Another year, another resolution

Well, that’s another year buggered. It’s been a pretty big one for us personally. My more regular (or antipodeans) readers will know that my wife, daughter and I packed up sticks and moved to the Uk in March. It’s been a pretty big change, and save for a few moments of reoccurring home sickness (well NZ IS the best country in the world) it’s been a pretty good year. I feel I have grown as a developer, and have seen some awesome things, and met some pretty cool people. I expect this year to be just as big a year from a personal growth point of view.

Except in one area - Weight.

Over the past three or four years I have managed to go from around 85kg to 105kg which is where I was at last weigh in. There are a couple of key reasons for this I think. First and foremost is I’m not exercising as much as I used to. I used to cycle up to 10 hours a week at my peak. I think I would have ridden my bike 30 or 40 times in 2007. Bad.

The other is a combination of laziness, a liking of sweet things and convenience. Oh and the bloody British habit of having a vending machine in every work place!

That was then, this is now.

I think resolutions are rubbish. It’s easy to SAY you will do something, and then trip up. Trust me, I’ve done it. As I’m sure most people have. So, I am not going to make a resolution. I going to give my word (to myself) that I will do the following this year:

I will stop eating the following:
Chips (crisps)
Biscuits
Anything chocolate related
Reduce beer intake, if drinking then try Bubbly or Whiskey/Bourbon
Reduce portion sizes for evening meal

I will get at least 4 forms of exercise per week. Before Xmas I was doing a bit of running so intend to keep that up, and maybe dust off the elliptical trainer.

As my word is my bond I will stick by what I start.

I guess at this point I need a goal. I’m not going to make the mistake of setting a target weight. It’s too easy to either get discouraged, or complacent. My initial goal is to commit – truly commit to the above for one month and take it from there. I think I will use the cold turkey approach, rather than the weight watchers approach of rewarding success. So for the next month, good bye to all rubbish food, and hello running shoes.

I’ll report back in a month. Feel free to join with me on this endeavour. All it needs is a strong will.