This New Year My Resolution is Not To Resolve.

I don't know about you, but every year I seem to make the same resolutions on December 31st, and by January 31st they're normally long gone.

Last December my resolution was to clear all the junk out of S's room so that she could eventually sleep in there...  And here we are, a couple of weeks before the end of the year, and there is literally no chance of her being able to sleep in there any time soon!

I was also going to do all the usual giving up of junk, exercising, eating healthily... and here I am, in December, munching on some chocolate in my tracksuit bottoms, as fat as I've ever been.

According to a recent survey by Ladbrokes Bingo, 55% of people aren't even bothering to make a resolution this year; probably because the same survey found that 57% of people make resolutions that don't make it past March! 

That's a bit shocking when you think about it, isn't it. My own experience though, is that  if you decide upon some spartan diet where you only eat four flax seeds and a mung bean each day, and you give up coffee and chocolate and cola and crisps and run ten miles every morning at 6am, you do really well at it for about a week. And then your desire for normal food takes control of your body, and your desire for a nice long sleep without aching limbs takes control of your alarm clock - and that is that.

I need to be around for a lot more moments like this one!

So this year, my plan is not to make a New Year's resolution. My plan is to make a fundamental change in my life. Having S has made me realise I really need to firstly be a good roll model to her where things like diet, exercise and body image/confidence are concerned; but also, I need to actually be fit and healthy so that I'm here to see her grow up and have children. My family are notoriously unsupportive of each other, and I don't want to leave her all alone in the world at a young age just for the sake of a few breakfast McMuffins and some fizzy pop.

So this will not be a New Year's resolution. It is a change. The next couple of weeks is my last hurrah before I grow up and start taking proper responsibility for myself, my health and my wellbeing. I've already posted that I'll be starting Primordial Sound Meditation shortly; I'm also committed to a weekly "beat" on the Yahoo Contributor Network about my diet and exercise in the New Year, and have roped in my good friend Simon (who helped me with this post) to help with the exercise side of things. With regard to my diet, I know from previous (painful) experience that there is no point in saying I'm going to give up my Costas or my Coca Cola. So I'm just going to moderate them, and instead of cutting out other things, tell myself I can only have cake, chocolate, biscuits or other junk once I've eaten my 5 a day that day, or I can only have a fizzy soft drink once I've had my 2 litres of water.

Watch this space... I'm bound to be on here waxing lyrical - or moaning - about it all!

Disclaimer: This post was written in collaboration with Ladbrokes Bingo.