Resolutions, Diets, Inspiration and Laughter… oh my!

Did you know that almost every day of the year has something special assigned to it? Most of these “holidays” and observances are unknown to most of us. For example, February 28, 2014 is National Pancake Day. This coming Saturday (January 4, 2014) is National Spaghetti Day.

There are also weekly and monthly observances. Bald Eagle Appreciation Day are January 18th & 19th this month. February is Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month and March 25th through the 29th is Termite Awareness Week.

Raise your hand if you celebrate Termite Awareness Week?

It would be very interesting to learn about how these observances began and how others got on board with it. Is it easy to do? Can I declare May 1st as National Love a Blogger Day? LOL!

I did a little research and found some observances for this upcoming week.

New Year’s Resolutions Week is January 1st to January 4th. I think most people are on board with this one. After all, the New Year is when most people declare that they are going to eat healthier, stop smoking, get more organized and better their life.

I don’t make resolutions. I used to but I stopped doing that years ago. I felt like resolutions don’t life up to all the hype. Instead I set goals for myself for the New Year. I realize goals and resolutions are the same thing. I just find it easier to accept the term goals more so than resolutions. I see things differently when I label it a goal rather than a resolution. Resolutions to me are “fluff”. Goals are more “meaty” and have ore meaning behind them. At least in my opinion.

I would list my goals in this post, but I’m still trying to hash them out and select my top five. Right now I have a lot of possible goals. Too many is not good. Having too many is only going to set me up to fail. Instead I need to pick out 3-5 realistic goals and stick with them.

Do YOU have any resolutions for the New Year? Feel free to share them with me in the comments section. Sometimes writing things down help you feel more obligated to see them through. It makes you accountable for your actions.

It’s seems fitting that January 1st through January 7th is Diet Resolution Week. I HATE the word “diet”, don’t you?

I have been on almost every diet imaginable – Slim Fast, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Optifast, Cabbage Soup Diet, Atkins, Special K, laxatives, starvation, exercising like a crazy person, binging and purging… there is nothing I haven’t tried. I even have weight loss surgery (Roux En Y). I lost almost 200 pounds in two years but gained back weight when I got pregnant. I’ve been 100 pounds overweight for the past 17 years.

Don’t get me wrong, many of these diet plans (Slim Fast, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Atkins…) ARE GREAT. Most offer delicious foods and much needed support. The problem is that once you go off them chances are you’ll gain back some of the weight (if not all) that you lost. No one can live on pre-packaged foods for the rest of your life. You need to learn to eat in the “real world”.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the fundamentals of losing weight – Make healthier food choices, watch your portion size, drink plenty of water and exercise. That’s it! That is what you need to do.

I tell my kids all the time they CAN have Oreo cookies, but it’s better to have two and not six. They CAN have ice cream every day, just have a little bit and there is no need to drown the ice cream in candy, cookies and chocolate syrup.

I feel blessed that my kids will often opt for raw baby carrots instead of cookies or chips when they get home from school. Or grab a yogurt instead of candy. I’m not saying they don’t enjoy chips, cookies and candy. They do. They just know that they need to balance the “bad stuff” with the “good stuff”.

I’m obese. I don’t eat bag full of chips and a ton of candy and soda. I just make wrong choices, I don’t watch my portions and I hate to exercise. I would rather have a bowl of cheese tortellini with butter and black pepper than a cupcake or slice of cake. What I SHOULD make is a salad and grilled chicken or tuna. I’m just lazy. It’s easier for me to boil water and toss in some tortellini.

As for exercise – I hate it! Walking is fine but other than that I hate to exercise. We do have a gym in our condo complex that my teenagers use a few times per week. I SHOULD go with them, or go during the day when they are at school. Bu do I? No. I need to change that. “Moving” is one of my goals. I can’t sit at my desk all day long and no move.

An interesting observance this week (January 2nd to January 8th) is Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week. There is a Facebook page set up for this week (I’m sorry but I can’t find the link – I did see it earlier today).

My husband was just at the Cardiologist a few days ago. He sees one every six month because heart disease runs in his family. His father died of a heart attack, as did his older brother. His mom had heart disease and had many surgeries as a result (she died from Pancreatic Cancer, not a heart aliment).

The reason why my husband went in to see the Cardiologist before his six month check up is because he was having an argument with our 16 year old daughter (teenagers, as you know, can be such a “joy” at times – mean sarcastically of course). He actually broke out into a sweat and had a tight feeling in his chest. The Cardiologist examined him and found him to be in great health. He said the tightness he felt was his esophagus spasming due to the stress of the heated argument.

What it boiled down to is that my husband is overly stressed out between parenting teenagers, his job, money worries and a few other things. The Cardiologist and I discussed with my husband ways to de-stress and how he needs to not freak out over the littlest thing. I have seen vein pop out of his head when the cat pukes on the floor or if the dog needs to go out late at night. These are not things that he should stress about.

Stress is a response to things seen as a physical or psychological threat. The cat throwing up is not something that would be seen as a physical or psychological threat, but our body and minds are weird and some how my husband’s body feels it’s a threat and he reacts by getting stressed out. It’s also due to a feeling of not having control over the situation.

The doctor told him he needs to “find his happy place” (to quote the doctor and Finding Nemo). Some place where he can mentally travel to when he’s feeling stressed to help him to calm down. He’s still working on finding such a place in his mind.

I also told him to “be a duck“. Duck’s feathers are some what waterproof. Water just rolls off of them. I want the things that would normally stress my husband out to just “roll” off of him. I also told him he needs to pick and choose what to stress about. Getting stressed out because we have no money to hold us over to the next paycheck IS a reason to stress out – stressing out because someone spilled a glass of water on the floor is not.

It has been proven that laughter has health benefits too. Some experts say it can help you to live longer. Laughter improves both your physical and mental health.

Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week is meant to remind people that they need to find more laughter in their lives, even if it means finding laughter in situations might not seem funny when they are happening.

Have you ever been in a situation where at the time it was not funny, but days, weeks or years later when you look back on it you some how find humor in the situation? That is what is meant by Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week – find humor in every situation.

What do you think about these “weeks”? Now that you know about them do you think you’ll participate in them?

What is the weirdest observation week/day/month that you have ever heard of?

Feel free to share your thoughts.