How many of you have New Year Resolutions? How far do you succeed in it?

Hi bewitched..I, like you, dont usually make resolutions. This year however, I am. I am a recent grad of culinary school and have literally cooked and baked my way through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Actually I started 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, testing stuffing recipes and different methods of roasting the turkey. I made everthing from scratch and after Thanksgiving, continued cooking and testing for Christmas. I am not a baker, by any means, but decided that, due to financial constraints this year, I would bake cookies and things to give as gifts. I tried many different cookies and failed drastically.(see my post titled I am a cookie failure) So each day it was back to the drawing board and try try again. I have made dozens of cookies and other treats and naturally have to taste everything. Then I got into custards, which I love, and started making different recipes to find a great one. Again, taste taste taste!! What I am getting to here is that I have gained about 10 lbs since early Thanksgiving and I dont like it. I am usually a size 7/8 and right now cant even zip my jeans. SO...my resolution is to join a gym and loose the weight as quickly as possible. I am also resolving to start eating really healthy again and there will be no heavy cream recipes, no custards and definately no cookies. I love to cook. It is my passion. Its just so hard to maintain weight when this is what you do. I dont mind exercizing so am hoping to have good results by going to a gym every morning. I think I will go at 5am as that is when it opens and get it over with early in the day. Dont know if I will keep this resolution, but I'm sure going to try. I figure the first week will be the hardest but then hopefully I'll get into the swing of it as well as the swing of eliminating foods high in fat and calories. I will still cook everday, I have to, but it will be a different kind of cooking that I hope will be just as enjoyable. I'll let you know how I'm doing at the end of January..Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year to you and yours..also,,Eat to your hearts content during the holidays..thats what its all about..good food, family and togetherness..

My New year Resolution is that I have decided to shed some of my excess weight and control my temper in the future. I hope I am successful in the two new ventures which I have targeted for the forth coming year. Wish you too a Happy Xmas and New Year.

Hi bewitched, I am like you; I don't make any new year resolution because I know if I make any it is just for breaking. So better to live the life as it comes. We can do good things without making a resolution. There is no need of any time frame for looking back and make necessary changes in our life if it needs. It is true people are just making many resolutions at the beginning of the year and forgetting about the same before ending the first month. Have a nice day and prosperous New Year.

I think your system of not making any special resoultions is smart...that way, there's no pressure if you have trouble sticking to it! Personally, I can't seem to decide if I should make such a resolution or not...there's positives & negatives to this decision. It's one thing to get all charged up and prepare a list of 'things I will/will not do this new year' but it's quite another to see it through. However, I've found that when resolutions are shared with friends, they are a lot easier to honour. Since I haven't yet found a friend to share a resolution with me for 2010, I think I will adopt your policy of no new year's resolutions , and just take each day as it comes... Happy New Year to you too!

I am also in the same league of not making any of those resolutions but at the same moment I feel that I should have to over come some of my bad habit like not getting up early in the morning and so on and on through out the year and thereby I found myself that another New Year is knocking on my thought door,hence as a matter of fact I keep on fighting with my inner-self and the years passes by. I do not believe on making a resolution rather we should act upon it from day one and hope for the best.

My New Year's Resolution is to not make a New Year's Resolution for the next year. I find that I can follow this one easily. More seriously, years ago, I used to make New Year's Resolutions but I could never follow them. I think the most I've gotten is two, maybe three months before I've folded. I've found that I'm not alone in this situation.