New Year's Resolutions

Traditionally, I have been pretty good at keeping my New Year's resolutions. I try to pick goals that I have some real reason to keep, and I try to make them specific. I think posting them somewhere public makes it a bit easier to keep them. So, without further ado, here are my resolutions for this year:

Greater than 75% Probability of Success

• Lose 5-10 more pounds and keep the weight off
  Ah, the classic weight-loss resolution. But this year, I've got a big advantage--I've lost 41 lbs since the last week of May, and I'm on a roll and feeling great. My big secret has been a website, Calorie Count, which helped me figure out how many calories I'm burning a day and then made it easy for me to record how many I'm ingesting. Using this site, I've been able to lose weight without sacrificing anything but portion sizes (and the occasional bad donut at work).


• Write back to people who send me letters and things
  This one is about discipline. I feel pretty confident I can make time to stay connected this year, and I got beautiful stationery for Christmas to help keep me motivated.


• Continue to learn and to keep a great attitude at work
  Learning and staying upbeat have made my job a pleasure so far; I want to keep it up.


• Advance my running to the next level
  I have built to a decent base of 20-25 miles per week and have seemingly tamed my ITBS. Now it's time to push to 30-40 miles per week while continuing to stay injury free. I'll be using a number of solid running resources and will be rewarding myself with running swag.

Greater than 50% Probability of Success

• Incorporate strength training into my exercise routine
  I know I need to train my muscles to be the best runner I can be (and to burn those extra calories, thus forcing me to eat more!), but I typically maintain a strength-training program for 6-8 weeks before giving it up. With my Wii Fit and some nice other plans to help encourage me, I'm going to make this year different. My big limitation to running shouldn't be that my arms eventually get tired.


• Train for and run a fall marathon
  This one goes along with my desire to improve my running but falls into a lower probability of success category because marathon training requires so much time.


• Dress myself more professionally
  I know I should "dress for success," so to speak, but I am lazy, unskilled in these matters, and not a big fan of shopping. Still, with my weight loss, I'm eager to look more presentable to my coworkers, friends, and family. But let's face it--this is one area where I don't really know what I'm doing.

Less than 25% Probability of Success

• Leave my fingernails alone
  This has been my New Year's resolution since I started dating Judson more than 10 years ago. The problem is that I pick my nails when I am bored, stressed, or nervous and sometimes just because my hands happen to be empty. Further, my nails are always weak no matter what I'm eating. They are thin and flexible, and they break easily. Also, I don't particularly care what my nails look like. I do admit that I admire other women's nice nails. I need some sort of mini-goals and some rewards to help make this resolution a keeper, and I haven't thought of any so far.