All years resolutions

After the past 18 months becoming a runner, dropping 20kg and basically turning my whole life upside down, I have decided that I don't get why anyone would wait unti new years to make a resolution. I wonder If anyone has studied the ratio of made resolutions vs broken/kept ones.

Anyway that aside I have a new goal which is to get my weight under 80kg. This would put me at a healthy weight according to a BMI index.

I also find it curious that BMI is so widely used. Personally I think it's a load of crap. It's a system that was developed over 100 years ago which plots height against weight to come up with (generally) 4 ranges. They are obese, overweight, healthy weight, underweight. I guess as a general rule of thumb this works.

My goal is a little different though, I don't really care what my BMI is, I just want for the first time in my adult life to be in the 70s for my weight.

The other oddity about this goal is that I started running because I was sick of trying to lose weight. Dieting and all that crap takes it's toll on you after a long time. The difference now is that I am healthy eating because it will ultimately help my running.

The other great motivator is the fact that around christmas my wife and I were looking at some old photos from Christmas last year, and some older ones.

I cannot believe the difference 20kgs makes to me. Even at this time last year when I had been running for about 6 months I was still big. My mental image of myself still sees the big belly I had. However after seeing these photos it's clear that my mental image has it's clock set about 2 years in the past.



I guess I notice the lack of bulk the most when I am doing active stuff. For example, riding my bike to the station doesn't make me sweat heaps anymore, when I play with the kids in the pool I can swim really fast, and I feel like I am swimming on top of the water not dragging through it. Also while on holidays I played golf, and the difference my weight loss made to my golf was huge (not in my score unfortunately) I was able to walk around 9 holes and not feel like I needed a sleep which is always a bonus :)

Seeing the old photos made me feel sick, that I had let myself go that far, that I had not made the right descisions earlier. But mostly it made me glad that my kids will have their daddy as they grow up, because I have made the right descisions now.

So I guesss what I'm trying to say is, don't wait for new years to make resolutions. Resolve to make positive change when it's needed.