I hesitated for a couple of weeks to publish this post, mainly because I didn’t want to offend anybody. About 75% of the people I know made resolutions, and suuuure went to town about it on social media! The mere suggestion of me not making resolutions is bound to rub someone the wrong way.

The funny thing is – the more people who read my blog, the more feedback I get. Putting your thoughts into words and sending them into the blogosphere also means having a thick enough skin to not panic over negative feedback. I get responses via email, mostly good, on almost every post I have written. As it turns out, I end up offending at least one person with every click of the publish button! #sorrynotsorry

Read on, my dears, at your own risk of taking every word I type personally.

Just a few short weeks ago, I witnessed KATRILLIONS of social media posts about all of your new year’s resolutions. If you didn’t make a resolution then you were picking out your theme words for 2016, declaring your fitness goals or making a vow to change everything about yourself. Now comes the part where you might get offended – Basically, all I saw was a bunch of stuff revolving around how much you sucked at life in 2015, and how much you are not going to suck at life in 2016. I rolled my eyes at all of it and said, “Yea, OK people. I’ll believe it when I see it.” Yep. I did that to all of you. Behind all your backs. I can’t help it, because I was just born to be cynical and honest.

Here we are, halfway through January. All those motivating posts have been trickling down to zero. I see the same old whiny crap about how much it sucks to be sick with a cold, how much it sucks when your kids are sick with a cold, how much it sucks that you have to drive your kids to school/practice/play dates/whatever in the cold, how much it sucks when school is cancelled, how much it sucks when it is too cold to breathe outside, how you have no time for yourself, how grocery shopping is the worst, how just living your day-to-day life is so damn terrible that you have to put that negativity out into the universe for all to see and sympathize with you. Well, here’s a fact: I don’t sympathize with you, and if you think I am talking to you, personally, I am not. I am talking to everyone with a smart phone, tablet or computer. (Including myself!)

We all need to just stop it.

Stop setting ourselves up for failure. Stop setting ourselves up for disappointment. I guarantee you, next January everyone will post about how glad they are to say goodbye to 2016 and how awesome life will be in 2017.

(Wait. Wasn’t 2016 supposed to be your best year ever? Remember how you were going to lose 50 lbs, redecorate your entire house and reconnect with every friend you ever lost? None of that happened??? How shocking!)

I personally don’t believe in resolutions, theme words, unattainable fitness goals, ridiculous diet restrictions or anything of the like. You can try to call BS on me, but I can assure you I have not made one post on social media about my goals for the new year for quite some time now. I think it is all a big crock of you-know-what.

I have read a lot of articles and posts that are getting passed around recommending that I just say “no” to loved ones to free up my schedule, use this newfound free time to work on myself, choose my resolutions and pick out a word to develop the theme of my year around. Half the people I know are currently on some kind of obnoxious fad diet or spending hundreds of dollars on magical weight-loss shakes, cleanses, pills and God knows what else.They don’t shut up about it. January is literally the month of gym and protein shake selfies. There is a lot of pressure to get on board with all this hoopla. To make myself into a better me.

Why are we required to knock ourselves down and beat ourselves up when we reflect on our past year? Why do we need to make ourselves “better”? Instead of wallowing in self-pity and trying to come up with ways to make myself better, I would prefer to just virtually high-five everybody and keep on keepin’ on. What is wrong with saying, “I did my darn best to kick butt. I am going to continue to kick some butt. If I do anything different in 2016, it is to kick even more butts than I did in 2015!”?

I think I already accomplish great things in my daily life. I don’t believe that choosing a theme word and metaphorically applying it to my day is going to help me improve myself. If anything, for me it will be a waste of energy and time. I know some people swear by this every year, and if it helps motivate you, then keep doing it! I just fail to see how it would be helpful to me, since I’m not really a let’s-analyze-this-life-choice-from-all-angles-and-make-sure-I-am-living-within-my-chosen-theme kinda person. I usually just jump into situations with hope that things turn out alright. *Usually* they do, so I am going to stick with that plan. I prefer doing to thinking. I might be a cave woman.

I don’t believe I need to make a resolution to lose a ton of weight or achieve physical perfection. I know I am healthy, and we already live pretty a healthy lifestyle in my household. My body is 30 years old and has brought 2 children into the world. It is obviously NEVER going to look the way it did 10 years ago. I have (begrudgingly) accepted that, and refuse to waste money on supplements or fad diets with false hope that I will look like a Vicky Secret model. (We all know it ain’t gonna happen. I am 5′ 2″ with stretch marks and A-cup boobs. There is not a shake, cream or pill in the world that can help me.) I might as well just keep taking care of myself by continuing to eat right, work out regularly and appreciate the healthy body I have!

I love giving to others, and I am going to continue to say “yes” to my loved ones. I will probably never say “no” just to say “no”. It does not make me feel good to say “no”. One of the best things my mom ever taught me is that you can give in different ways. You can give of your time, talents or treasure. We don’t have a lot of treasure. The treasure we do have pays bills and buys groceries. I will always be happy to give my time and my talents to those who need them, appreciate them and deserve them. I know most of the people I say “yes” to will also say “yes” and give their time, talents or treasure to me when I need them most. Despite saying a lot of “yes”, I can still manage to carve out pieces of time for myself when needed. (Newsflash to naysayers: This is thanks to time management, not being a selfish jerk who says “no”  to everything just because I can.)

I’ll keep saying “yes”. I’ll keep kicking butt. And most importantly, I’ll skip the BS. I don’t have resolutions or a resounding vocab word. I don’t have a checklist of unattainable goals. I just have the desire to keep trying to be the best mom, wife, friend and person I know how to be. I am going to continue to give 100% of myself to my life, which includes saying “yes” to all the people in it.

In a nutshell, I am not going to change myself. I am not going to list all things I could be better at. I am going to keep being positive and kicking butt this year. I think you should throw out your lists of goals, resolutions and words, and just come kick some butt with me!

Seriously though. BodyCombat® is on Tuesdays. Meet me at the gym and we can roundhouse kick 2016 right in the face.

(I totally feel the same way as Matt Bellassai, but he just uses a lot more profanity! Watch and giggle here, because, “Nobody needs a newer you.” Hehe!)