I have a sick that can be controlled by diet and which had gotten out of control because I had gotten lazy and sloppy. I partnered with a friend of mine who wanted to eat better herself, and we did a full week cooking challenge last week. We both thought it was a raging success and are thinking of doing it monthly. I feel 85% better than I did before, too.

I have also made slight but meaningful progress on my “learn enough to teach this darn class I got myself committed to this summer” goal by setting goals like “read these three articles this week” level goals.

And finally, in order to reinfuse my knitting life, I took on two projects for two friends and agreed to teach four co-workers to knit at lunch time.

I’m actually feeling really optimistic about 2010, and I love my resolution.

The resolutions I find work the best are simple, practical, and can be broken down into a series of smaller steps. A common one for me is “get my finances in order,” which usually involves paying off holiday bills, filing my taxes, getting (and hopefully keeping) my credit card balance paid down, and at some point during the year, meeting with a financial advisor to go over my investment strategies. Oh yeah, and dumping that tax refund straight into my savings account before I’m tempted to spend it on something frivolous.

I’ve also made resolutions about things like staying in better contact with my far-flung friends, even if it’s just to send them the occasional email to ask how they’re doing. This is the sort of thing that has more immediate results than a six-month plan to lose 20 pounds, or a five-year plan to save a down payment for a condominium.

Perhaps because my life has always revolved around a school calendar (literally since age six), “new year” to me is always the Wednesday after Labor Day, and when it comes to diet or exercise resolutions, I find that’s the best time of year to begin. The worst of summer’s heat/ humidity is generally over, winter weather is still three or four months away, and there’s still plenty of daylight. I find I have much less need to eat for warmth/ energy/ comfort (or in the case of summer, ice cream to stay cool, LOL!). An added bonus is that when the bad weather does finally hit, my exercise program is now habit, and I’ve begun to see enough results so that I’m motivated to stick with the program and do more. And if I lose a day or two due to bad weather, it’s no problem at all getting back into the swing of things when the snow stops and the roads are open.

Two years ago, in the September after my fortieth birthday, I made what for me was a very, very scary decision to join a master’s swimming class that was starting up in the club where I work out. I had been lap swimming for years, but the thought of working out with other people was daunting. But the class was free for gym members, and I basically made myself attend the first few classes. I loved it immediately, even though the workouts were difficult and I felt intimidated by the better swimmers in the class. Flash forward two and a half years later, and I’ve just completed my second “hour swim” (it’s a national event, where you swim nonstop for one hour), covering 3220 yards (that’s roughly 1.8 miles). I was gobsmacked to realized I’d covered more yards than a woman in the class who is a competitive triathlete and who completed her first Ironman this past summer!

So maybe the problem with the new year is that it’s in January. If you like resolutions, try making them at another time of year–the results may surprise you!