Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that 2012 brings you everything you could possibly wish for!

I can't believe that 2011 is over already, it's really flown by!  Although the last few months have been pretty stressful I have to say that 2011 has been a pretty good year all round so lets hope that 2012 just gets even better.  I don't usually talk about personal things on my blog (oh I do on twitter so most of you probably know all about my diet and are probably sick of hearing about it!) but I've never put anything about it here on the blog.  I'm proud of what I've achieved though so I thought it was about time I shared a couple of pictures.

If you'd told me a year ago how many things would change this year I would have laughed at you.  Never in a million years would I have believed that I'd be able to lose 6 stone 8 lbs (or 92 lbs or 41.73 kgs depending on what measurements you prefer to go by!).  I'd also never have believed that I would have given up smoking a month ago (I might have said I'd love to but it's not so easy to break a 15 year habit!).

The picture above was taken in February, a couple of days before I started on the Cambridge Weight Plan.  I have to thank the lovely Laura from Book Chick City for inspiring me to give the diet a try, but I still didn't think I'd stick to it.  Never in a million years did I think I'd do as well as I have!  I'm still shocked every time I look in a mirror or see a new picture of myself looking like this:

Quite a difference isn't it!  It's quite funny the number of people who walk straight past me without recognising me now, even my Dad (who I see several times a week) completely blanked me a few weeks ago because he didn't realise it was me.  I guess I'll have to let him off though since I don't recognise myself half the time :o)  So 2011 has been a year of pretty big changes & I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring!

I don't normally set myself new years resolutions, every time I do I tend to fail them miserably but this year I'm going to give myself a couple of goals

1. To lose that extra weight that I've gained over Christmas & get back to target, then the hard part is going to be staying there!
2. To stay a non smoker, I will NOT start that nasty habit again!
3. Start running - increasing my exercise is going to give me the best chance of staying at my goal weight so even though I don't think I'll ever be a long distance runner I would like to be able to run a few miles.  I'm determined that I'll actually run the Race for Life this summer rather than walk it like I did last year, it's only 5k so I don't think that's an impossible goal.  I've already signed up for a beginners running group that starts at the end of January to help me achieve it.

So those are my targets for the year, now we'll have to see if I achieve them.  What about you?  Have you got any resolutions?  Is there anything you're particularly excited about in 2012?

This has ended up being my personal welcome to the new year but I'll be back later today with a blog related look back at 2011 and a giveaway since today is actually my second blogoversary and I'm in the mood to celebrate!