The New Year

It began several weeks before Christmas. 

We all noticed it, even if we didn't acknowledge it.  It was there on the radio, on tv, in magazines...

The pressure to "lose weight in the New Year".

Bastards! 

As if I don't have enough to worry about this holiday season, you're already slamming me with images of skinny women who once weighed 300 pounds and now fit into a string bikini, infomercials about "the new revolution in home fitness", and endless runnings of Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and Nutri System promos.

I feel like going on strike!

I know I need to lose weight, and yes, jump-starting the process on January 1st would be a lovely idea if I didn't mind joining a class or going to a gym with all of the other "I'm so motivated to lose weight this year" people who will inevitably misplace their ambition sometime in March.

I don't want to participate in the cliched "New Year's resolution to lose weight".  I don't want to be one of the millions of people who misplace their motivation and rattle off excuse after excuse for why I didn't lose weight this year. 

Not me!  No way!

That being said, I DO want to make changes.  I DO want to lose weight this year.

But, I'm going to do it on my terms, and because I want to, not because everyone else is participating in the same half-baked plan to make this the year that we FINALLY lose the weight that we've been battling.