On New Years Resolutions and Such {and what mine are for this year}

I'm not super into New Years resolutions. It's not that I have anything against them, so much as I have trouble keeping them. The last several years I simply haven't made any fancy resolutions. My track record wasn't all the great with keeping them, so why bother? As far as I can remember, there's only ever been one New Years resolution that I've kept. I was 11, and I wanted to stop chewing my fingernails. So I did. And, I still to this day am very grateful I did - had I not conquered that habit then, I'd probably still be chewing my fingernails now - 8 years later.

But, after a couple year break, I'm ready to try this whole New Years resolution thing again. Or, maybe better described not as resolutions, but decisions, or goals, for this new year.
So here they are, in no particular order: 

1. I deactivated my Facebook account. It had become a huge time consumer in my life, and I knew it was time for a change. I don't know how long (if ever) it will be until I reactivate it, but my goal is to have all of 2016 off.

2. Consistent time with God and and His Word, growing in godliness. This area of consistency is something I struggle with - sometimes I do really well, and other times, well, not so great. 'Not so great' is not what I want, nor what is best for me.

3. Read more. Not just anything, but good, wholesome things. I used to read all the time, but that's gone WAY down the last few years. I'm seriously considering Tim Challies' book challenge.

4. Eat healthy away from home. A lot of people have the goal of losing 10lbs in the new year, or whatever. I much as I'd love to think I can set a goal, and reach it, I simply can't assume that. I've been following the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan for nearly 2.5 years, and have lost just over 30lbs, but in that time I had over a year long stall where I didn't lose anything, and even gained some weight. I can't predict how my body will act, so I just want to make the best food choices I can. I do pretty well at home, but when I'm traveling (which I'll be doing more than usual this year), I tend to just eat whatever. Eating "whatever" makes me feel gross, and certainly doesn't encourage weight loss. Hence the goal to make the healthy choices, even when I'm away from home.

5. Make mini goals for each month. Some of the problems with big year-long resolutions, is that you often have no idea what your life is going to be like months down the road. Making little lists of things at the beginning of the month makes it a lot easier to decide what needs to be done at that point in your life.

6. Blog more often. Looking at 2015, where I only wrote 10 different posts (well, only 10 that made it to publication anyway), this shouldn't be too difficult.

7. Keep track of my hair growth. My hair is currently 22.5 inches long, and I want to measure it each month to see how much it's grown. I don't have any particular reason for this, it's just a fun thing to do. I've had issues in the past few years with my hair falling out, and now that it's healthy again, I want to see how fast it'll grow.

8. Practice gratitude. Several years ago, I read Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Gifts", and loved it. While I can't endorse near all of her theology, there's a lot of good to be said about a thankful spirit.

So. That's the list.
Eight is a lot of points, in some ways. But at the same time, most of them aren't really that huge, and they're goals or changes that I want to make anyway, so why not starting now, at the beginning of the new year?