Resolutions

Depending upon which calendar you follow, it is the first day of a new year. The earth has completed another lap around the sun, everyone is hungover and the foolish few are making resolutions for the rest of the year.

I have never stuck to any resolutions in my life and I certainly haven't made any in the last few years. However, I've decided to make a few this year but try and ensure that they are achieveable.

Here is a summary of what I wish to do:

The first one is to lose the bonus weight that I'm carrying. I've discovered that whilst running on a treadmill is boring, running on a treadmill and listening to podcasts on your iPod at the same time is not. I ran for a full thirty minutes yesterday and didn't feel the need to stop at any time. Losing weight has too many positive effects: the motorbike will be faster, my gym membership won't be wasted each month, I'll fit into old clothes again, I'll need less weight when I'm diving and hopefully I'll look a little sharper. There are plenty of other further reaching effects, but I shan't go into them now.

The second is to stop eating meat. This is an environmental move and not an ethical one. I'm not that bothered about animals being killed for food, and the truth is that if there is no other option than meat than I won't have a problem eating it. The simple fact is that it's better for the world to be a vegetarian: producing vegetables requires a lot less effort than producing beef, for example. Also it will help with my first resolution.

Third, I'm going to become the recycling king of the world (well, maybe just Lincoln for now). We put so much rubbish into landfills every week, and it's too easy to put it in the black bin (or whatever the local council has given you) and see that it's recycled. I'll happily pop to the bottle bank to dispose of the glass. My main hurdle will be convincing the house mates that this is important. I can't see how it can't be important to someone: my aim will be to convince them of this too. I've registered with my local Freecycle group too, so that I don't have to waste the bigger items that I don't require any more. I am also planning a compost heap so that our food waste can be disposed of.

I think that I'm going to leave it there. There are three things that I can have a go at, and I think that the third one is potentially a 'biggy'. I think that 2006 is a year for changing the world.

technorati tags: resolutions, new year, freecycle