This Year, I'll...

I've never been a fan of resolutions. Perhaps that is the internal contrarian in me creeping up, but I just always felt that making resolutions for the new year was a bit arbitrary. I suppose it's as good a time as any, but why not resolve to make a situation better when you see that it needs to improve rather than wait for a set date to roll around?

Of course, that contradicts my love of Christmas and the arbitrarily imposed date to give your loved ones gifts, but whatever. I'm so contrarian I can even contradict myself! That's hard core ;)

Last year I had a resolution to lose weight. It wasn't a new year's resolution, per se, because I made that resolution in October, but I did decide that it was time I drop about 45 pounds. Over the course of the year I made that resolution come true and I'm proud as hell of myself for that.

So it's time for a new goal, and since it is now around that time of year that others tend to make resolutions, I may as well do the same.

Trying New Foods And *gasp* Seafood

I've never considered my palette to be bland, but there are just some things that I refuse to eat. Namely anything that swims or lives in the water should not touch my plate. I'm not sure where my aversion to seafood came from, but it's about time to put it to test and see if the dislike is all in my head or if I just really don't like water creatures.

Lately I've discovered that I enjoy tuna, and not just canned tuna. We had a tuna appetizer at our wedding last summer and it was delicious, so there's a start. And I've started to realize that crab meat is pretty good as well. So with those two realizations, perhaps there are other sea-dwelling thingies that I might enjoy just as much?

Besides, most sea foods are pretty healthy. I need to expand my proteins beyond chicken, turkey and peanuts. What better way than with some of the leaner sea critters?

Get Out And Socialize

I've never been a particularly social creature. I love spending time with and around people, just like anyone else, but I'm perfectly happy spending time with my husband as my social outlet. That's not a bad thing, per se, but I've noticed that for me that has also meant less effort in maintaining other friendships, be they close or just casual acquaintances.

I can be very social when I decide to be. When I decide to put on the social face and get out and meet people, I'm pretty good at it. But I haven't been putting as much effort into that part of me lately, and I'm worried that perhaps I'm isolating myself. So it's time that I step up my efforts and make amends with anyone I might have offended and start trying to forge new friendships as well.

That's All Folks

Keeping it simple and manageable, I'm sticking with these two ideas. It's easy enough to force myself to try new foods and with my husband's social senses helping us stay in sync with the outside world, I think these are achievable goals.

So here's to a new year and new beginnings!