Happy New Year to one and all. New Year's resolutions are one of those things that OmegaMom has always scoffed at. After all, the change from one year to another is a totally human artifact, just a symbol at heart. There is no great clock in the sky, tied to the One True Calendar, that ticks over at midnight (which midnight, by the way? Moscow's? London's? New York's?) and announces over the great Jungian collective unconscious that, Lo!, a new year has begun. So why do humans feel this need for a marker, a specific break between this one quantum of time (2005) and the next one (2006), to hang their life's changes upon? It's similar to the need of smokers or dieters or alcoholics to mark a time in the future and say, "Then. I will stop smoking/change my eating habits/stop drinking then." Strongly implied in that is the phrase, "But NOT NOW." A few months ago, OmegaMom had a health screening at work. Blood pressure--check, no prob. Weight--check, no prob. Fasting blood sugar level--check, no prob. (Woohoo! OmegaMom, whose dad, paternal grandmother, eldest brother, and paternal cousin all suffered from adult-onset diabetes, is paranoid about that one subject.) Then came the cholesterol check. Eeeek! Total: 242. Ratio of "good" cholesterol to "bad" cholesterol: dismal. OmegaMom watched, stunned, as the nurse pushed the little chart with the different levels of heart attack risk attached to different ranges of LDL-to-HDL in front of her, and pointed squarely at level 5: Very high risk. Oops. So OmegaMom, the Fear Of God upon her, promptly started a regimen of high-fiber, high-veggies, high-fruits eating, totally cut her beloved Starbuck's Frappucinos (we will not discuss how many of these things she drank in one day), and planned to exercise. The amazing thing is that this regimen made OmegaMom feel much better very quickly. No more spikes of sleepiness in the afternoons (or mornings, or evenings). Brain was more alert and "zippier". She felt livelier and healthier than she had felt in a long time... The problem is that all of this happened 3 weeks before Thanksgiving and the holiday season. Confronted with gobs of yummy goodies at home, at work, at other people's houses, did OmegaMom stay the course? Did she stand firm? Did she follow her new regimen? Of course not. So, now that the holidays are over with, and the lovely, symbolic swing from old year to new is upon us, OmegaMom has succumbed, and made a resolution. Resolved: to get that cholesterol level down to normal levels via healthy eating and exercise. To firm up the flapping old-lady wattles beneath the upper arms. To once more go boldly where no man has gone before! (Ooops. Sorry. Got carried away there.) A bunch of online buds and I have joined the Discovery Health Channel National Body Challenge 2006. Wish me luck. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve, and that some of your dreams come true in the year to come. (Not all. No-one should ever have all of their dreams come true, because then what is there to strive for?)