A Brand New Ending...

As promised, I want to break down my Resolutions for 2012. I have been giving great thought to how I wanted to approach my resolutions....and so many thoughts bounced through my head. Should I categorize them? Should I talk about each individual one? What about a list? Well, I've finally decided to do all three, so hang on, this might get lengthy.....

I always have the "normal" lose weight, get healthier, save money, serious-type resolutions, and I still want to talk about that as well...but I have some rather quirky, and fun ones too. I've always been taught to put my goals in writing, and doing so will remind you that you have a goal to obtain, and possibly help keep you on track. Plus, I am putting all this out here in "cyberspace" and you, my readers, are sorta my accountability partners...like it or not.

Without further adieu, lets get started:

Goal #1. Lose Weight
OK, to be honest with my self, if I had been working on my weight loss as hard as I've been wishing I was skinny, I would have been skinny 7 years ago! Nonetheless, its a goal of mine, and to be more specific...I want to lose 80lbs. That would put me at my I'm-so-happy-I'm-cheesin' weight. On the other hand, saying I want to lose the big eight-zero looks a little frightening and unattainable, so I want to set my first goal at 20lbs. I learned in sales a long time ago, that goals have to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Alright, let's break this down further:
Specific: I want to lose 80 lbs of body fat, while creating a lean, sculpted overall physical look. I would like to lose an average of 2-3 lbs per week.
Measurable: I will start by losing 20 lbs of my 80lb goal
Attainable: 20 lbs is more attainable than a ghastly 80 all at once.
Realistic: It wouldn't be realistic if I said I wanted to lose 800lbs. So 80lbs is realistic, and setting a more short term goal of 20 lbs makes it more realistic. Also, if I said I wanted to look like a certain person weighing the same weight that I want to be, that is also unrealistic, because everyone is built differently.
Timely: I want to lose 80lbs in 8 months, or an average of 10lbs per month. I would like to achieve my 20lb goal by March 15th, 2012.

Goal #2. Save Money
I believe that this is a very big goal of everyone. I am currently going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and want to share the 3 Baby Steps he suggests, and that I am currently working on: 1. Save $1000 emergency fund that is hard to get to, but you still can if you absolutely need to. 2. Stamp out the rest of my debt (which thankfully isn't much) 3. Save 6 months worth of household income as an emergency fund to fall back on if needed. I am focusing on 1. and 3. for the most part right now...not only in my personal life, but in my business as well.

Enough of the BORING stuff....let's get to the FUN stuff now. And for the sake of not trying to write a book, this will consist of lists of categories:

Category 1: Home life:
1. Clean up the kitchen after supper nightly, no more letting dishes sit in the sink till morning.
2. Make up my bed on the weekends
Category 2: Friends:
1. Do something quirky and fun that is not the "usual" girls night out each month. Examples: paint a piece of pottery, attend a community play, volunteer for a good cause, go kayaking, go zip-lining, take a cooking class, build a birdhouse all by myself. Etc... I'm sure as these happen, I will write about them.
Category 3: Random:
1. Blog at least 3 days per week
2. Read one new book each month, for fun or business, whatever I'm in the mood for
3. Learn to play guitar
4. Join a committee for a good cause
5. Grow my business by $500,000
6. Learn some gardening facts, techniques, and put them to use
7. Travel more!

Alright, I'm tired already by thinking about all these, but I am resolving to do them all. Please rally and support me as I talk about these in the upcoming months. We'll see where it all turns out in about 12 months. (Of course if the world ends on 12/21/12, we won't. :))

One Other THING: I have been wrestling with the idea of posting my weight loss journey on here...before and after pictures, and all. I am a little apprehensive because I will have "fat" pictures on here, but I thought it would catapult me to work harder to post better pictures quickly. Sorta a real person you know that is going through her own Biggest Loser thing. I mean, I feel sorry for those people on week one who are half naked at their biggest, and I think to myself: Would I be brave enough to do that? I guess if everyone around me was big, and I knew by the time everyone saw me, I looked fabulous, I might possibly do it. So, I need your input: If I get 10 people to tell me to do it, I will. I wince as I write that.

Well, I will leave you with this thought...You can't go back to the beginning, but you can start now and have a brand new ending.

Love and Kisses to my readers,

Amy