Have you made your resolutions for 2009? Mine were easy. I used the same from last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.<\/p>\n
My resolutions were probably the same that many of you have: exercise more, eat and drink less, and lose weight. In 2008 I actually accomplished that, dropping 20 pounds from one year ago today.<\/p>\n
Now my goal is to at least maintain that, and try to shed 10 more to get at my optimal fighting weight. That\u2019s a joke, folks, I\u2019m not a fighter, I\u2019m a lover!<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how I accomplished weight loss: I stopped playing competitive sports. I admit, that doesn\u2019t make much sense but allow me to explain.<\/p>\n
On my 55th birthday I decided to shut everything down. I was playing Masters basketball, and after having a ton of fun one game, I would go on the disabled list for the next few games. I was playing softball, and after having great times, tore a hand ligament that resulted in a $5K operation. That\u2019s not the 5K I enjoy. I loved playing golf, but after one round, I could hardly walk the next couple of weeks. <\/p>\n
Osteoarthritis suddenly entered my vocabulary. It\u2019s a bad word, especially for someone who has been so competitive and active for so long.<\/p>\n
For the next couple of years, I sulked. I wanted to run and walking seemed so lame and tame by comparison. I didn\u2019t do much except watch others play. I sat around and gained weight which only added to my knee and back problems.<\/p>\n
Then last year I decided to turn lemon into lemonade. I started taking regular three-mile walks. I started stretching and doing yoga. I adopted a no-alcohol Monday through Thursday policy. Ironically, I later discovered that people in Iceland love to drink, but only on weekends and there, anyone who drinks during the week is considered an alcoholic. Hmmm.<\/p>\n
I did not go on a diet per se but stopped pigging out like I used to do so often, especially on Sundays and at barbecues. <\/p>\n
It took a while but I realized that my body is like a car engine with 570,000 miles on it. Parts are wearing out. So reluctantly, I lifted my pedal off the metal and moved over to the slow lane. But now I\u2019m healthier than in a long time<\/p>\n
Another realization comes from the great Saipan exodus of 2008. Seems I have lost so many friends, either by them moving off-island or up to heaven, including my mother. <\/p>\n
Because of other tragedies, I am acutely aware of how short and precious life is, and try to make each day as pleasant and joyful for others as I possibly can. \u201cLove the one you\u2019re with\u201d is what Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang. I would amend that to, \u201cLove the ones you\u2019re with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bringing happiness to others for me is about as good as losing weight. They both make me feel good, and make me look forward to 2009. <\/p>\n
If you wish to borrow my resolutions, please go ahead. And yes, they are free, the best kind of resolutions. Oh yeah, that reminds me: in 2009 I\u2019m going to try to live as cheap as possible. How?By concentrating on doing things that don\u2019t cost anything, such as walking, eating less, and doing things for others. I got enough stuff already.<\/p>\n
Hope I can make it thru the year because I already have my resolutions lined up for 2010. You probably can guess what they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you made your resolutions for 2009? Mine were easy. I used the same from last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}