Resolutions

This will be my last post of the year, so I figured this would be a good time to discuss New Year's Resolutions. They're interesting, really. And I guess the biggest benefit of making promises to one's self to improve at this particular time is that it makes it really easy to know exactly how long it took before you went back to being the imperfect person you really are.

Seriously, I started the last paragraph meaning to say good things about New Year's Resolutions, and suddenly find myself not liking them. When I was a teenager, my only resolution would be "not to have any resolutions," but generally, I've tried to resolve something or another. Exercise lasts a couple months at best (although I have found that working out with people makes that last several months longer); writing daily lasts less than a week.

Last year, I resolved to eliminate partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup out of my family's diet. Well, one year later, here's the status. We haven't eliminated 100%, but we are doing much better.

I think one of my problems is that I'm idealistic, and when I find I can't keep up to my ideals, I cave. Actually, this reminds me of a recent episode of "Scrubs" where Carla berated Janitor and Blond Doctor for being human and reminding them of that very thing. Specifically, I very much identified with Janitor who went all gung-ho on being environmental and then gave up completely when becoming totally overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem.

It's like me now with packing for India. I'm so overwhelmed by just how much needs to be done, that with only 1 suitcase mostly packed, and a bed full of kids' clothes, and a room full of empty suitcases, I'm in the basement blogging.

I started the year by reading labels at the grocery store and finding acceptable brands. Now I'm at a point where I know which brands of most common products are acceptable, and I only need to read labels occasionally. "Ring pasta" (Spaghettios) is so rarely eaten at our house, that letting the kids eat the "unhealthy" brand for the second time this year was an acceptable compromise. I've got several cans of Annie's brand ring pasta, and I'm hoping that with so much time since he last ate it, my eldest son won't find the taste objectionable.

Basically, as I've aged, I think I've learned to tone it down a bit. I'll still jump on my soapbox, but it's a little lower to the ground now. A smaller case, if you will. Bread. Millbrook, Wonder, Pepperidge Farms, and any other brand you can think of - contain high fructose corn syrup (known to lead to diabetes, of which both my husband and I have a family history). Meanwhile, the fresh bakery brands have partially hydrogenated oils. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Whole Foods for the first time, and was thrilled to find a brand of bread that contained neither ingredient. Well, it had 2 strikes against it:

1. My kids didn't like the taste of it
2. It got moldy pretty quickly.

I will not refrigerate bread, as it makes it go stale much quicker (I also don't refrigerate tomatoes; totally kills the flavor). But having to go to the grocery store (or, heck, the drug store) mid-week is not something I like to do. Nor is being forced to go to plan B in the morning for lunch-making when I'm already a wreck.

So I've learned to compromise. My kids are not HFCS & PHO free; they eat PB&J most days at school with only one or the other ingredient in their bread only. But, they now eat wheat bread instead of white. It's still progress in my book.

That said, what are my resolutions for next year? Well, this past year, I returned to work after being off for 6 years; we put our house on the market (and didn't move); my sister got married; my brother got married; we're going to India.

Next year, my husband has resolved to do a lot of nothing. And I have resolved to fully enable him to hold true to that resolution.