Resolutions - Day 1

After a low-key and fun New Year's Eve celebration with good friends and kids, today was the day to get the resolutions started. It didn't help much that we had a New Year's Day Open House to attend with many friends and delicious food, but I was determined to start the year honest. I'm not planning to write about my resolutions in such detail everyday, but I thought it was a good idea to start of 2009 like this. Soon I'll have a trip to Ethiopia, and will get back to blogging about Africa again.

1. Goal - I will write down everything I eat ----I actually asked the host at the party to find a scrap of paper for me, so I could surreptitiously take notes while at the party. Otherwise, I knew I could "forget" to write some things down. I drank huge glasses of seltzer water instead of wine, ate a lot of fresh veggies, and kept the more decadent food to small tablespoon-sized portions. Who in their right mind doesn't want to eat a lot of spinach-artichoke dip???? I chose the smallest crackers, thinking it would be rude to just stick in my finger (which is calorie-free) and scooped up a reasonably-sized gob of deliciousness.

2. Goal - Healthy BMI - In the end, I ate about 2000 calories today, or about 31 Weight Watchers points. (Ideally, I should aim for 23 points, with 35 extra points per week to eat as I please.) I could have done better, but at a party with good food, I normally do much worse! So I was pleased with my progress. I also took the time today to sign up for Fit Day, where my weight loss, nutrition, and fitness goals can be tracked. If you want to see how I did today, you can check out my FitDay public account here.

3. Goal - Run a 5k. I went online and found a "couch to 5K" program that I'm going to try. It seems I should be able to do it in 12 weeks. I didn't exercise at all today, but I'm getting mentally ready to start the program. And I also looked around for 5K races in April, found a local one in Reston, VA, and wrote to the coordinator to find out how to sign up. I got an out-of-office reply, but hopefully I'll hear from him next week, and I'll commit to my first run ever.

4. Goal - Save money for the family. We plan to cancel our cable. It should save us about $44/month. I'll let you know when we actually cancel it, though.