Jumping Into 2020!

Happy New Year!

Every year many of us make New Year Resolutions. Shortly after, we adjustment them, maybe put them off for one more day, week or month. Eventually most of us abandon them altogether.  Why we do this is not so important to me. Face it, we will find lots of excuses/reasons why we did not succeed.

For me, it feels like 2019 was filled with lots of set backs, a few losses which left holes in my heart, I made bad choices, and a slew of frustrations when things did not go as planned/desired. Some of my goals were always on the forefront of my mind, but they slipped away through my fingers.

Is it just me that feels so many things are out of my control and preventing me from succeeding? I seriously doubt that is true. Sometimes I hear other people complain about how they can't do this or that and I think to myself, "Yes they can. They just have to... ." I hear some say they can't afford to buy an item and I think to myself, "Well, you could save up by..." The one that hits home the best is when I hear people say they can't loose weight while eating fried food, pastries, chips and soda while binge watching Netflix. I see and hear them and think, "Yes, you can loose weight if you just start by putting down that unhealthy fork and getting up off that couch."  It is so much easier to see what others are saying they want and finding flaws in their ways. While this is not a good practice to judge others, it is very good if you apply all those things to yourself.

In 2019, I leave behind all that negativity and jump into 2020 knowing that if the New Year is going to be different, better, and full of growth... I have to keep the good and change the negative stuff. Hindsight is 20/20, but it's also 2020! (The perfect year!) I know what I have to do to reach my goals. Put down that unhealthy "only one bite," and walk that "only 5 more minutes." No one can do the work for me, no one can reach my goals for me. I have to do it myself. It is by no way going to be easy to get moving in the right direction. Another obstacle? No way! If someone else said this to me, what would I say to them? Whatever it is, I have to take my own advice.

Community is important. What is community? Community is a group of people. Family or friends that support you along the way to attain our goals. Not the ones that say, "It's okay to cheat this one time." I'm talking about the ones who say, "It's tough, but think of the bigger picture." Unfortunately, we don't always get support from those we want it from. So find your community and lean on them as often as you need to but never forget it is up to YOU to do the work. #DoTheWork

I belong to a few communities that will be helping me along the way. I have a Health Coach. She is just a text away. My Health Coach posts on Facebook and most of the time she posts, she leaves me with a sigh of relief that *I can do it* She is never saying it will be easy. She never says I won't make mistakes. She never says I will go from A to B in X amount of time. She is honest. She tells we all move at a different pace and to not lose sight of my end goals, to break then down to steps I can take today, right now.

Another community I belong to is LoseIt.com. I entered a few challenges to help me focus on smaller goals to help me attain bigger goals. For example, one is to log my food everyday for the entire month of January. That one helps me the with the bigger goal of logging everyday for all of 2020. If you are on LoseIt, look me up, let's be friends and help each other.

One final community I am on is Garmin Connect. Not sure how this group will help me right now other than getting my steps in daily. I think this group will end up helping me a lot more once I start moving into running my 1st 5K.

Depending on the hurdle I am facing, I will turn to one of these communities to help me move past the hurdle. These communities are important and safe place to talk. They are filled with people who truly want to see you succeed and are not just listening to gossip behind your back. This is important, but it helps you be honest with yourself on why you are facing a hurdle and/or having a difficulty with it.

Food! Food! What can I eat? There are a lot of diet plans/programs out there. I have tried a few, none are perfect. All I can say is eat healthy and skip the junk food. Don't skip meals because you will get a headache. Drink lots of water. Blah, blah, blah, you have heard this before. What I have found to work for me is setting the alarms on my iPhone. I set alarms throughout the day in about 2.5 hour intervals to remind me to consume something healthy. It keeps me from getting too hungry. It reminds me to drink water. Well, this is one goal I met in 2019 and this method worked very well for me. On busy, chaotic, wrench thrown in plans kind of days, this saved me. I now drink water all day long without really tracking it. Two of my Hydroflasks/Thermaflask is 80 oz. or 5 - 16.9oz bottles of Dasani is 80+ oz. Maybe this method will work for you?

One more thing that will help me is what I have said in a previous post... blogging. Blogging helps me think about my actions, what works and what does not. When I was blogging and posting on LoseIt the most, is when I was loosing the most weight and making better health choices.

I can not and will not give up.

I can not make excuses.

I will succeed.

J U M P I N G . . I N T O . . 2 0 2 0 !