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New Year’s resolutions: Health, happiness and religion

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As a new year begins, we often look for ways to renew ourselves in the form of New Year’s resolutions. Here’s a few resolutions from people in the region.

Heidi Peterson

“I’m going to read the Bible every day,” said Peterson, a Williamsburg-area native.

The former Lafayette High School track star and University of Vermont student wants to get back to her faith in 2016.

“You go away to school, and people don’t seem to be really into that, you know?” she said. “I want to rediscover my faith, and figure that’s a good place to start.”

She also wants to be more at peace and flexible, so she’s going to start doing yoga again.

Gage Moreno

“I want to be a better friend,” Moreno said.

Over the course of the last semester, the Williamsburg-area native said he had so much work to do, and was caught up in himself.

“I want to be different. I want my friends to know I’m here for them whenever they need me. I have to be better about that,” Moreno said.

The University of Wisconsin student also ran track for Lafayette with Peterson, and the two met over the holidays to catch up.

“It’s nice to be home,” he said. “When you live here, you can’t wait to get away, but when you come back, you can appreciate how great it is here, and how beautiful.”

Willie Graham

“I’m going to restart my insurance business this year,” said Graham, of Newport News.

Graham believes New Year’s resolutions are a continuation of goals set the year before.

“It’s good to have them, and good to make them,” Graham said. “They’re a work in progress, you know?”

In previous years, he set goals to work out, lose weight, help at the church as well as put his family and God first in his life.

Graham said he’s going to continue those things, but this year, he’s going back to the business he loves: helping seniors with their insurance needs.

“I enjoyed helping the elderly, and that’s what I’m going to do in 2016,” Graham said.

Wanda Hailey

“I want to totally dump my insulin,” said Hailey, of Mathews County.

Hailey has been taken insulin a few times a day for more than a decade. This September, she wanted to change that.

She started to lose weight, using the South Beach diet, as her doctor suggested. The pounds dropped away slowly until she’d lost 25 as of Dec. 28.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” she said. “I never thought I could do it, but I did. If I keep going, I’ll be able to get off insulin completely. I’m already down to one shot in the evenings.”

In the new year, her resolution is to slim down more. “I’m going to lose another 25 pounds,” she said.

Canty can be reached at (757) 345-2341.