New Year plan

I'm not a great fan of 'New Year's resolutions' - maybe because I have never really kept them! But, being a fan of organisation, planning, lists, structure, routine and all that boring stuff, the idea of starting afresh on something, developing a new plan etc at the start of a new year, appeals.

My 2008 plan is an improvement on my 2007 plan, which was, in a word 'Survival'. This time last year I had a 13 month old, and was 17 days away from giving birth to a newborn. From today's vantage point, this doesn't seem quite as scary as it was then - but as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing. The 2008 plan, following on from 'Survival' is 'Thrive'.

By Thrive I mean that I want to build on the good, solid, happy, family life that we have now into a flourishing life - both for each of us as individuals and for the 4 of us as a family. 2007 was a year in which I spent the first 6 months just congratulating myself on getting everyone through the day in one piece, and the second 6 months making real progress in feeling more human, more in control and more capable of enjoying, rather than just 'getting through' life. There were many large (moving the boys in together and getting our bedroom back!) and small (getting the boys eating the same thing for meals, ie moving beyond pureeing and mashing for Flipper) milestones of progress along the way, and it just seemed to 'happen' that we suddenly woke up one day and life felt 'easier', but I think that we are now in a place where we need to move on from that and tend to the things that seemed to fall by the wayside in a turbulent year.

For me that means my health and fitness. Frankly, in 2007 I didnt have the time or the inclination to think to much about what I was eating or how much I was exercising - the priority was getting meals on the table as quickly and as 'low fuss' as possible - all my energy in ensuring a 'balanced diet' went into the boys, and I would eat whatever I could find and would take minimal prep and cleaning up. Perhaps I would have been better off thinking more about that for myself, but again hindsight is a wonderful thing. I need to now focus on putting the right things into my body and treating it well - not so that I look better (although that will be a bonus!) but so that I have more the boys and for Hubby and don't feel so tired all the time. My plan to make this happen:

1. Healthy eating - Hubby and I actually eat quite healthily ( he is a great cook!) but I am not great with portion size (I eat the same size as he does - enormous - and not being blessed with his metabolism, it goes straight to my squishy bits!) and I tend to go a bit (actually a lot!) off the rails when he is not around!

2. Exercise - this will be tough. Inactivity breeds inactivity and while I struggle for time with that sort of stuff with work thrown into the mix, I have to be homest with myself and admit that I do have time when I could squeeze it in if I could be bothered. We are 'blessed' (?) with early rising children (5.15am seems to be the standard at the moment). So, on the day I take the early shift on the weekends (sat) and my non-work days (Mon and Wed) I am going to get the boys out of the house for a walk to the park and a play - and we will walk the LONG WAY - instead of lying around on the couch watching them play and hoping they require nothing more energetic from me than reading stories! Have done this Sat and today and has worked well. Could be a problem when winter sets in - but, have thought this through too - which leads me to.....

3. Join a gym. There is one at our 'village shops' which is open until 9pm. So, because we are also blessed (this time no sarcastic question mark!) which children who go to bed quite happily at 6.30pm/7pm I can go after they are in bed a few nights a week. The key is to be diligent until I start to enjoy it - which I know I will eventually as I used to be quite a diligent gym goer pre-marriage. The issue with this is paying for it .... which leads me to ...

4. Eating breakfast at home on my work days (it adds another 5 minutes to my 'get out of the house by 6.45am to be at work by 7am so I can leave at 5pm and not feel guilty' routine, but its cheaper and its actually nicer) and bringing my lunch from home. Based on my research, this will save each week more than enough to pay for a gym membership.

All nice in theory - we will see how we go!

More on other '2008 plans' another time - my portion-controlled, nutritionally balanced, yummy - and cooked by wonderful culinary expert Hubby dinner awaits.