New year's day

First of all, I wish you all a very Happy New Year with lots of good things heading your way.

Like many people, today is the day when I look back and then look forward.  It's just another day really but the date division makes it an ideal time.
So I looked back to last year's post to see what I said because I couldn 't remember.  Here it is - here's the link if you want to look.
https://diaryofteacher.blogspot.com/2018/01/monday-seventh-day-of-christmas.html

There were two sides to it - happiness and health.  Let's take the latter first.  This time last year I really wasn't terribly well.  It was pretty hard at times and I had to work quite hard to remain cheerful some of the time.
Now - well, now what a change!!!  The gallbladder got left behind just over eight months ago, the blood pressure has been more or less normal for quite a while now and, because of all the weight lost, I am just so much healthier than I have been for decades.  I find it hard to believe really.

As for the former, happiness, I still believe much of it is a determined attitude; for me it is, anyway.  In lots of ways it has been a hard, hard year.  It's difficult to cope with the feeling when others are hurting, ill, distressed, because there's really not a lot you can do to change things for them.  All you can do it be there.  There have been occasional times when all the determination in the world hasn't really helped much, but generally it has made a huge difference.  Pollyanna still rules!

So - how about looking forward.  I don't exactly call it 'resolutions' as they tend to get broken very quickly and seem to be a high road to failure.  However, there are things I am going to do . . . and here they are.

I'm going to carry on with Slimming World.  I never expected it to be the help it has been and, when I started, I was dubious as to any positive results but I was wrong, very wrong.
As a result, I am going to continue losing the last chunk of surplus weight and keep it off. 

I'm loads fitter than I've been since a young adult and I'm going to build on that.  I'm going to get back to swimming because I love that, I'm going to find out what else there is at the gym that I could do and enjoy and I'm going to continue choosing to walk instead of taking the car for local journeys.  I enjoy walking now, it makes me feel great.

I'm going to continue fighting for those I love, to support them as much as I can, to try to understand how they feel and why they are as they are and to accept that we're all different and all of equal value.

And I'm going to continue to sustain a positive mindset, looking for and focusing on the good in everything.  Yes, it can be very challenging at times but it works, it's good and  I want to be that person.

Hopefully, I will.