Wednesday, January 7, 2009

My 5 New Year's Resolutions

calendar showing Jan 1 with apple and tape measureGoal-setting is a good thing. Even if you fall short of your goals, I believe it's always good to have something you're striving for.

Following are my health goals for this year:

1. Eat more vegetables and fruit. To be specific, my plan is to eat five to six servings of non-starchy vegetables and two servings of fruit every day. I also plan to eat more greens (mustard greens are my favorite).

2. Drink more water. My goal is to drink somewhere between 3 liters and 3.8 liters. For a great hydration calculator click here. Specifically, what I'm doing is - I took a case of bottled water to work (12 - 10 oz bottles), set them on my desk - so they serve as a constant reminder. Then, save the empty bottles, take them home and refill them with purified water (I keep several gallon-jugs at home) and bring them back to work. If I drink at least 10 bottles per day, I've reached my goal.

3. Drink green tea. The health benefits are incredible - one of those being a weight loss booster. For every 10 ozs of green tea I drink, I'll deduct that amount from my daily water goal.

4. Keep a food journal. It's important to know what you're eating and how many calories you're consuming on a daily basis. Most successful dieters say keeping a food journal was critical to their success.

5. Exercise. My goal is to do some form of aerobic exercise for an hour, six days per week (aerobic video tape, biking, fast-walking). Some days I might only exercise thirty minutes but I want to strive for an hour. I also plan to do body weight exercises three times per week.

Have you set your goals yet? If you have any tips for me, please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for reading!
Laura




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13 comments:

Paul Eilers said...

Yay!

Drinking green tea is one of my resolutions for the upcoming year as well.

I love this blogger!

Anonymous said...

these look like the things i'm trying to do as well, except keep the journal. i tried. did't stick with it. i do drink my green tea though everyday! i need to lose or would like to lose 15/20lbs by july

The Florida Furkids said...

#2 is the hard one for me. I keep trying to make myself drink water....must. drink. water....

Anonymous said...

I totally do all of those things perfectly every day without fail.

And when I type the name of my blog really fast, I sometimes miss getting the V in there.

Stick with those goals. They're good ones!

Anonymous said...

Hi Laura, I LOVE green tea and I drink plenty of water everyday. Looks like a great set of goals for 2009! I need to get back to my exercise plan, like yesterday!

Anonymous said...

I'm terrible about water, but I love tea - green included. I drink it all day long. Enjoy & these are great goals!

Laura said...

Paul - How about that? :)

Natural - Twenty pounds by July is a very realistic goal so I'm sure you can do it. You sound like me, on keeping a food journal. I probably won't be able to stick to it either but I want to try anyway.

Furkidsmom - I know! Drinking water doesn't come natural to me either though I've noticed that the more water I make myself drink, the more I crave it.

Carol @ She Lives - :) Funny girl. Thanks! I'm going to give it my best.

John @ Family, Fitness & Finances - Thanks! Congrats on drinking plenty of water and green tea! I need to stick to my goals and see them through this year.

Andrea @ Autism Insights - Congrats on drinking green tea! Drinking water is a struggle for me too.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and commenting!

Anonymous said...

I'm going to try all of these, except my weak willed efforts will probably mean I'll miss out on your points 1 through 5 inclusive !

Rudy said...

nice simple and very friendly resolution... this post interested me to change coffee to green tea.

Thanks for sharing...

Anonymous said...

Those are pretty much the same goals I have this year! I already drink a lot of water, but I need to do better with drinking tea. I bought some green tea and peppermint tea last night - both decaffeinated. I definitely need to get back on track with my exercises, though. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Those have all been my goals for some time now, still working on them though :). I'll admit, I'm never good at being consistent with things. I don't like Green Tea so that is a tough one to stick with, I buy Blueberry Green Tea which is a bit better than plain Green Tea, but I still have a hard time drinking it very often.

Laura said...

Jim - :) Hehehehe! Well, at least you're willing to give it a try!

Susanno - Thanks! I have green tea in the cabinet... I just need to make it! :)

Sadie - Congrats on drinking a lot of water! And you bought some green tea so you're halfway there on that one. The exercise one's a toughie though isn't it? I know what you mean! My feet have hurt for many months now so it's hard to get past the pain and make myself get moving.

Jolene - Well, at least you haven't given up! :) I have trouble remaining consistent (obviously). Blueberry Green Tea sounds good!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment! :)

shah said...

Yes...for me this year I want to do more exercise after few years sitting infront of computer. Make my weight more. This year have to do more exercise and drink more water.

Cheers
http://healthy-cookingrecipes.blogspot.com/

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