I haven’t had New Years resolutions per se in many years.

Instead, what I do is to declare something that I’d like to learn in the new year, something I want God to teach me, something that I can discover, or rediscover or continue learning…

Then at the end of the year I summarize what I’ve learned (in my personal journal, the one no one will see until after I die) during the year. Often I realize that what I declared I wanted to learn is what I did indeed learn, but its almost always in ways I never expected the lessons to come. I’m almost always surprised to discover this fact. Life seems to sweep me along so much of the time, even though I determine to go "that-a-way," I so often find myself swept in what seems the opposite direction than I want to go. So, like "Much Afraid" in "Hinds Feet on High Places" I despair that I will never reach the high places I long to because my path is headed in the wrong direction, only to find myself closer than I ever dreamed when December 31st rolls around.

However, this year I’m breaking my no resolution tradition…. perhaps just for this year. We’ll see.

This year my one resolution is:
To Get Healthy.

There are four parts to that:
1) Physical — by losing weight through eating less and exercising more.
2)Emotional — by acknowledging and dealing with my emotions as I experience them
3) Spiritual — by spending significant time with God every day
4) Mental — by continuing to take my meds until my doc says the depression has been eliminated

I’ve already adjusted my grocery list to eat more veggies and fruits, but I refuse to go on any diet or deny myself the stuff I love. I know myself well enough to know I will never stick with such a thing. And what I do this year must become a permanent lifestyle thing so it has to be realistic and workable.

I once lost 40 pounds through the Weigh Down Workshop program. When I talked with my doctor a few weeks ago, what he described to me was pretty much what Weigh Down is: eating only when you’re hungry and stopping when your satisfied, which is a different feeling from full, and exercising three times a week for a half hour. Weigh Down also adds on that we often eat out of a spiritual, not physical, hunger. I can say a huge "Amen!" to that. 2004 was the year I ate myself sick trying desperately to simultaneously fill the holes mom and dad left and stuff down the grief and pain that daily threatened to swallow me whole. It didn’t work. All I accomplished was to add 30 pounds to my small frame. Weigh Down’s solution is to pay attention to what kind of hunger you feel. If you’re stomach isn’t growling yet you want to eat, that’s probably you’re spirit crying out for God. So feed your spirit instead of your stomach…

I believe with all my heart that Weigh Down provides me a great frame to lose that 30 pounds, along with another 20-30, in a healthy God-glorifying way. After all, it’s worked for me before — and not only did I lose 40 pounds, but my relationship with the Lord deepened greatly. That time was an amazing growth period for me, more than ever before.

But I’m also getting older. And I’ve realized this year that I need to start taking better care of me by exercising as well. It’s not so much about getting svelte for me, at least not this year, as it is about keeping my body flexible and healthy as I enter my 4th decade on this planet. I had to take a hard look at my past exercising experiences and admit that I’ve always taken on far more than I can handle, and done things that I mostly don’t enjoy, because I thought that’s how this physical fitness thing is done. That always ended badly, with me quitting after a while, frustrated, bored and discouraged.

I’m taking a more realistic route this time. Walking around my neighborhood, hiking some on the weekends (mild hikes to start with… I ain’t at Larry’s level yet!) and short visits to the gym in my complex. They have an elliptical machine — and I love those things! I also want to try rock climbing. Nashville has two climbing gyms. Helen climbs, or used to, and I’ve always thought that was very cool. I’ve wanted to try it for years but never lived near enough to a climbing gym to make it practical. However, the costs are rather high, so I may not get to heavily into it this year.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, I’m hoping ya’ll will help me with these resolutions. It would be great if every once in a while you could check in with me, ask me how I’m doing, help me stay on track and just generally encourage as I go along. And I will post updates as the year progresses — both good and bad.

I also hope that someone somewhere might get some encouragement on their own journeys to get healthy through reading about my journey. I’ve read through many different blogs over the years, and have gotten great encouragement from some of them as I read of their courageous determination to push through the pain in their quest to get healthy. I loved reading their stories and celebrating their victories. It gave me hope for my own life. That’s why I got into blogging in the first place; to bring hope to someone else.

So here’s to New Year’s Resolutions May we all see them through this year!