Happy New Year 2008!

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2008

with many dreams and wishes that come true!

Today is a day of resolutions and clean slates for a lot of people. My resolution this year is to eat and be healthier. I saw something interesting on TV about diets. It said that they have found that a major reason that dieters fail is guilt. Huh? I know, I was confused at first too. But it did get me to keep watching. When they started explaining, it began to make more and and more sense to me.

Guilt comes into play when you are on a diet and 'cheat' or eat something that you think should not be on you diet or plan. But if you forget the guilt and do things in moderation, you will have more success. For example, you are just dying for a cookie and give into your craving, even though chocolate chip cookies are not on your diet. So you scarf down the cookie so fast that you barely taste it because you haven't had cookies for a long time, and then you feel bad minutes or hours later. The trick is to erase the guilt and just enjoy the cookie. Make the decision to eat it and enjoy it and feel good about it.

This is because when you feel guilty, you think that you have failed. And you then decide that if you failed and ate one cookie, then you might as well make it worth your while and eat ten cookies. You reason with yourself and eat too many cookies and vow to go back on your diet the next day. The problem is that days turn to weeks and months. And then you have gained back all the weight and sometimes more and feel even worse about yourself.

I guess it is a new twist on moderation. Grab some healthy foods and then mix in a few of the not so healthy ones in every now and then. Throw in some exercise and you have a recipe for success. I know, easier said than done. And is does make sense to me. What doesn't make sense is how it is so easy for most people to gain weight but so hard for them to lose it. Sometimes life is just not fair!

Last night I tried to get Brian and Sean to yell Happy New Year. It took about ten takes for them to get it right. In some they were to quiet, in some they were not together, and in some they just fell down on the floor! I had to add one of the out-takes. They said it without any enthusiasm whatsoever. I just had to laugh.

All day long I am telling them to be quiet and not to make so much noise. Now I give them permission to yell and they don't take advantage of the opportunity. You can see in Take 1 that Sean starts to yell and then looks to Brian. He follows his brother's lead and lowers the volume of his voice. For Take 2 you might want to lower the volume - they are yelling so loud that it is hard to understand what they are saying.

Party Dog

my boys!

Happy New Year - Take 1

Take 2