First, a review of how I fared for my resolutions for 2019. I deliberately made the goals broader and easier to attain after more or less bombing on nearly everything in 2017. Here they are, graded as if by a mean grade school teacher:
- Drop to 150 pounds. As of today I am 170.1 pounds, which any mathematician will tell you is more than 150 pounds. A lot more. Alas. Looking at the year overall, my weight held pretty steady for the first six months. In July I finally started shedding pounds (I was also running more) and this continued until September, when the weight not only started creeping back up, it climbed even higher. The only good news after this is that by some miracle (and a treadmill) I managed to actually reverse the weight gain in the last two weeks of December, when it would normally be spiraling ever-higher. Still, short of shedding a lot of water weight tomorrow (the 31st) I am going to end up a bit heavier at the end of the year than at the start. Grade: D
- Write something every day. Technically, I achieved this, between blog posts, journal entries, posts to social media and other miscellaneous stuff. But I wrote almost no fiction, so that still knocks a grade or so off. Grade: B+
- Run at least once per week. According to the Activity app, I did 58 runs in 2019 as of today (I may do one tomorrow to top off the year. That means I did in fact run at least once per week! Grade: A
- Read at least 52 books. I revised this goal partway through the year when it became obvious I would not read near 52. The new goal was 26, which I achieved. There’s a chance I might finish Book 27 before the year ends. For some reason I had a lot more gaps between books, possibly because I read a few too many bargain novels that may have been bargain-priced for obvious reasons. Grade: B
- Eat better. A mild improvement at best. Grade: C+
- Learn and practice meditation. I thought about this. I did not actually do it. Grade: D
- Stretch. See the above. Grade: D
- Redo the Complaint Free World 21-day challenge. I’m wearing the band again, but haven’t yet started the formal challenge. Still, just wearing the band has helped me to stay more positive. Grade: B
2019 was a pretty even split between triumph and not-triumph. It was a difficult year in many ways for me, so the result is not unexpected. For 2020 I am going with a slightly revised set of goals:
- Drop to 150 pounds. I actually think I have a better shot at this than in the past few years. Really!
- Be creative. Do one of the following every day (more than one is even better):
- Write a blog post (Note: Jogging/treadmill workouts do not count)
- Write some fiction
- Draw something (not to be confused with the app)
- Take a photo
- Exercise at least three times a week. One of the exercises should be a run, the others can be treadmill walks or something similar. I can no longer use the weather as an excuse to be lazy and fat.
- Read at least 26 books. I think a book every two weeks is fine and I can probably do better that that with a wee bit of effort. Maybe I’ll start counting comic books or something.
- Eat better. I went cold turkey with my diet once before (this did not involve actual turkey), I can do it again. I think.
- Start stretching. If I can do this, I’ll move on to meditation. Maybe it’ll be easier that way. Stretch the body, then stretch the mind. Pretty deep, man.
- Investigate other careers. I like tech and I like helping people. I am less convinced now that I like both together.
- Just generally improve. Try to be kinder, more thoughtful and helpful. Lead by example.
