The week before Christmas

Christmas kind of snuck up on me. It seems like only a few days ago that I was buying Halloween candy, and now I am wrapping presents.

Which got me thinking: Halloween was 50 days ago -- 7 weeks -- and if I had stuck to a diet, any diet, I could have been down a good chunk of weight. True to form I have been yo-yoing, and right now that yo-yo is is in the up position. I just admitted that the last seven weeks flew by, gone in a snap, and if I look at it that way, it should be easy to stay on a diet.

Ha!

On August 1, I signed my exercise contract with my friend, Ann, stipulating that I would exercise at least five times a week. We wrote up the contract, and one day after walking, grabbed a cup of coffee and signed our contracts. Sounds silly but it has worked beautifully. When we first signed the contract, we would report to each other daily the exercise we did to fulfill our contract. Sometime in September we both stopped our daily reporting, because exercise had become part of our life. Four days a week we meet at the mall and do a brisk 45 minutes around and around. The time flies. And we have to have a really good excuse not to make our early morning walking dates.

I also found yoga this year, and if I am not at Yoga4Everybody in Fairfield, I am in my meditation room, at the top of my house, practicing this ancient form I have come to love.

I did what experts have always preached: Find something you love, and you will stick with it. Exercise is now an important part of my day, and for that I am so very thankful. Before every practice, when I first sit on my mat, I say a prayer of thanks to God for guiding me to yoga. It has been life changing.

2010 has been my year of exercise. 2011 I will tackle eating. And I think I have a plan....