myself accountable for my goals!