New Year’s Resolution – Losing the weight

As another New Year approaches, millions of people are yet again gearing up to lose weight as one of their resolutions. I too am hideously guilty of this but only because a) I’ll just be fighting a losing battle over Christmas and will end up binge eating for the sake of it and b) being the OCD-lite kinda gal that I am, I want to be able to achieve all of the weight loss in 2009. I also like the idea of being the one who bucks the trend and sticks to what they set out to do – nothing better for wiping the smile off the smug faces that say it’s not possible. I gave up smoking on New Year’s Day four years ago and haven’t touched a cigarette since which I’m pretty chuffed about considering I was up to 40 a day at that point. So it can be done – all it takes is as much motivation and perseverance as it would at any other time of the year

Because I feel I need to get it right from the very start i.e. 1st January, I’ll do my first 2 hour flat walk on NYE so I can start the New Year with a proper hill walk (I won’t really blog about the flat walks unless something extraordinary happens as there’s only so much you can say about a walk into town and back).  I fancy a really good walk along the Rochdale canal on New Year’s Eve – either from Sowerby Bridge to Todmorden (which actually takes me about 3.5 hours to do but what the hell) or Tod to Littleborough or Rochdale.  I never used to take much notice of the canal until I came across this brilliant site http://ealees.com/walks/hebden.html which made me smile so much I started to incorporate a canal bank walk into my schedule every 3 weeks or so.

With a good flat walk under my belt I can then start the New Year with a hike up a hill. Living where I do I’m ridiculously spoilt for choice – an hour or so in the car and I can be in the Southern Lakes or the Peak District, half an hour will get me to the Forest of Bowland or Saddleworth Moor.  Better still, a 30 second walk from my little terraced house will get me onto the foothills of the Southern Pennines from where I can hike for hours and hours in pretty much all directions.  I’ll have to see how the weather is and how achey I am from the day before but I really fancy a walk up Pendle Hill as it’s not *too* much of a challenge but will certainly get the flood flowing – especially if it’s a blowy, rainy day (which, being Lancashire, it will be).