Advice from a Small Town Girl

By LISE OTT

Happy New Year!

I'm a bit behind the times, as we're already into double-digit January dates. Fortunately, the temperatures have also been double-digit and without minus signs.

But the really, really good news is that the most depressing day of the year is behind us.

Now, I've always known that January is kind of tough, but it still surprised me last week when a national newscaster informed me that January 6 is the most depressing day of the year.

Well, it was this year, anyway.

It's apparently not so much the date as the day. It just so happened that the first (non-holiday) Monday of the year fell on January 6.

Kids had to go back to school, which would have been fun for parents, except they had to go back to work.

Everyone just realized that they spent WAY too much money on the holidays.

And nearly everyone also just discovered that the pants that fit on November 1 will no longer zip.

Oops.

Hence the designation.

The good news is there's not another most depressing day of the year (according to the talking heads, anyway) until January 5, 2015. A lot of good stuff could happen between now and then.

One of the good things, as I'm sure many of you will agree, is that I've decided to hang up my columnist hat.

I started this little exercise in the hopes that going public with my battle of the bulge would help me stay on track, and perhaps even inspire others who share the difficulty.

Well.

I weigh more now than when I started. Public humiliation doesn't seem to be the "stick" I had hoped it would be. Apparently, I have no shame.

Our Jensen family fitness challenge that I suggested at our 2012 Christmas party, has had some effect. My younger sister has lost somewhere in the range of 80 pounds. My older sister has been working out at Curves after work, and she looks great. My sister-in-law, brother, niece and one nephew have all trimmed their profiles, so to speak. We all felt that the idea worked well enough that this year we're going to put a little skin in the game. Everyone who participates will ante up and whoever makes the most progress by the end of the year wins the pot.

I've enjoyed writing this column. It's kind of fun to start out with an idea that's no more than a sentence or two and see where it takes me. I have really appreciated all those who tell me they enjoy reading it. But like every endeavor, it takes time. And it takes more time if you're actually going to do it well.

And time, these days, seems to be in scant supply. I have other commitments that require my attention, so I'll say, not goodbye, but auf wiedersehen.