New Year's Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions beyond "I really should work at loosing weight this year." Certainly nothing formal. But I think I shall resolve to work at eating healthily and incorporating exersize into my everyday life. I have a friend who's joined a nearby Curves, and she's pushing me to go (with my encouragment, I need pushes!). So she's going on Wednesday when the kids are back to school, and I think I will join her.

Read an interesting article today, can't remember the magazine, though. It was talking about how we really have three parts to our brains - the totally unconcious automatic controls (heartrate, breathing), the basic part we share with all other animals, and our "higher conciousness". She called the basic part the "bunny" brain, and said one of the reasons we so often fail at changing our behavior is that we scare the bunny. Habits are deeply ingrained in that part of the brain, so it takes real effort and slow steps to change that. That's why you can resolve to go jogging at 5am every morning, but when the alarm goes off, the animal part of your brain says, "it's cold, it's dark, I'm going back to sleep." So if we really want to change, we have to do it in ways that the bunny brain can accept.

Don't know if it's true, but it's an interesting idea. I guess it ties in with using positive reinforcement on ourselves. I'll try to find the article again and put in any useful suggestions she has.