How many of you made a New Year’s resolution?
How many of you have already broken those resolutions?
For those of you who made some trendy diet your resolution, let me tell you why I am anti-diet:
1. It’s not fun.
2. Everyone I know on a diet is angry.
3. My theory is our bodies’ metabolism needs to be surprised by the food it’s eating. Like one day it says, “Oh my! Carrots!” And then the next day it’s like, “Oh my! Pizza!!”
To me, portion control (as opposed to completely cutting out foods) seems the best way to go, but this isn’t a food blog and I’m always interested in hearing your opinions. Tell me why your diet makes you…
1. Have fun.
2. Not want to hammer punch people in the face.
Photo Credit: Spencer Penfield
I live in Portland, and everyone here has opinions and theories on food. You’re either vegan and have a garden between your front door and the sidewalk, or you only eat the meat of Babe the Pig, who you raised and butchered yourself in the garage.
Just like my diet dislikes, I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions either.
But if I had to pick one, it would be something I’ve been “resoluting” (yes, that’s a word, maybe) for the past number of years and will probably have to continue working on until the day I die.
And that is “assuming the best” about people.
Essentially, because of my skeptical nature and the life experiences I’ve had, it’s hard for me to approach people and assume they aren’t lying to me, trying to take advantage of me, or won’t eventually hurt me. On the other hand, there are times I completely let my guard down and trust someone way too fast, which usually results in hurt—and then I’m back to assuming everyone is an emotional swindler.
I realize I’ve touched on this principle a number of times on my site, and “Assuming Good Will” is a huge principle I’ve learned from my parents’ teachings in Love and Respect. I’ve been working on explaining more about why this topic is such a struggle for me in the book I am writing, but until that comes out this summer, I thought I would highlight a few of my posts that tackle this topic:
- Assuming the best when people make comments that annoy us
- A guy not assuming the best about women
- Assuming the best instead of labeling
- Assuming the best from people in authority over you (aka the workplace)
- Assuming the best when your friends have expectations for you that you don’t have for yourself
Love and Respect (Now) is a division of Love and Respect. Please be considerate.
From My Heart
All of the Love and Respect Now Posts…In One Place!
Emerson & Sarah Eggerichs on Marriage, Parenting, Family of Origin, Work & Death
Fighting for Love (and Other Potentially Hazardous Cliches)
ahaha!! Mascara is key! I look like a schoolboy without it! But I agree – I love Alece’s One Word – so much so that it’s tomorrow’s featured post! Whoodie whoo!
Just yesterday I overheard someone at work say she was starting her diet again. In which I responded. Don’t diet. Diets are stupid…unless by dieting you mean eating less and exercising more. Maybe a little too blunt, but sometimes people need it. 🙂
I’ve never been the resolution type. At least I haven’t specifically begun one on Jan 1. That’s like only celebrating love with your significant other on Valentine’s Day.
I like that analogy to Valentine’s day. Maybe you should tell your co-worker that one too – unless she isn’t speaking to you anymore. (-:
I think the word you might be looking for is “Resolving”. Just FYI.
But made up words are just so much more fun.
I certainly do not believe in New Years’ resolutions nor do I care for the loosely-termed diets out there, but I certainly believe in following a balanced diet. By that; I mean simply having one’s proteins, carbohydrates, veggies and fruits daily, but in moderation. At least, that is what I was taught when growing up and it has worked perfectly well for me.
As for my dislike for resolutions, I would rather think of life as a process of continuous change and what we really need is divine wisdom to guide us into areas that need extra work.
But that aside, I guess like you, my key area that needs a lot of work is trust.
Oooh Trust should be your “one word” for the year. Check out tomorrow’s post and it will all make sense.
I don’t care much for diets or resolutions either. The Atkins diet craze period was just annoying (I was a cook at the time and I remember serving lots of bunless burger patties topped with tons of bacon). I always get a kick out of all the FB posts that people post of themselves hiking or starting a new diet the week of New Years. Then you don’t see anything again after that. I believe in controlling food portioning, eating healthy and exercising to stay healthy (the old fashion way). Do I always follow this.. nope. That’s why everyday is a new resolution for me. And I try not to beat myself up if I scarf down some free pizza at someone’s party. So if anything I avoid is free food and buffets.
Old Country Buffet was my birthday spot of choice growing up. A place where I could get endless mac n’ cheese AND endless soft serve ice-cream (with countless toppings) was my heaven.
I’m ‘resoluting’ (I like that word) to comment on the blogs I love instead of just reading and doing lots of head nodding. I am also taking risks with writer friends and blogging about that. It is easy to break resolutions isn’t it? I’ve enjoyed doing something in community, and also to not taking resolutions to extremes in recent years. I used to seek perfection with it and then I couldn’t find the point anymore.
Julie (@julespreever) thinks...
I gave up on resolutions a few years ago when I couldn’t even keep the “wear mascara every time you go out” resolution. These days I take part in One Word 365 that Alece runs. I love the concept of it. Just funnel every experience and hurt throughout the year through that one word. I’m still trying to wear mascara though.
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