My New Year's Update

A Happy, Healthy "ME" in Acadia National Park

June, 2012

Sometimes I begin a post by simply sitting and staring at the screen.  Do you ever do that?  It isn't that I have nothing to say, it's that I don't know where to begin!  I suppose a resounding HAPPY NEW YEAR is in order.  We rang out 2012 staring at the ocean from our current "home" in Flagler Beach, Florida.   This was after an equally quiet Christmas Day and a two day journey to arrive here on Saturday, the 28th.  

But those details will come in a separate post....I want this one to be about a healthy, happy 2013 and how I plan to make that happen.  I've loved reading all your 2012 year-end recaps and your New Year's goals.   They encourage me and each of you inspires me to strive higher.  That's why I write and that's why I continue Gains and Losses.  I'm looking forward to another year of maintaining, writing, learning FROM you, providing encouragement TO you and hopefully, meeting some more of you face to face.  

I haven't posted New Year's thoughts/goals because, quite frankly, I was so happy with last year's, no matter how much I meditated on it, I couldn't come up with anything as meaningful.  After expressing that through a comment on my friend, Cammy's, post, she helped me by saying, "don't try!"  If something has worked, why change it?  Either expand on it or simply leave it alone. And that is exactly what I'm going to do. 

Here is an excerpt from my 2012 New Years post.................

From me, you were probably expecting January is for Joy and that would be o.k. - it would fit.  But I didn't like it!  You might also have been expecting a post about New Year's Resolutions, but if you've read Gains and Losses for any length of time, you'd know that although I'm a huge fan of goal-setting, I'd never in a million years, do it on a day when everyone else is or when it's "expected."  

But the one thing I can't ignore is how often the word "surprise" has popped up in my vocabulary and life since yesterday morning.  You know that my day always begins with a period of Bible reading and devotion.  A book which means the world to me with its ever appropriate words and application is Bread For The Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith written by Henri Nouwen.  The daily meditations are short, but powerful and applicable to ANY life no matter what your belief system.  Every year, I try to convince myself to utilize something new as a companion to my morning Bible reading, but every year, I revert back to this.  And EVERY day, there is something new.  

So imagine my SURPRISE, when early yesterday morning, I open my book to January 1 and read these words: 

"Each day holds a surprise.  But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us.  Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy.  It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity."

Read it friends!  Read it again and again.  Because within those words lies the only "resolution" I need to make.  By fully embracing every word of that mantra and living it to the very core, I truly believe that all other "issues" will slowly "resolve" themselves.  

In 2012, I will:

Look for a SURPRISE in every day.

EXPECT steady results from a healthy eating plan and efforts to have a normal relationship with food.

RECEIVE love, friendship, gifts and kindness without question from those who choose to give it to me.

Embrace JOY with every thread of my being.

CELEBRATE my own successes as jubilantly as I celebrate those of others.

SHARE my life, my time, my money and my possessions in creative ways that are new and extravagant.

 

Expecting a "surprise" each day and teaching myself to be open minded enough to receive it, has been one of the best things I have ever done for myself.  I had to often be reminded that not every surprise was going to be a good surprise!  Believe me, there were days I didn't WANT the surprise I got, but it came anyway and I learned to accept those surprises because more often than not, they made the terrific surprises that much more special!  During the times I strayed away from an intense focus on these six words, let's just say something was missing.  

I am excited about 2013 and looking forward to a year filled with surprises, expectations, receiving, embracing joy, celebrating and most of all, sharing.   I intend to take each of these "goals" to a higher level.   Would love for you to join me!!

Simply because I am able to share statistics of which I am very proud, here are my numbers from 2012:

I am beginning 2013 eleven pounds lighter than I was on January 1, 2012.

  

I am currently maintaining a 50 pound weight loss from my highest weight in 2006.

 

In 2012, I hiked 381.8 miles.  This surpassed my goal of 350 miles by 31.8 miles.

 

I recorded my steps every day as shown by my pedometer.  The total number of steps I walked in 2012 was 4,539,238.  My weekly average was 12,470 steps (Total steps Sunday-Saturday divided by 7).  There were only three weeks in 2012 that I failed to average at least 10,000 steps for the week.

What do I hope to achieve in 2013?

 

I will lose the remaining five pounds of the eight I gained during the two weeks in December that I was sick.  Still scratching my head over that one as eating was the LAST thing I wanted to do.  It also is being stubborn about coming back off, but thankfully I maintained throughout the holidays and didn't add any additional pounds.

 

Once those pounds have disappeared, I will maintain at goal weight assuring that January of 2014 will find me exactly at the same place.

I will continue to live virtually white flour/white sugar free and follow the principles of the 17 Day Diet which has worked so beautifully for me.  

Walking and hiking goals will remain the same - why trying fixing or changing something that works so well and continues to challenge me?  

And there will be more.........................

I cannot thank you enough for your continue support and encouragement.  I look forward to the comments I know will come and I still get all excited when a new follower pops up.  I have not given up on my goal of finding a blog to follow written by someone in every state and am looking for new ways to make that happen!

 

One more thing..........I will be in Florida during the month of January and will be posting more often with both travel journal updates as well as health/fitness posts.  So if you don't read via a reader or get posts automatically via email, please check back often!  In case you missed it, check out this post from yesterday.

Keep writing, my friends!  Let's make it a happy and healthy 2013 filled with surprises!