Happy New Year 2015!

Happy New Year! What are your plans for 2015?

There is an increasing trend for people to denigrate the idea of making New Year's resolutions. This makes no sense to me as I don't see anything wrong with taking stock in the new year and looking at what we have achieved and what we still want to achieve. "Resolutions" is just another word for "goals." What is wrong with making goals? 

Some of the nay-sayers point out that many people make these resolutions and then forget about them. While it's sad that they forget their resolutions and don't make any strides towards achieving them, that doesn't make resolution-making (or goal-setting) as a whole a bad thing. Some people are better at sticking to their goals and working towards their goals than others - It doesn't matter what time of the year you set your goals; this fact will still be true.

So if you are making new year's resolutions (and it doesn't matter if you call them resolutions, goals or a to-do list), just keep one thing in mind while you do; these goals you are making are meant to be worked towards throughout the year, not just set and then forgotten.

So here are my fitness, health and Skinny Dreaming-related goals for 2015:

1. Get back down to my goal weight. I've gone up a bit in the past year and struggled to get the weight off. It's not impossible to do though; I just need to keep my head in the right place. I will achieve this by managing to:

2. Get a grip on my sugar-cravings/binge eating. Yes, I have let my control slip way too much this year. Although I managed to drop a bit of weight over November and December this year, I am still not completely in control of my eating habits and I need to get them back under control.

3. Exercising daily. this is another thing I have let slip in the past year. While I don't want to go back to where I was - with over-exercising every day - I do need to fit in some everyday fitness.

4. Finish work on "The 28 Day Fitness Challenge" book and its accompanying food journal and get them published in 2015. I meant to have these completed in 2014, but I had some trouble with the interior illustrations/photographs. I was undecided about whether the book needed photographs or illustrations to show examples of some of the exercises. I have decided to include photographs which show some of the exercises being done.

5. Think up a new challenge to run in 2015. In 2012, I ran the 7-Days Sugar-Free Challenge. In 2013, I ran the 28 Day Fitness Challenge and in 2014 (on Facebook), I ran the Lose a Stone by Christmas Challenge. What will it be this year?

What are your goals for 2015?
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Split Into Many Fragments

I have so many things I am trying to achieve right now, so many dreams I'm aiming towards. Sometimes I think that maybe I am taking on too much. As those of you who have been reading my posts will know, I am working toward my dream of being a published author. I am taking lots of steps towards that dream. One step is that I am writing and submitting a short story every month. I am working on finishing and editing my three NaNoWriMo novels. Another step is that I am reading eveything I can get my hands on about the craft of writing so I can work on honing my skills. I have also joined the 12 x 12 in 2012 picture book challenge, just finished the Picture Book Marathon and have started a challenge of my own with the Chapter Book Challenge. (I am finding published chapter book authors to guest post and share their wisdom with the others who have joined the challenge. The challenge is to write a children's chapter book during the month of March.) I am trying to keep up with writing in my blogs as well.

Now, it stands to reason that with so much going on, some things are going to get less attention. I am still doing my daily exercise. I am usually watching what I eat and trying to eat healthy, but I must admit that, on my tired days, I don't do as well or make the best choices. And my blog posts are happening less and less frequently.

I keep reminding myself that I lost over 145 pounds, and that, if I managed that, I can manage anything, but that's where I seem to be finding difficulty. I did manage that, but at the time I was being so successful at losing the weight, I wasn't concentrating on much more than my family and my weight loss.

At this moment in time, I am working on so many different projects while still trying to maintain my weight loss and spending time with my family, and sometimes it feels like I might have taken on too much. I feel like I am being pulled in too many directions and each thing that is calling to me is pulling a piece of me towards it until I am splitting apart in many separate fragments.

And this long-winded post is my way of saying that I am sorry that I am not posting as frequently right now as I used to. I will try and create thoughtful and helpful posts every weekend though because I have no intention of abandoning this blog. This is the first of my blogs that I really put any effort into, and it's kind of like one of my babies. Blogging here not only helped me to lose weight, it also helped re-spark my interest in writing again.

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