Share your thoughts on this poll.
It’s that time of year again: time to think about the things you can do next year to make your life a little better. In other words: time to make a New Year’s resolution.
Have you made one? Please take this poll.
I put “Lose weight” as the top item on the poll because that’s the resolution made my most people in the U.S. Personally, I’ve made it every year for the past three years. But my weight continues to climb. The way I see it, I still “owe” that resolution to myself.
This year, I’ve also decided to stop using the word fuck as an adjective. While it might seem surprising to you that a “lady” would use a word like that in conversation, you need to understand that where I’m originally from — the New York metropolitan area — it isn’t that unusual. That doesn’t mean it’s “ladylike.” It’s not. And that’s why I’m going to stop using it. Not only is it unladylike (which really doesn’t bother me in the least), but it’s crude and makes the speaker sound uneducated.
I’m also thinking about going off all alcohol for a year. Wow. That would be a tall order indeed. I really enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner. But since I don’t like to put an unfinished bottle away, that usually means a half a bottle at dinner. Since I don’t drink cheap wine, this can get expensive. The martinis, which I enjoy a few times a week, would have to go, too. This would seriously impact my olive consumption. But I’m interested in seeing if getting off alcohol completely would (1) make me feel better mentally and physically and (2) help me lose weight. So it would be an experiment. I think I’ll try it for at least a month. That should be enough to show me if there are tangible benefits other than to my bank account.
What about you? What can you add about New Year’s resolutions? Use the Comments link or form below to share your thoughts.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Tom Heffernan // Dec 27, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I gave up on “giving up things” and now take the “moderation” approach. Perhaps it would be a good idea for me to plan to moderate my use of the word Fuck as well this year. Being from the NYC Metro area, I do not think that it is possible to totally remove it from our vocabulary.
2 Miraz Jordan // Dec 27, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I’m spending some of my summer holiday figuring out how to change my life around. I don’t really go for New Year’s resolutions as such.
I’ve read The 4 Hour Workweek and Made to Stick. The first has interesting ideas about changing how we work, while the second should enhance my writing skills.
After being the same weight all my adult life I’ve gained between 5 and 10 kilos over the last few years. I think it’s a lot to do with middle-aged hormones, and a little to do with being more sedentary. Initially I struggled against it, but now I think this is maybe just my new weight.
About 20 years ago I was hanging around with people who were in AA and decided to experiment with not drinking alcohol. I didn’t have a problem myself — giving up my chocolate addiction at the same time was much harder, and I’ve slipped off the chocolate bandwagon in this last year.
I soon found that I didn’t miss alcohol at all and then moved to actively not wanting it. I didn’t have any rituals around it, like your afternoon martini — you may have to find a non-alcoholic cocktail or something to replace that.
I’ve never gone back to drinking alcohol, and now find the smell of it on someone’s breath rather unpleasant.
Good luck with your experiment.
Miraz Jordan’s last blog post: TiKouka in bloom
3 Maria Langer // Dec 28, 2007 at 4:48 am
Tom: You know how it is with language in New York. The word is used so often that it isn’t even noticed anymore. UNTIL you leave the area and go someplace where normal people don’t use it at all. I’m going to set up a piggy bank. If Mike or I say it, it’ll cost $5 per pop.
Miraz: Agreed about the middle aged hormones and spending a lot of time just sitting around. I need to get out more. As for drinking, I don’t think I drink too much, but I’m wondering if the drinking has anything to do with my inability to lose weight. As for chocolate: I simply can’t give that up. But I know I don’t have a chocolate “problem” — at least not yet.
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