I am not one for New Year's resolutions - I am not a goal-oriented person in general. That is not to say that I wander through life aimlessly. I have goals; I just don't tend to write them down and call them such. That being said, if you've read my blog this past year, you've seen my occasional month-long personal challenges. Those are much more manageable, and I was quite successful with them.

Sometime after Thanksgiving, this crazy idea popped into my head that I couldn't let go of. I thought it over through the rest of the year, and basically figured, "What the hell, why on earth not?"

So I have decided to go directly from crawling to racing ... and up my month-long no dessert challenge to an entire year. Yes, I acknowledge your gasps and straight jacket suggestions. I even agree with them. But again, why not? It's only a year.

BACKGROUND: This is the very first time I did it for a month. And this is where I explain how that went. I did it again a couple of times after that, often alone, and once with a couple of friends.

PARAMETERS: I know exactly what I mean when I say no sweets, but it doesn't seem quite clear to others. I am not cutting sugar out of my diet entirely, it is found in so many things I don't know how I would do it. Sugar itself is not my problem. I am cutting out desserts - things like chocolate, candy, cookies, cakes, etc. Chocolate milk is in, because I love it and I don't have the rationing issues there I have with desserts. The same is true of hot chocolate, though I am going to try not to buy it on my way to work as often.

EXCEPTIONS: I acknowledge there are circumstances wherein it would be rude or awkward to decline dessert. I ran into this yesterday actually. One of my closest friends (and the only person from high school I am still friends and not just Facebook "friends" with) got married yesterday and I was a bridesmaid. Instead of a big wedding cake, they had cupcakes for the guests and a wedding cheesecake that they cut at the reception. The bride made the cheesecake herself, and it was only served to the wedding party. I declined at first, but they urged me to at least try some. I didn't want to be rude, especially since she made it. So I had a small piece. It was delicious! So if I run into something like that again, I will make an exception. Though I hope it is quite rare.

CLARIFICATIONS: First, this is not a New Year's resolution. It was just a timing thing. I had been thinking about it for a bit, and since Jan. 1 was coming up, I thought it would make it easy and clean to start my sweet-less year at that point. Second, this is not a weight loss thing. Yes, I could stand to lose some weight, but that isn't why I do these no dessert things. This is about rationing and primarily about testing my ability to control myself. I won't be upset or surprised if I do lose some weight because of it, but I don't care so much about that.

I know I am a little belated in writing this, but I did start it on January 1, and other than that one piece of cheesecake, the first week went very smoothly. I have said in the past that once I start doing this, it becomes really easy for me, so I am really not concerned about keeping this up for the entire year.