New Year's Resolutions - Lose 20 pounds

Well, it's been a few days since I posted my initial thoughts on New Year's resolutions and while I'm not completely set, this resolution is set.  I had a good 2011 with a 20 pound loss.  I had hoped to reach my ultimate weight goal by the end of the year, but it was not to be.  But this year?  Yup.  It's meant to be.

My goal is to lose the last 20 pounds.  I'll be honest, I would love to lose 30, but I really want to reach 20 pounds this year.  When I lose these 20 pounds, I will re-assess.  I may hit my 20 pound goal and be completely happy with it and not care about those other 10 pounds.  If so, fabulous!  But, if at that re-assessment I think another 5-10 pounds would be good, then I'm going for it. 

I have confidence that I can reach my 20 pound goal this year being I lost 20 last year.  Sure, I could have focused more and lost more, but it is what it is and I'm happy with those 20 pounds.  No sense in spending time regretting what I didn't do.  I'm going to focus on being happy with losing those 20 and building on that.  20 pounds in a year is totally doable.  No reason I can't reach my goal weight this year. 

I'm still working out how I'm going to do it, but here are my tentative thoughts:

1. Continue using Weight Watchers Points program (not PointsPlus).  I've had good success with this and see no reason to try something new.  Go with what works.  I've lost a total of 55 pounds since 1999 almost all of it with WW.  Why change?

2. Run.  That seems obvious if you've been following along for any length of time, but sometimes I get in a funk and don't run for weeks.  I need to focus on continuing my running routine even when I don't feel like doing it.  Last year I had two months where I ran a total of 5 miles the whole month.  Uhhh...yea.  Gotta work on that.

3. Gym membership?  Considering joining the YMCA.  I have always said you do not need a gym membership to lose weight.  You can do it with what you have at home or what you can do on your own.  And I stand by that.  But, I'm having some motivational issues and thinking a Y membership might help me get moving.  There are some good classes being offered, they have a pool, and more cardio equipment than I have access to at home.  And the one thing that I think would help is the Y is a 5 minute walk from work.  There would be no excuse for not doing my weekday runs.  Still debating this.  Though I may be leaning more towards it than away.

4. Water. I really need to up my water in-take.  When I started at the Archives I was unable to keep a water bottle at my desk.  I think I can now, so I need to up the water intake this year.  Sadly, it doesn't help keep me full (like people always say it does), but I if I'm going to focus on my running and a possible gym membership I need to say hydrated.

As the year goes on, I'm sure I'll find new ways to help myself reach my 20 pound goal, but for now those are my action items.  It's possible I could reach my goal by summer.  What a great way to greet the season of shorts and tank tops!