What is it about New Year’s Day that seems to spark a little fire of motivation in so many of us?

It’s that thing, you know, that whole “resolution” thing. We see the New Year barreling towards us, and we think, this is going to be my year.

It’s the year I’ll lose weight, and start exercising, and quit smoking, and stop watching all those Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Marathons. This is the year I’ll make it happen. Just watch.

Hi, I’m Cathy Zielske, and I’m not really here to talk to you about New Year’s Resolutions, because personally, I don’t have a great track record with them. Oh sure, I’ve got tons of experience of making grand pronouncements, but over the years, I’ve balked on more of them that not.

A few years ago, I decided the idea of making a New Year’s Resolution was a little out dated and perhaps unrealistic for me. What I needed was simply a shift—a subtle shift—a shift towards making lifestyle changes that I could actually keep up with.

In January of 2010 I took a step in that direction, and I haven’t looked back. Well, I should clarify that statement: I actually have looked back. Heck, I haven’t just looked back, I’ve taken gargantuan leaps backwards into fields of Cheez Its and French fries where the idea of breaking a sweat seemed almost like a dirty word. But the thing I didn’t do, was give up. I remembered my commitment to the shift and I got back on that proverbial horse and rode.

Now my shift might be your Herculean feat. I chose to start moving my body five days a week, eventually graduating to making my body actually run on some of those days. My shift included joining Weight Watchers and counting points. My shift also included learning how to fit exercise into my already busy life and to keep it at the top of my priority list. Now, since I began this journey, everything has shifted and changed from where I began. I don’t count points right now. I don’t run as often as I did. The nature of this process is that the shift becomes commonplace. And my shift is not going to be the same as yours, but I want to encourage you to figure out just what that shift looks like for you.

I’d like to invite you to join me for the next 12 month on a journey to Move More and Eat Well. Maybe you’re already on this path and if you are, you know it’s anything but straight and narrow. It curves, it twists, it bucks and it’ll throw you off the first chance it gets. Maybe you’re afraid to even get on the path at all for fear of failure, but I’m here to tell you, the only failure comes in not trying. I believe this to be a universal truth. Life here is short. How can you make the most of it with the time that you have?

Now you know, I’m not a personal trainer and I’m not a certified nutritionist. But what I am is a woman, a wife, a mom, a friend, a carpool driver, a check writer, and, of course, a scrapbooker and I’m trying every day to take better care of myself because I know that when I do, I’m more able to step up to the task of all the roles I play in my life.

Each month of this workshop, I’m going to share a bit of inspiration with you. I promise to keep it real, and we’re going to build an online community around the highs, the lows and the in-betweens of managing our personal chub comfort levels.

Every month, you’ll be writing about the process. You’ll be documenting your own journey in your own words. I’ll be providing the framework and giving you some gentle encouragement along the way. Or, if gentle isn’t your style, I may even have to dish out a little dose of reality-based tough love, with of course the emphasis being on “love.”

The one thing I know for sure as we set out to do this, anything is possible. Absolutely anything.

I hope you’ll join me in 2012 for Move More, Eat Well at Big Picture Classes.

This is Cathy Z. and I hope to see you on January 1. Happy early New Year’s to you.