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It's New Year's Eve, which means it's time to trot out the resolution. Which sort of goes against the whole party-like atmosphere surrounding the holiday. I mean, who the hell gets ready for a party by taking a hard look at themselves and listing all their foibles?
I got hung up on the word "resolution" before I started writing this post, mostly because a derivative of the word is the name of our national infertility association. I am a big supporter of Resolve and will be eternally grateful for the work they do and I think the name fits even though the infertility community has discussed ad nauseum whether or not one can actually resolve their infertility.
I think of the term coming from three separate roads that meld together to form one idea. The first is resolve in the gritting the teeth sense; firmly sticking to your decision ("she resolved to stop calling her nurse and asking her beta results two minutes after leaving the office"). The second is the definition we always debate--that idea of clearing up a problem ("she resolved her problems with her RE by switching clinics).
The last requires you to take apart the word: re-solve. "Re" as in "again," so to resolve is to return to the answer. Pull these three ideas together and Barbara Eck Menning had a brilliant naming strategy back in 1974.
The root of the word comes from the Middle English term for loosen, which is sort of a funny idea since for me, at least, resolution is about tightening and firming my loosey-goosey tendencies to fall into easy and not entirely helpful patterns.
Why this trip down etymology lane? I'm not entirely sure except that it's interesting to bring together the name of our infertility organization with what we promise to do every January 1st. Okay, back to that.
Within infertility, it's too easy to hold a lot of anger towards your body. It's too easy to put on weight during treatments and not be able to get rid of that weight after treatments. It is too easy to get frustrated because you do everything right and you still don't see the results you want to see.
Therefore, I have made my resolution body-focused. I'm going to work out for at least a half hour of cardio a day for 300 days this year and I'm using the Wii Fit to do it. I've been testing my resolution for two weeks now and I've stuck with it except for one day. I've even been going above and beyond that half hour limit, starting with a half hour run and then adding other games to keep it fun. My goal is to lose weight, but more than that, I simply want to use my body in another way. To do something that I can feel good about; that is within my control for the most part. If my goal is to do cardio for a half hour and I do cardio for a half hour, I've met my goal.
I think the key to a resolution is making it specific and stating it publicly. I announced it on my blog and even started a new fitness site (The Shrinking Ass) to chart my progress. I'm hooking up with other fitness bloggers who have made a similar resolution, and am forming a blogroll of them so I can have and give community support in our efforts. I stated it publicly because I want to be held to it; I need to have embarrassment as a driving factor. If I fail at my resolution this year, I'm going to fail publicly.
Gulp.
I posed the idea of resolutions on my blog and plenty of others stepped forward with their own ideas.
- Oh, the Possibilities is not going to weigh herself, but will chart progress for her very specific goals (instead of lose weight, she made one for "Obama arms") by taking her measurements every once in a while.
- Our Quest for Parenthood is promising to "complete one Random Act of Kindness each week for the duration of the year."
- Here We Go Again is going to stop putting off things and make a commitment to do them now.
- Little Steps to Baby Steps is going to start writing thank you cards.
- The Unfair Struggle is getting back in shape for speed skating.
- Parenthood
