Boast & Brag/New Year’s Resolutions! (Don’t Buy Workout Clothing)

Salut Friends!

Beginning of the year means New Year’s Resolutions.

We do things a little differently in our household.  We celebrate Yule and part of our celebration is to do a “Boast and Brag”.  We boast what we will do for the coming year and we Brag about what we have done with the current year – hopefully sharing we completed our previous Boasts!

I have five Boasts (aka known as resolutions) for 2021:

1. Lose weight down to 146.0 pounds and stay between 146.0 – 151.0 pounds.  You may know that I had this goal last year and well, I didn’t do it.  With the pandemic and moving, I stayed right around 159 pounds, which means I spent half the year outside of my 151.0 – 156.0 range that I allow myself.  That is why I want to lose down to 146.0 and stay between 146.0 – 151.0 because then I will always be within my allotted weight.
2. Wake up by 06:00 on weekdays.  I am a stay-at-home mom, so I don’t need to leave the house for work.  Our family stays up quite late and operates on a later workday.  However, I enjoy waking up early and getting things done, especially when the house is all mine while the others sleep.  I have just fallen out of habit of waking up early and I want that back.  This morning time will allow me to work on my projects and to maybe walk my crazy dog, Bulma, who is reactive towards everything and not calming to walk.  I can walk Jude, my old, other dog, any time throughout the day.
3. Plant trees, shrubs, vegetable/produce in some fashion on our lot.  (This is an and-or statement.  ANYTHING is good for this goal).  Let me give you some background here.  When living in Wisconsin our lot had several trees that needed to be cut down.  Doing this left our house feeling exposed, so I vowed to plant an arborvitae (shrub) perimeter in the backyard, plant a nice shade tree in the side yard and a fruit tree in the front yard.  It never happened.  Then I said I would still do that, but I wanted to plant a produce garden as well.  And I didn’t do it.  Then I planted one tree.  One!  And my husband mowed it over the same day.  It still survived and was growing for the year plus that we continued to live there, but the growth was quite slow.  Very slow.  I have planted trees from seeds so I know how fast it should have been growing – my husband created a stunted little tree.  The produce garden was going to happen – but then my husband’s job offer came in and the need to relocate happened.  So, no garden.  I kept my gardening wants in mind while looking at houses.  We purchased our house in October, too late for planting anything.  We set pumpkins outside for Halloween and the neighborhood squirrels decimated our decorations.  They ripped them apart and ate them.  Bad.  So I took a deep breath and decided to grow herbs in the house again.  I bought a basil plant and set it in my kitchen window.  Days later ANTS!!  ANTS EVERYWHERE!!  I killed 50+ in five minutes!  Gah!  Basil should have kept pests away (due to its smell), but the plant contracted a fugus of sorts.  Pest bugs were attracted to the fugus to eat.  The pest bugs created honeydew and the ants were attracted to eating the honeydew!  The basil plant was removed from our house and the ants were delt with.  Now I have a boast that I need to complete.  My intention is to plant at least one arborvitae around the outside perimeter of the dog yard fence, plant two or three fruit trees in the back and create a squirrel proof, produce planter.
4. Pay 15% off the principle of our home loan.  Pretty self-explanatory.  I hate debt.  We would have paid off our house in Wisconsin in 2020 – but we had to move and the market on the East Coast is a little different than the market in the Midwest.
5. Plan a substantial hike/adventure.  This is a necessity for my soul.  I need to get out and move and explore!  And I had plans when I thought this boast up.  I was going to do something amazing and grueling!  And then I remembered I had a family comprised of a four-year-old daughter and a husband that despises not having a complete, hot lunch and dinner.  Trail food is not his thing and he is vocal about it.  Oh, and he does not have the same affinity for hiking and adventures as I.  He Hates it.  So, keeping my family in mind, I decided to lax the rules on the adventure.  I came up with a couple of trails I would like to complete with my daughter, that we will do throughout the year.  And I created two family weekend trips that we will take during the year to serve as our own little adventures.  No, this was not what I was thinking of when I made the boast – but I needed to be brought back to reality, and the reality is, the family has to enjoy the adventure too.

This brings me to YOU!  What is YOUR New Year’s Resolution?  What is YOUR Goal?
Losing weight is a common goal. 

I wanted to share a tip with you.

If your intent is to lose a substantial amount of weight, that’s great!  DO NOT make these first few months expensive.  What I mean is, don’t go out and buy a bunch of expensive workout clothes.  Increase activity, decrease calories, and take in healthier foods, and you will lose weight – and in the beginning, quickly.  Which means you will not fit in to all those expensive workout clothes that you just bought – they will be too big!  Exciting, but frustrating.  Luckily, I was very cheap, and I didn’t want to spend money on something I ultimately did not want to wear – large clothes.  So I grabbed my biggest pair of pants and scrappiest large shirt, and I designated those as workout clothes.  And it worked out just fine.  I’m not saying negate the support in clothing that you may need (I needed a sports bra and better socks) but don’t waste money on something that you don’t want to be wearing in three months – when you have a whole wardrobe of clothes that you don’t want to be wearing in three months, because you have lost enough weight that all of what you own is baggy and old!  Use old clothes to get all sweaty and gross in.  Save your money for when you actually need clothes!

Anyway, I figured I would pass on an excellent tip for those that are out there starting this journey.  I will keep you all posted on my goals and we will see if I make any happen throughout the year.  Take care and honestly, let me know what your goals are!