Resolution Reflections

I recently came across this article in the NY Times about how exercising willpower in one area of your life can in the short-term, negatively affect your ability to exercise it in other parts of your life, but in the long run will improve your willpower overall. While the article specifically references financial restraint with reference to the apparent economic meltdown happening south of the border, the results certainly apply to almost anything where willpower is involved.

Using my own recent New Years resolutions as an example, while eating apples and flossing regularly were initially the tasks I had the most success in completing regularly, my goal of blogging regularly fell sorely by the wayside. It wasn't until a couple of months later, once I was confident that eating healthy and flossing were a part of my regular routine was I able to start focusing on my blogging goals.

Sure, I'm not exercising as much as I was in January, but I'm also finding that I don't need to. Walking to and from work everyday is enough to maintain my goal weight and a pilates session once or twice a week tones everything else up to where I like it. The addition of long weekend walks and dancing lessons certainly means I get enough exercise to be considered "healthy", and I didn't even need to join a gym. I would still like to visit a yoga studio once a week, perhaps in lieu of my at-home pilates; as a way of multi-tasking on my goals for this year: stay fit & meet people.

This is certainly the best I've ever done at keeping new year's resolutions, but it is also the first time I have ever taken keeping resolutions so seriously. Obviously, moving across the country is a drastic way of rebooting your entire life, but I might as well take advantage of this opportunity, right?