New Year, New Me...or is it really, New Year, Old Me?

First of all, Happy New Year to all of my readers! I hope the holiday season was full of joy and happiness for all of you! Obviously, I have been missing in action not only for the last month, but for a good part of the last year as well. I have tossing and turning over whether to share with you the reason why, and finally decided that the New Year, a time of resolutions and renewal, was a good as time as any to take the leap and spill.

2010 was really not a good year for me. In fact, I would go so far as to say that 2010 was probably the toughest year I have ever faced. Over the course of the year, I spiralled down into clinical depression, put on over 12 kg (26.5 lbs), and lost motivation to do much of anything. I stopped exercising, blogged less and less, stopped writing articles for Blissfully Domestic, pretty much stopped doing everything except the bare minimum to keep my head above water. Finally, towards the end of the year, I decided I couldn't keep going the way I was going, and sought some medical help. After a couple of months of anti-depressants and some therapy (which I have now been able to stop), I was starting to feel more like myself. And so, that brings me to now, and the title of my blog post. In 2009, I did a series of posts tagged Best Year, and I really did have a great year, so this year, I hope you will join me as I strive to get myself back to the state I was in over the course of that year. I am really seeing this New Year as a time of renewal and a chance to reclaim my self, my true self, the new, old me!

So, what are my five goals for 2011?

  1. Get myself down to a healthy weight. Last year, I breached I weight I never thought I would ever be (92 kg/202 lbs) and I was well and truly in the obese category. Putting on so much weight was both a side effect and a contributor to my depression, and the excess weight just generally affected how I felt - I was constantly tired and achy. My goal weight is 75kg/154 lbs and I expect that this will take me the full year to reach. To help me achieve this goal I've started the new Weight Watchers ProPoints/PointsPlus program. This is probably my most important goal for 2011.

  2. Exercise for half an hour a day, at least 5 days a week. When I exercise, I simply feel better all round. I start a weekly Pilates reformer class next week, I have dusted off the Elliptical which has been a wonderful clothes hanger for the last year, and I will start going to a deep water aqua class once a week once both school goes back in a couple of weeks.

  3. Do at least one yoga/meditation session a week. I find that this one hour decompress each week not only relaxes and refreshes me, but actually re-energises me, and I have really been missing it over the last year. I will most likely do this at home using a DVD, but will also try to get out to a class every now and then to keep my technique up to scratch.

  4. Start dressing well again and put on some makeup everyday. This is really embarrassing to admit, given the name of my blog, but over the past year, I have really things slide. Not so much that I was doing the school run in pyjamas, but enough that my husband's aunt (who, I must admit, does not have the best relationship with my husband's family) made a snide comment to my MIL that I was starting to dress like an 80 year old woman (and if that wasn't an incentive to change, I don't know what is!).

  5. Look after my spiritual needs. My relationship with a higher power is something else that I have really neglected over the past year. Whatever religion/philosophy you follow, I think it is so important to have a spiritual life, and this is something I will really be working on.
So, hopefully my first post for 2011 hasn't bored the pants off you, or disillusioned you, and I really hope you will join me over the next year!

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Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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