Pat Yourself on the Back...and Look Forward

This post is a follow-up on the resolutions post and an attempt to turn resolutions on their head!

So here's my question:

What did you do in 2009 that you were PROUD of? If it's big and splashy (some of you have lost scads of weight) that's great. And if it's little but important to you, that's great too. I'd like to know. Just one rule: be nice to yourself. Compliment yourself and leave the "but I should have done even better"s out.

And now, like it or not, here are my answers:

One of my big quests in 2009 was to eat more mindfully. This included seriously slowing down how fast I eat. I don't eat particularly slowly, but the mindfulness is much higher than it was before. Last year at this time, I felt guilty about eating and would consequently stuff the food in quickly, even when I was trying to limit quantities. This year, for instance, I cut the toast in half, which meant that I automatically had to slow down a bit . I put the food or the fork down between bites. I sometimes even watched the clock to make sure I wasn't wolfing my food down. It's amazing how long five minutes can be!

I started drinking water. Before this year, I would barely drink a glass of water a day, if that!

I respected all my efforts and didn't pooh pooh even the little ones. I rejected perfection and celebrated just doing better. I embraced the saying: "the perfect is the enemy of the good".

I realized that there are no bad foods and that eating the occasional sweet or piece of pie is not a sin. I worked on introducing a balance of good, healthy and tasty foods into my life.

I banned banning foods.

I started blogging and met all kinds of warm, kind and caring people...YOU!