Happy New Year! As usual, I am considering the same resolutions as I have for the past few years. I guess I'm not very creative (or very well-motivated).

My main concern is, as it has been every year, weight loss. I weighed myself before we left for our Christmas vacation, and I was sitting at about 200 lbs (25 lbs heavier than my last successful run at weight loss, three years ago). The scale at my in-laws' has had me at about 195, but I don't know how that compares to my scale at home, so I'll have to wait (weight?) a few more days until we return to know whether the holiday has been particularly damaging. I've tried to be good.

Anyway, as I am well out of the weight ranges for my kayaks, and we have an annual paddling trip coming up in the middle of March that will require me to spend quite a bit of time in my boat and a lot of winter paddling gear for multiple days in a row, I'll need to lose as much weight as possible and get in much better shape so I can survive the trip. That trip will be March 12-15, which is pretty much exactly 10 weeks from today. I'd love to get 20 lbs off by then. It will mean being pretty dedicated to the two-a-day workouts that I was so good at several years ago. It will also mean being much more careful with what and how much I eat, something I've NEVER been very good at.

I'm also motivated to lose the weight so I can get off the blood pressure and heartburn medications I've been taking for several years now. My blood pressure is a bit high, not horrible but certainly not great since I'm only 34. And the heartburn thing is a pain in the butt--I take Prilosec OTC daily and it does a pretty good job, but it would be so much nicer if I didn't have to deal with it at all. If I can shed some weight, I should be able to do away with the daily meds. That would be nice.

The rest of my resolutions are as they always are: get more organized, keep my house cleaner, do a better job at keeping up with my school stuff...pretty typical, all of it.

So anyway, Happy New Year to one and all. I hope everyone has a safe, prosperous, joy-filled 2009. And...we're off!