Yesterday I made a shiny, fancy banner for my blog! Right up the top there! Isn't it pretty? It's an indicator that it's really time to get serious about things.
I read this article in The Age online this morning. The title caught my eye: "This much we know: there's fat chance of staying slim". Of course that would catch a person's eye! It's saying that people can't lose weight and keep it off, no matter how hard they try?! But the article itself isn't that sensationalist. It's by a historian who's written a book on the history of dieting. It looks interesting. There are some interesting snippets of historical information from the book. Did you know that the ancient Greeks practiced bulimia? Edwardians were really into laxatives? And of course, the diet industry is just a sham run by rip-off merchants.
The conclusion is - it is possible to lose weight, not by dieting, but by incremental lifestyle changes and an emphasis on health and fitness rather than pure weight loss. It's not new, but it's a good reminder at this time of year, when rash resolutions and giddy goals are flying around left, right and centre!
In Related News ...
Speaking of goals....
I've written a list of 10 goals for 2012. The ones relevant to this blog are:
[3.] Get enough sleep and water.
[4.] Complete the Bed to Couch exercise programme.
[8.] Do a meditation course.
I try to bear in mind the SMART goals formula when I'm making plans for myself. What am I going to do? How am I going to do it? How much is enough?
I've already taken steps (baby ones!) towards some of the goals.
[*] Get enough sleep and water.
I should say: by 'enough' I mean 8 hours of sleep and 2 litres of water. To start with, I set a reminder on my daily to-do app to drink 1 litre of water per day, for the next 2 weeks.
[*] Complete the Bed to Couch exercise programme.
First step was finding the spreadsheet on my computer! Second step is writing out all the levels as I'd only planned out the first 3 previously.
[*] Do a meditation course.
I'm waiting until next month to start looking into this, as courses don't generally tend to start this early in the year. I've put a reminder in my to-do app to do this.
I may or may not post regular updates on my progress, depending on how I feel.
