New Year, New Goals - No Resolutions

 明けましておめでとうございます！

今年もよろしくお願いします!!

Happy New Year!  It is January 1st, 2014.  I am not someone who makes New Year resolutions but in reflecting on past New Years', I realize that I generally do tend to set a few goals as I go through the year; and luckily, most of my goals have been attained.  Some goals haven't, and are still in the queue while others have been discarded.

I created this blog to journal the coming year ahead and also to see how I do in successfully accomplishing my goals for this year.

Now, a goal and a resolution are perhaps just two different words to express the same thing and perhaps such quibbling over semantics may seem like petty stuff; but I do think that for me - and perhaps for many others - the distinction in one's mind and attitude are important.

Resolutions are, from my perspective, a goal that people make at the start of a new year that they might have every intention of keeping but usually with no plan of action behind it to make it a success.

I have friends who create an impossibly long list of resolutions for the new year that they inevitably fail to keep and then recycle for the next year's list of resolutions.  The list of resolutions is brought out to usher in the beginning of the new year and is quickly forgotten and fades back into the background as the year moves forward.  So for me, there will be no resolutions for 2014, only goals.

The most important thing to remember about setting goals is to set SMART goals.

I also am not someone who can set all their goals in one fell swoop - goals, like my life, come and go as the year ebbs and flows around me.  I tend to set one or two goals and then once they are accomplished - or discarded - I move on to the next goal or two and thus, I make my way through the year.

My first goal for the year is simply to get in better shape.  A common goal, a common resolution for many at this time of the year but it's a good one and an important one.  I will be 50 this January 23rd and I want to go into my 50s looking as good as I can and feeling as good as I can.

I am currently weight about 204 pounds which is about 20 pounds heavier than I want to be at this point.

So - to be specific - my goals are to be in better shape and to lose 20 pounds of weight.  Being specific will allow me to measure whether I successfully reach my goal and then once accomplished; I can set another goal and move forward on that.

To help me succeed in my goal, I have joined a fitness studio near me called Body Blast.  Body Blast is not a traditional gym - I have signed up and paid for many, many gym memberships in my life and have never stepped into the gym other than to sign up for a membership.  So clearly, joining a traditional gym and being left to my own devices to get fit will not help me achieve my goals.

Body Blast is a training studio dedicated to helping you achieve your goals while educating you with cutting-edge nutrition and workout programs. They focus on getting results using a scientific approach for nutrition, cardiovascular efficiency, as well as muscle growth and definition.

I think Body Blast will be one of the tools that will help me to reach my fitness and weight loss goal.  I will be chronicling my progress here, so stay tuned!