Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I don't know if anyone is out there, because I don't have any comments, but I guess I'll just blog on.  I've been trying to think of a new year's resolution, and I'm not very good at keeping resolutions.  The only time I really follow through with something is under the threat of a doctor--like when I quit smoking in '99.  I'd made the resolution to quit every New Years for years and years, but I never kept the resolution.  Finally, I got bronchitis that would not respond to any antibiotics, and my doctor told me I was killing myself.  So I quit on April Fools Day.  It was probably the hardest thing I ever did besides losing my mother.

Within two years, however, I had gained over fifty pounds.  And every year my resolution was to lose fifty pounds.  My doctor kept saying at least I was healthy.  Then, two years ago I was having difficulty breathing, and I was diagnosed with C.O.P.D.  I only knew that was something they advertised lots of drugs for on the commercials during the evening news.  Besides using a couple of different inhalers and a couple of prescriptions, my new doctor, a pulmonoligist, told me that I really needed to lose weight.  He said I was basically carrying around a twenty-pound bag of potatoes resting on my lungs.  So, last year I made the resolution, for about the eighth year, to lose fifty pounds.  I had tried all kinds of diets, Weight Watchers, low carbohydrate, starvation, etc. but always ended up gaining back any weight I had lost.

So, I made the resolution to lose fifty pounds.

And I made it half way.  I lost twenty five.  I didn't follow any special diet; I just quit eating so much.  I did give up drinking coffee loaded with cream and sugar, two cups in the morning and two in the evening, and I quit buying gallons of ice cream every week.  I eat what I want, but in moderation.  I definitely have a sweet tooth, so I buy Tootsie Roll Pops (only the red ones--I get lots of strange looks digging through the bin at ShopnSave for the cherry ones) and Lemon Heads. 

The nicest thing about losing the weight was getting out my winter clothes this fall and having them be too big.  That hadn't happened in years--they just kept getting tighter and tighter.  My goal is to be able to wear a swimming suit this year.  Our whole family goes to Gulf Shores every year, and I haven't worn a swim suit since I gained so much weight.  One of my granddaughters told me that she and her dad had been discussing why I didn't ever go swimming, and decided that I must be afraid of the water and not know how to swim.  I just laughed and told her I didn't swim because I was too fat to wear a swim suit.  I promised her I would wear one this year.

So...this year I will lost the other twenty five pounds...that is my New Year's resolution.