New Year, New me!

I am ready to take on 2011.  I have started reading "Girlfriend's Guide to Getting YOUR Groove Back".  It was given to me about 7 years ago... 7 years too early!  Now that the girls are all in school, it is time to reflect on my past but more importantly to look to my future.  There is no better time than January to make some decisions on who and what you want to do with your life.  Sadly, I always start out strong and peter out by early March. ( or whenever the first one gets sick and throws off the new routine!)

So I have made some commitments to myself.  If I write them down or say them out loud to others, then they start to feel real!  Here is the list:

• Work out first thing in the morning. Once I am dressed there is NO chance of me exercising today. I truly want to feel good when I do get DRESSED for the day!
• Take my vitamins daily - Multi-vitamin, Calcium & B-Complex
• Floss regularly. I know I am over 40 and have had gum surgery to remind me that this one that should not be skipped!
• Think about dinner before 5pm.  This one is hard b/c I do not enjoy cooking and find it very difficult to feed four different sets of taste buds.  I am tough about meal time, but why will I waste time and money making choices that I know they won't touch with a ten foot pole!?  By the way, how do you cook healthy and have the family ENJOY it too??
• Be done with "my stuff" by 2:20pm so that I can focus on the kids when they are home from school.  I find this a balancing act b/c dinner needs attention and so do 3 kids with homework, playdates, activities, etc.
• Keep an extensive TO DO list to keep everything in check. I truly can not keep it all straight without a list. Four columns: Errands, Tasks, Calls & Shopping/Grocery items
• Do good deeds often and share them with the children so they see that everything does not revolve around them all the time.  I have thoughts that this is going to be our daily Lenten Promise this year too!

Ok those are the big ones but they are followed by the wish list of things I really need to do for MYSELF:

• Manicures once a month (my nails look terrible all the time!)
• Meet a friend to have a soda/coffee/lunch
• Stop in the middle of the day and read.... before you are too tired to finish more than a page before dozing off at night!
• Say NO to commitments and YES to my family.  There has to be a balance there and I am working on it.

Ok, my work out is past due so I am off to find a good one ON DEMAND.  I realized that I don't even need to leave my home to feel like I did something today to exercise.  Once the YMCA settles down from all that newbees, I will get back in there.   Of course that is, if I can outlast those newbees - which is really what I am, right??? 

We just keep reinventing ourselves!  That is why it is a NEW YEAR!