Give up, take up

By Laura Yates on Jan 11, 09 10:59 AM

I have given much thought to this New Years' Resolutions. Last year I successfully gave up buying DVDs. This year I'm being a bit more ambitious..

For everything I give up in 2009, I'm going to take up something positive.

Giving up - Emmerdale

Spending at least half an hour every week day evening watching what the people of Emmerdale are getting up to has been one of my favourite things to do for many years now. Alas, it is now time for this little escape of mine to come to an end. I'm sure I can find something else to do with two and a half hours every week, so I'm..

Taking up - learning a musical instrument

Oh yes. I have decided that it is time to broaden my creative horizons. I have decided that I shall learn... the recorder! Alright, so it's not anything wildly exciting like the piano or guitar, but it's a start.. and I unlike a stratocastor or concert grand piano I actually happen to have a recorder lying about the house. I have The Boy and giving up the recorder just two weeks after buying it to thank for that.

Giving up - sugar

Ah yes, refined sugar has a lot to answer for. I blame it for weight gain, lowered immune system and generally throwing our whole body chemistry out of sync. So, I'm giving it up. Entirely. I did this for a period last year and as well as feeling better a nice side effect was losing weight, about a stone of it to be exact, which will come in handy for when I go back to Fat Club next week.

As well as removing sugar, I'm changing my diet by..

Taking up - fat

Now, I have to look into this further, but apparently fat isn't the evil thing that it has been made out to be. It's what type of fat, and how we take it that is the key. Obviously hydrogenated fat, deep fried in saturated fat isn't going to do anyone any favours (sorry), but nice fats that are eaten without being heated are supposed to be very good.

Giving up - Facebook

Oh dear, oh dear. This is something I never thought I'd see myself type, but the truth is that electronic social networking is taking up more and more of my waking hours. Every time I sit at a computer, doesn't matter where or when, I'm drawn to having a sneaky look to see what everyone is up to; what photos have been added, who's relationship status has altered, how many fans 'From Here to Maternity' has. It's got to stop. There is so much more I could do with that time, such as..

Taking up - watching more movies

And I'm not talking about run of the mill rubbish films, spewed out one after the other. I'm talking classics like 'Some Like it Hot' and 'Casablanca', foreign films like 'Amelie' and really great English films like 'Withnail and I'. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them.

So far this year I haven't watched any Emmerdale, although I haven't been able to bring myself to delete it from my V+ recordings. I have also learned what a crotchet is, but as far as my other resolutions go I haven't really got started yet!

We'll have to see what the coming weeks bring.