The Further Adventures of Deluzy: A New Year: Resolutions for 2008

Health and Wellness

The Google 15
An excellent weight-tracking tool that keeps track of your moving weight average over time so that no single weigh-in is a cause for ecstacy or despair.
Understanding Your Tests
A good preliminary resource for understanding your lab work (though of course it's no substitution for discussing results with your doctor)
FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal
An essential tool for me during my first 6 post-op months -- and a good reality check for anyone keeping track of daily food intake (e.g., calories, fats, carbohydrates, etc.) and activity levels
Gmaps Pedometer
A wonderful tool that allows one to map exercise routes and calculate miles covered and calories burned

Products

Low Carb Corner
As near as I can tell, this site sells nothing but two kinds of breakfast cereal -- but as one who's avoided cereal since my DS surgery because it contains virtually no protein and far too many carbs, Protein Crunch is a wonderful option (i.e., 27 grams protein, 2 net grams carbs). It's horrifyingly expensive but for WLS cereal lovers, it's worth the occasional splurge.
Perfectly Sweet
Expensive but excellent source for sugar-free and no-sugar-added bakery and candy items.
Pure Protein RTD shakes
At an average of 35 grams of protein, 3 grams of carbs, and 160 calories, these ready-to-drink shakes work for me because I can chill them, grab them, pack them, and go. Available from a variety of online sources or at GNC stores.
Spanx
A line of comfortable foundation garments (and even easy-to-pack clothing) that comes in handy post-op to corrale that wayward, formerly obese flesh and make you feel comfortable. Available online, at Lane Bryant in larger sizes, at Nordstrom in smaller sizes, and sometimes at outlets for less.

Sometimes I get into making resolutions for the new year and sometimes I do not. This year I guess I have.

You'll note that my resolutions for 2008 (stated below, in no particular order) are pretty self-specific goals, and that's primarily because I have the power to manage my own behavior but not that of others. I can't force other people's choices or feelings about me or my work, about our friendships or relationships, or the way in which events unfold on a national, international, or global scale (though I believe profoundly in the power of the individual to Make a Difference in all spheres).

What I've tried to do below is to limit my resolutions (three would be ideal in my book, but I see I have six -- oh well), and to formulate them not in terms of desired outcomes but rather as specific, concrete actions. That way I can measure success as I go along and feel a sense of accomplishment in the present moment of the doing, rather than in a single, cumulative moment that judges outcomes purely on the end product, produced in some future.

They're deceptively simple.

Watch one film a week that I haven't seen before. By the end of the year, my film literacy will have increased by at least 52 titles.

Use my Netflix membership. This resolution is tied to the one above. Double or nothing.

Walk at least 10,000 steps a week. It's not much in the world of physical activity -- but it's doable and certainly better than nothing.

Write daily. Blog, Morning Pages, or academic writing -- it doesn't matter which.

Write 10 hours a week, minimum (during school terms), in research and theory. This is in addition to the writing mentioned above.

Eat healthily to maintain my goal weight at 159 or below. I've been doing this for the past 8 months. Time for more of the same.

And the last is not so much a resolution but a set of daily reminders or mantras for myself that I've been consciously using for the past year or so -- and from them everything else follows for me:

Breathe. Stay present. Step away from pathology.

As I said, deceptively simple. Doable. And yes, I will do them.

May 2008