Thursday, December 31, 2009

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!

6 comments:

  1. I love all the things you worked on!

    I feel like my biggest success was in learning what lifestyle change meant to me. 2010 is about making small changes that I can live with! :)

    Learning to live with what I thought could be the worst possible thing ever to happen to us. My husband being laid off, with no savings in the bank. We made it through. I feel like that has freed me from living a life of fear. I've learned by facing my biggest fear, that I'm equipped to deal with anything and no amount of worrying about what might happen beforehand will help me deal with it any better! Worry is the enemy of faith!

    Happy New Year to you!

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  2. What did I accomplish that I was proud of? I learned to DVR one show while I was watching a totally different show. How sweet is that?

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  3. I learned how to blog - simply the best thing I've ever done - for a very long time. Thanks for being part of it.

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  4. I totally rocked the Scenic Caves in Collingwood and did not have a heart attack!!!

    I am very proud of that!

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  5. I must say i've learned a lot about myself in the last year!

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  6. I've learned to not react to my wild pms mood swings. Your post struck the weirdest nerve, maybe my NY resolution should be to learn to give myself credit for something occasionally, rather than on focusing on how I could have done better, what I should have done instead.

    I know, wrong answer, but I have some serious psychological work to do here (and I'm not looking forward to it). It's ripe, whether I like it or not.

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