Steve: New Years Resoluti… PROMISES!

Cece and I had a nice New Years eve with all the kids… dinner out (I was good and had Vegetable Fajitas) and went to the movies (I was not so good and had popcorn) and saw Marley & Me.. If you are a dog person you will sit there crying your eyes out at the end… (I am a dog person) The kids behind us were sobbing uncontrollably… you could HEAR people crying all over the packed theater.. I have never experienced that before (it was a VERY good movie, btw) Then we came home and sat around, played video games, watched the ball drop (Dick Clark is sounding a lot better.. still sad to see him though), and ate (sweets and whatever I could get my hands on ) 🙁

I was thinking about how I was losing weight so consistently back in June when I started this… and now I am staying stable (actually gone up during the holidays) and it was starting it bum me out.. But then I started thinking that I am at least 50 pounds lighter on 1/1/09 than I was on 1/1/08.. So that gave be hope again that I will be at least 50 pounds lighter on 1/1/10! 🙂 So this year, my focus is to stay consistent with losing weight and regaining my fitness.

I was watching the old show ‘The Honeymooners’ on New Years Day (the old black and white Jackie Gleason show) and there was one that came on (I later found out the episode was called “Young Man With A Horn” and here it is on YouTube in three parts) where Ralph was playing a coronet and he couldn’t hit the high note… Then he started talking about how he should have kept taking the lessons so he could hit the high note… then he equated it to his life… How he never ‘finishes’.. He never ‘hits the high note’ on whatever he does… that really struck a chord with me.

I am a hard worker. I take pride in everything I do. I always seem to start out strong, Yet, I don’t ‘finish’… I was focused when I started the LightenUp program and lost a good amount of weight… I had my goals clearly set and the path in my sights… but I didn’t ‘hit the high note’… I became stagnant… comfortable… my workouts became less frequent… they became less intense… my sticking to the foodmover portions and servings was not as ‘exact’ and not set in stone like they were in the beginning.  There is one more thing I have in common with Ralph in the Honeymooners.. in this episode Ralph says says to his wife “I did hit the high note once.. the day I married you”… that is when I hit the high note also… the day I married Cece.

So the thought that I will keep in my mind in 2009 will be:
‘Hit the high note!’

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions (here is a place to vote for the top 10 resolutions)… but my former life coach, Scott Chesney, sent a newsletter the other day saying that we shouldn’t make resolutions… but we should make New Year ‘promises’ to ourselves… that you tend to keep promises more than a resolution. So this year I am promising the following:

• I will control food by remembering that food does not control me.
• I will make the right choices and limit my portions by keeping my goal weight in sight.
• I will be more active and take each workout more seriously.
• I will weigh myself every morning and post that weight (good or bad) here for the world to see.
• I will be more social with my close friends by making the time to call them and to meet for social gatherings.
• I will take time for myself and use that time to improve myself.
• I will continue to improve my time management and productivity by evaluating my systems frequently and making changes as needed.
• I will ‘hit the high note’ in all my endeavors… Family, Friends, Work and my business by remembering what my goals are and keeping each step to achieve them clearly in focus.

That’s it. Plain and simple.

I wish everone reading this a happy 2009!