Resolutions

So far, I've been doing pretty good with my resolutions. Every year I get real psyched about them early on, but by summer, some of the more challenging resolutions have fallen by the wayside. I'm hoping to break that cycle this year.

Now that I'm in my mid 40's, heartburn is getting to be a bad problem. Caffeine seems to be partly responsible, so one of my resolutions is to change our diet. There are lots of reasons why I want to change our diet though, not just the ever increasing heartburn. We withdrew Kristin from ballet this week, she wanted to be a ballerina, but she just didn't want to practice, she viewed it as work. She likes to play on the computer, watch tv, or when she plays with her toys, it's usually barbies or dolls and she will sit there and play with them. She does little physical activity. When we "force" her to go outside and play, she will only run around for a bit, then she's eager to come back inside. We figure we all need to get up, get out and get more active this year, and changing diet is the best way to begin that.

I'm definitely a meat eater, I love bacon and eggs for breakfast, burgers for lunch, roasts or steaks for dinner, and that's how I've been my whole life, every meal must have a large portion of meat. I want to try and make meatless dinners about 3 times a week now. There's just no way I can cut it out completely.

I also read about people, who really work on being fit, eat every 3 hours or so. My body has been geared towards 2-3 big meals a day. Kristin is a grazer and likes to eat something every few hours. I've been trying to get her to get on the 3 meal a day schedule, since that seems to be what society is customized for. I'm thinking now, that we need to change our eating habits to be like her, rather than the other way around.

I'm taking these changes slowly so they will stick. These dramatic lifestyle changing resolutions are the ones that tend to fall by the wayside. I really don't want that to happen with this, so I'm making the changes as gradual as possible.

We made a deal with her, and in order to drop out of ballet, she enrolled in swimming. I'm betting that she will enjoy that and it will encourage exercise. She also got a larger bike for Christmas, from Santa, since she outgrew her last one. We are going to try and bike as a family several times a week. Most of the kids in the neighborhood are always on their bikes. There are kids her age who are already abandoning their training wheels. She won't really get on her bike and ride around, unless her daddies do it too. So, we're going to do it too. Somehow, I will find the way to encourage this child to get out and play.