By Jeff Salisbury https://misterjournalism.wordpress.com/

Thought about making any resolutions for 2016? You know, most resolutions turn into excuses within days or weeks or months. Don’t make any resolutions you already know you cannot keep until first you decide what do you want out of your life.

And, as Dr. Eric “ET” Thomas, MSU alum and education professor says in this short video…  that’s what you can do… earn each day, week, month, year. Earn it for yourself. Not for anyone else.

As Thomas says, you owe yourself that much. No excuses.

Then wake up every day, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, waking up and going after it… whatever IT is.

You owe yourself at least that much… to know what you want for your life… not just for 2016, but for the rest of your life… day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year for as many days, weeks, months and years as you can earn for yourself.

Know what you want.

What do you want in your life? What do you want out of your life?

In your relationships? In your family? In your job and career? In your health?

My resolution, which I made a few months ago was, at this stage of my life (I turned 67 in November) was health related… to be as healthy as I can be by never again being an “unconscious eater” – to be conscious of and completely understand that “I am what I eat” and when I looked at myself and my weight and my overall health I really had become what I was eating.

I’ve been overweight and on all sorts of medications most all of my adult life. Part of me had resigned myself to being husky as boy, big and tall as a man. Big boned – what a joke. What a loser I’d become. I had my own culture of being a loser and not a winner. I had all sorts of excuses for myself. I let myself down over and over again, when I deserved better for myself.

But after watching two videos – Dr. Eric Thomas (educator, motivational speaker) and Dr. William Davis (cardiologist and Wheat Belly Diet author) I resolved that I wanted to wake up everyday being conscious of what I was going to put into my body whether I was making my own meal, eating something someone made for me or ordering a meal in a restaurant. For me it all starts with a formula for my health… “grains-be-gone + sugar-be-gone = weight be gone” … and as it turns out “meds-be-gone” too!

Weight in August: almost 280. Weight in January: almost 240.

Days consecutively walked: 62 as of New Year’s morning.

Plus I am off one prescription and a second one my doctor cut in half. I’d like to be off everything related to my hypertension before 2016 is over. Two down. Two to go.

Oh, and I started going for a walk everyday. I started Nov. 1. Came as part of an online (Facebook) challenge. The day before my birthday.

Every day for the month of November. As far as I could make it. Now I am easily doing 30-35 minutes per. About two miles give or take. Not at first, mind you. At first it was maybe 15 minutes. Maybe. I’d walk uptown, get as far as my son Mike’s insurance agency office. Rest a bit. Chat up him and his sister, my daughter Shelly. Then head home.

Now, usually take a longer route to get there and a longer route home. And some days I just clip right along – bundled up – heavy coat, scarf, hat, mittens, sturdy walking boots – umbrella if necessary. And off I go. Outdoors. Indoors. I am fortunate to have a treadmill. That’s helped me out a couple times. But I’ve also walked inside a shopping mall and once inside one of our school buildings.

I’ve even arrived early to pick up my grandchildren at the high school and walked AROUND the school rather than just sit in the car. Even went around the school track and then back to my car in the parking lot before the final school bell rang and beat them to the car.

I had to drive downtown Grand Rapids to tickets at the GR Symphony box office and parked several blocks away from my destination. And I took the stairs instead of the elevator. You can do the same by parking farther away from the front door of the grocery story. Just push the grocery cart farther, that’s all. Besides, it will be easier to remember where you parked your car too! Or at a shopping mall. Or an office building.

I figure I’ve EARNED the right to take better care of myself.

Heck, most of my life I took better care of my automobiles than I have myself. Never missed an oil change. Always kept my filters cleaned. Hard-earned money on my car payments and preventive maintenance too. And that’s what you can do… EARN each day, week, month, year. Really. Earn it. You owe yourself that much.

Don’t make ANY resolutions until you know what you want for yourself. Just do the work – as “ET” says, do the “grind” – demand the most of yourself and stop letting yourself down – do what you know you need to do.

It’s the only way to truly make your new year happy.

I owed me… you owe you.

Video clip here: DR. ERIC THOMAS | YOU OWE YOU  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oxz060iedY