Writing the list...

The new year is always feels like a chance to roll a clean sheet of paper in the typewriter (for those of you who are old enough to remember what that is!) and start over.

Forget all those resolutions that vanished sometime last January. This time it's going to be different.

You will go dry in January, detox, lose weight so that when the first snowdrop appears you'll feel energised rather than weighed down by all that heavy winter food.

You will use those long, dark winter nights to write the book of your heart instead of vegging out on the sofa with a packet of biscuits and all those box sets you got in your stocking.

You'll do those 10,000 steps a day, learn to speak another language, write a wish list and actually manage to cross at least a few of them off before the end of the year.

Well maybe. That's a lot to put on yourself and it's hardly surprising that so many of us never make it beyond the first few weeks of our good intentions.

But turning the calender over to a new year is the perfect moment to review what your did last year. See how far you've come. Celebrate the great moments. A good time to think about the things that didn't go as planned - life happens, we stumble because we've human - but to figure out how to beat the hurdles tossed in our way and figure out if we could deal with them better in the future. Especially the ones we build for ourselves.

Make your resolutions by all means. Reach for the stars but keep in mind Robert the Bruce and the spider who didn't give up when his web wouldn't stretch across the cave, but kept trying until he made it. Falling for a chocolate biscuit isn't the moment to call it a day and forget the diet. Just enjoy it and move on.

Resolutions are not a one day affair. Each day the calender gives us a fresh new page on which to write our story.

I hope that your 2015 is like one of my romances, full of happy beginnings.

Eating the elephant...

How are the resolutions going? I didn't actually make any, but a couple of days into the New Year I knew there was one thing I had to do. Lose some weight. My knees were begging me.

In the new house I have to walk up two flights of stairs to the office and about half way up the second flight my knees were complaining. Loudly. Actually, just lately they've been complaining when I put my feet to the floor in the morning and pain is the one thing that will make me pass on cake.

I was going to drag out the scales and make it a big deal. Since I have absolutely no faith that they'll have survived the move with any degree of accuracy, I decided not to worry about poundage, but about my knees. They'll keep me in line. And that jacket that won't quite button around the middle.

I'm not doing anything fancy. I've cut out bread, upped the level of protein to carbs and while I couldn't say I leapt out of bed this morning after just three days the knees took the move without complaint. And the stairs are already easier. And I've switched from Radio 4 (talk radio) to Radio 2 (pop music radio) and I'm jogging around the kitchen while I work to those oldies but goodies that were the soundtrack of my youth.

I've lost maybe two pounds (the first few days it always falls off) but the difference is already noticeable to me if no one else.

Exercise is the next step. I keep threatening to dig out the swimsuit and get to the pool. It's attached to the high school so they get first dibs on times and I have to figure out when I can fit it in.

I've made a start. That's the main thing. It feels a bit daunting at the moment, but it's like eating an elephant. You have to take it one bite at a time.

Happy New Year...

Thank you for the fun and friendship during 2012 - 

With love

Liz