Nutritional Goals 2010

I hope that the new year is finding your refreshed and rejuvenated. I know the holidays are always a hectic time for us. December is full of friends, family, cookies, parties, a birthday, and Christmas and New Year's weekends spent with both sides of the family. It can be easy to feel like there's more to be done than time to do it. And it can be easy to over induge in all the treats of the sason.

Which is why I find January to be refreshing. Sure I'm still recovering from the holidays. But after a month of craziness, I find it comforting to return to the nutritional jolt that a new year often brings. It's like a reminder that cookies and chocolate aren't the only food groups in the pyramid.

So that's why I'm making nutritional goals this time of year. Notice I say "goals," not "resolutions." "The word "resolution" carries with it a sense of succeed or fail, do it or don't. Resolutions are impossible expectations that when broken once are simply abandoned.

Rather, I'm setting some goals for the next year. Habits and change are slow to develop. But once accomplished, they can last a lifetime. That's the kind of change I want to see in my life in the next year.

Therefore, the following are my Nutritional Goals for 2010:

1. Expand my gardening skills--Last year, we had some successes and and some failures. Tomatoes were a huge success, despite the fact that they were in my neighbor's yard. Lettuce, on the other hand, failed miserabely due to over love by a 1 and 3 year olds. This year, I want to go back to these favorites, try again, and include a few more. There's nothing quite like home-grown fruits and vegetables, both in nutrition and taste.

2. Learn more about sprouting legumes and grains--This was one of my goals last year and I must confess that I failed miserably. I'm hoping to learn more about the why's as well as the how's.

3. Incorporate two seafood based dishes into our diet each month--My husband and I have always loved seafood and now we're hoping to pass on that same love to our children. From what I've been researching Omega 3 has so many wonderful benefits. I plan to try new ideas and post our successes and failures as they come. Hopefully this will help my readers find family friendly ideas as well.

4. Learn more about the health benefits of herbs--I have two herb books on my reading list this year and I'm excited to learn about the health benefits that are so readily available through them. I'm hoping to also grow some of the more common herbs in our garden so they are easily accessible to our kitchen.

5. Research Sourdough and experiment with a homemade recipe--I keep seeing homemade sourdough on all these nutritional sites, but I have yet to truly understand the benefit. This year I will.

6. Track exercise and eating for one month--This was not something I planned on doing this year. But as I've seen one pound after another pile on, I've decided it's time to make a change. So just a few days ago, I wandered onto the Fitness Magazine website and found a great Fitness Tracker. I'm committed to tracking my progress for one month, in hopes that I'll see a difference and be committed for longer. My goal is to take of the weight I've put on in the past year.

Now it's your turn. What are you committing to this year in the area of nutrition? How do you want to see you and your family's health improved this year? Where do you want to begin making changes?

Remember these simple guidelines I posted last week? Writing down and share your own goals is one of the simpliest and easiest ways to help you stay committed to them.

To participate, blog about your goals on your own blog, link to this post, and then leave a link on Mr. Linky below! Here's to a healthy blogging community in the new year.