Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 everyone!

I'm not usually one for resolutions - I think they tend to ring false and are usually made with little thought or serious intentions of being carried out for the coming twelve months. That being said, I know there are people out there who do make and successfully stick to resolutions made on the first of the year. I, however, am not one of them. I'm always up for change, improvement, and goal-setting, but I feel like these are better made and kept when inspired by a true and meaningful event rather than the passing of a certain date.

Nonetheless, I have a few things that I guess you could call suggestions of resolutions. Rather than strict rules or changes I would like to make for the year 2011, these are things I hope to think about more. They're reminders more than resolutions. Improvement is always a good thing and these are just a few areas where I feel like I could use some work.

1. Take more photos. I love photography and am envious of so many of the pictures featured on other people's blogs. Though I don't consider myself a master photographer, I feel that I've got a decent enough eye for photography to try a little harder in 2011. Too often I let fear of looking silly or pure laziness prevent me from capturing images and memories that I would really like to revisit again and again. So I hope to cast off any vestiges of embarrassment or sloth and pull my Canon on out whenever the urge strikes. Hopefully this means that readers will have more pleasant images to view on my blog rather than rambling rants to plow through!

2. Eat better. This is the kind of thing that I think most people resolve to do, with little forethought as to how they should carry their plan out. Though I tend to eat healthy, I have lapses where I gorge myself with sweets or am too lazy (and sometimes too poor) to go to the grocery store and get some healthy alternatives to baked goods and such. I think my poor eating behavior is a bit exacerbated by the holiday season (making 8 batches of cookies in the weeks leading up to Christmas didn't help much either) so hopefully the passing of time will help sort my diet out naturally. But I sometimes make bad choices knowingly, and then later feel physically bad because of them. So I'm going to try to remind myself of the consequences of my consumption before I get into a rut. More than 3 cookies is probably going to give me a stomach ache, but eating some fruit to follow up dinner will likely satisfy my sweet tooth for a good chunk of time. For anyone resolving to improve their eating habits in the coming year, I'll leave you with these three tips that Michael Pollan advocates and I fully support - Eat food (as opposed to food-like substances passing as sources of nutrition). Not too much. Mostly plants.

3. Stop being so lazy. Or as my mother would say, just do it. I used to love to run, so much so that I was running 6 to 7 miles on average and decided that I would tackle the challenge of completing a half marathon. Though I did walk a bit during the race, I completed the thing and that in itself was a minor miracle given that I hated running not too long before. But this was about two years ago. And I've been on and off the running bandwagon a lot since then. I love the way it feels to run when I'm immersed in a good run and in good physical shape. But if I have a week with no exercise, it gets harder with each passing day to exercise again. Rather than thinking of the great feeling I'd have upon returning home, I'd dwell on the tiniest tinges of tiredness I felt in my muscles and allow myself to exaggerate them to the point of no run. Hopefully I'll take on more of the just do it attitude in 2011. And I don't just mean with exercise either. I've got so many craft projects that I want to complete, but I give myself thousands of excuses not too and end up reading instead. I love to read and sometimes nothing is better than a good book, but sometimes nothing is better than the satisfaction of creating something beautiful by your own hands. I plan on ignoring those excuses as much as I can and embarking on more projects of all sorts.

That's pretty much all I've got by way of resolutions - and truly these are things I'm always trying to work on. What do you resolve to do or change in the New Year?

PS Like my new tabs? My friend Sarah showed me how to create multiple pages on my blog and I was so excited to do it! FYI, for all your Blogger users out there, under "Posting" click on the "Edit Pages" tab to create your own!