I’m thinking about subscribing to O. Over a year ago, I gave up most magazines with one exception (the New Yorker, which Matt reads, and I read the table of contents and the cartoon contest in the back). Got rid of Real Simple. I found that I rarely got around to reading the magazines, except for sometimes during a one-week vacation in the summer, when I would haul pounds of them with me to northern Minnesota, and my friend Sarah and I would read about a year’s worth of my magazines in one week.

Here’s what led me to buy this month’s O: “Weight Loss Made Simple/The Only Tip You’ll Ever Need.” Okay, so what’s the one tip? “Get moving!” And then…”If you want to BOOST YOUR MOOD, STENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM, SLEEP BETTER, AND LOOK GREAT, Bob Greene has one word for you: EXERCISE.” So there you have it.

We all already know that I am now an evangelical when it comes to strength training. Amen. But there remain questions to be answered, and, of course, there is no better time for me to be thinking about what’s next than the new year. However, it isn’t feeling so much like I need resolutions but rather than I need new goals and a plan.

Today while I was out running on the wonderful trail that sits next to Lake Michigan, I started thinking that maybe I should take on a year-long commitment in which each month has a different focus and goals; for example, in January I research and start figuring out why yoga and pilates would (or wouldn’t) make sense to include in my exercise regime. Then in February I might take up something such as the vegan and vegetarian diets. I do need to keep this simple in order to have success, and I also want to ensure that there are larger guiding principles and goals and aspirations that each month relies on. And I’d love for all of this to be larger than what might seem like a diet or weight loss plan; rather, I’d like this to help me become happier and healthier and consequently able to contribute more fully to my family and the world. Lots to think about…

I will share more of the O article. Apparently it is essential to set goals: in a study of what helps people to stick to exercise, researchers found that women who filled out a goal-setting worksheet doubled their weekly workout time as compared with a group of women who didn’t. So Bob Greene then provides us with the following:

1) What is my exercise goal? Set an objective you can achieve–nothing overly ambitious. Example: Getting 30 minutes of exercise in the morning.

2) What’s the most positive outcome of achieving this goal? This is crucial. Think back to the reasons you chose to exercise. Example from the article: This will get me in better shape and help me manage my diabetes.

3) What’s the main obstacle standing in the way? “I don’t have enough time.”

4) How can I overcome the obstacle? Give details about the changes you’re going to make. “The night before, I can get to bed by 10, so I can wake up 30 minutes earlier.”

5) How should I achieve my goal? This means focusing on the when and where.” “Between 6:30 and 7 in the moring, before I shower, I’ll exercise with a 30-minute aerobics video in my living room.”

I’m going to work on my own answers to these questions for my next post. In the meantime, here are a few recent related things going on here as well as ideas I’ve had recently:

- What’s an hour? How often do you twidle (is that a word?) an hour away? How hard would it be to say: every day I must give myself one hour to take care of myself through exercise? Maybe it’s a matter of writing down, for a week, exactly how you spend each waking minute and seeing where that hour for exercise might fit in (and also assessing your use of time more generally), and maybe the hour might even come from two 30-minute slots? But what about the goal of simply giving yourself one hour/day for exercise?

- The amazing rice cooker! This was my special Christmas gift, and it’s been perfect rice (and steel cut oats) ever since the 25th. I also just bought The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook and am hoping to take full advantage of what I don’t want to become another seldom-used, space-taking appliance.

- I bought a two-piece bathing suit! It hasn’t arrived yet (bought online from swimoutlet.com), but if all goes as planned, I will be wearing it in Florida in March. I had a two-piece swimsuit in 1996, wore it once, saw a photo of a friend took of me in it, and that was the end of that suit and my two-piece swimsuit days. (I also found myself with some questions about my friend the photographer… oy vey.) More on the new suit down the line.

Much more importantly than my new swimsuit: Here’s to 2011 and making it a year full of health and fitness and happiness.