Are you done with This Year's Resolutions?

You have less than two days to fulfill your resolutions for this year.

What? You broke your resolutions before January was over? I'm sure you did resolve to start again on Monday, since there's a unwritten universal law that all major lifestyle changes must happen on a Monday. Monday comes and goes, and because there was some sort of party/luncheon/stressful period, that Monday was a bad day. Something always seem to come up when we are supposed to keep our resolutions.

I was supposed to lose weight. The first four times in the past 7 years, I got pregnant. Although, I did end up losing a little bit of weight each time, just not enough. Last year seemed to have escaped my grasp. I'm supposed to exercise, but laundry wasn't finished yet, or it was already almost lunch time and I have to cook for everyone else. Or it was birthday, friend's anniversary, the day I visit my mother (once a week), shopping day, and of course, it wasn't Monday. Before I knew it, the holidays were upon us and who eats healthy on the holidays? The good new is, that I haven't gained any weight since last year. Phew!

I'm sure it didn't help that I didn't have a plan either. After all, losing weight is just the result, not the actual process. Just like making 1 million dollars. Unless I come up with a plan, like starting a business, living below my means or robbing a bank, I will never actually make 1 million dollars. I guess I could try my luck with the lottery, just like some are lucky to eat and eat and eat and not get fat. Then again, perhaps not, my luck isn't that good.

This year, I decided to not make resolutions, since a "resolution" seems to beg to be broken. Instead, I decided to make some goals. Okay, perhaps there's not really much of a difference, but bear with me.

First, I start off by making long term goals:

• lose 55 pounds by July
• Get out of debt (except for the house) by December 2009
• Spend more time with the kids

Of course, these are pretty general. So how do I plan "subgoals" to help me to get to my main goals? There's an interesting tool call "Task Coach".

I came across this tool while finding portable open source apps for my thumb drive (www.portableapps.com) and installed it along with open office, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Firefox.

I love it! It's like a souped up to-do list. You can have categories for your tasks, and then sub tasks for each task. I did put "lose 55 pounds by July" as the main task (a.k.a. goal) and as sub tasks I put "eliminate all refined sugars", "establish a 15 minute daily exercise routine", and "eliminate all drinks except milk, coffee, and water". I figured I would quit coffee at a later date. I dated them for the first Monday of next month. :D

There are many more features that I don't have the time to mention. One more task I have already started on was to go to bed at a reasonable hour. No more going to bed at 1:00 am playing addicting flash games.

Perhaps that should also go under goal #3, since I'm likely to become coherent enough to spend time with the kids. Efficient!