Fresh Start

Last year, I had some goals for myself for the year, and though it wasn't perfect, I did OK with them.  I'm hoping that I can improve on that this year.

I think I mentioned here in previous posts, that I finally realized that making New Year's resolutions just didn't work for me.  Once I started to think of goals and intentions, I took a different approach, and even when I didn't exactly reach them, I didn't have the same feeling of failure as I did with failed New Year's resolutions.  On the one hand, it's the terminology, but on the other hand, my goals and intentions were things that were more or less baby steps, not all-encompassing.

This year, I am going to work on the following:

1.  Fitness.  I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, partly because of a few illnesses that knocked me out for weeks at a time, and partly because I got lazy.  I'm still more fit than I was in previous years, but this year, I'd like to be more active.  So I'm hoping to ride my bicycle more (though not in the snow!), and I want to try some low-key running through a Couch to 5K program.  My goal with that would be to run a 5K this year.  I'd also like to do some hiking, and am hoping to get The Tim involved in that as well.  (We'll see.)

2.  Food.  I eat pretty healthily, so there are no major changes for me here.  But I would like to put more effort into cooking things that will serve more than one meal.  It's nice during the week to come home and be able to have a nice meal without it taking hours to fix.  So I'm going to try and expand my repertoire of soups, casseroles, and other dishes that by their nature make more than just two servings.

3.  Clothing.  I'm going to try and make my wardrobe more cohesive, and wearable.  I want to go through my closet and only keep the things that I really like, will actually wear/still fit, and work with more than one other item that I own.  It's not like I have a vast wardrobe, but it's become a mishmash of stuff over the past couple of years, and I want to pare it down.  I may try to save some money and invest in a new winter coat or some other big item, but will try to keep my spending under control otherwise.

4.  Beauty products/habits.  I already have this pretty well under control, so I'll try to stay with my good habits here.

5.  Attitude.  For the past couple of years, I've tried the One Little Word for the year idea.  My word for both of those years was "kindness" and though I'm not through working on that, I can say that I have been successful in being conscious of the word and changing my behavior.  I hope that now it will be a habit, so I'm choosing another word for 2014, which is grace.  As in a quote I saw here: "I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection."  Which basically means to remember that perfect should never get in the way of good.  I tend to be an obsessive perfectionist, and though I'm better at letting perfection go than I used to be, I need to work on it more.  Plus, I would really like to live my life with more grace and graciousness, in the hope to make grace work with kindness.  Life doesn't have to be as complicated as I often make it, and I also need to realize how great my life is and can be.  I'm hoping that grace will be my inspiration and my result.

Onward!  :-)

Not Even Close

Last year at this time, I realized that a) I had forgotten to sign up for the local Race for the Cure, and b) I couldn't even do it at the last-minute since I had made other commitments.  Not a major tragedy, but I felt bad since I try to participate every year, and it just didn't hit my radar at all.

Not the world's biggest tragedy, just something that slipped through the cracks of my brain.  But at that time, I also decided that rather than walk the 5k as I usually do, I was gonna try to be ready to run it.  However, later that month, I started having to wear a foot brace, which was originally supposed to be on my foot for six weeks, and ended up being on for five months (and didn't actually help, after all that).  So no chance to even try to start a running program.  Then I tried to make it a goal for the new year, but my months of ick in January and February not only kept me out of the gym and from any kind of exercise, but made it hard to breathe and walk at the same time.  Things are a bit better now, thank God.

I did remember to sign up to walk the race this year (albeit last-minute), so that's a good thing.  And I'm gonna say again that next year, I want to try running.  I have no plans to become A Runner, or run marathons, but I would like to have some variety in my activity, and build up my endurance levels.

In the meantime, I'll do my best this coming Sunday.  :-)

Keeping Up with Myself

We are now a whole week into February, and a lot of the country is either covered by a snowstorm, or about to be.  Not Philadelphia, though.  We are getting rain, will maybe get 2 inches of snow according to the local weather people.  Unlike most people, I love snow, and am totally sick of these wimpy winters.

But I digress.

Remember back in January, I mentioned that I was hoping to lose 2 pounds a month to get back to a healthier weight?  Well, I accomplished that and then some, but not due to any conscientious efforts on my part.  Nope, it was from being sick.  When you don't feel like eating for a week, you tend to lose weight.  Anyway, my appetite is still not great, but that's OK, it's not like I'm in a contest or anything.

So for February, I am hoping to lose another 2 pounds, and that I will get enough of my energy back to return to the gym.  I'm also hoping that I can get some more things organized as well.  Granted, I could spend the rest of my life cleaning closets, the basement, etc., but as with my weight loss, I'm hoping to accomplish things via baby steps.  First up will be my closet.  Since before Christmas, I've just been stuffing things in there for a lack of anyplace else to put them.  It's gotten pretty bad, so that will be my first organizing project.

Also, I owe people thank-you notes for Christmas gifts, and I don't want to get any later sending them than I already am.  So that's another February goal.

And hopefully, getting sick won't be part of the February experience.

:-)

To Resolve Or Not to Resolve ...

Every year at this time, I start debating with myself whether or not to organize some New Year's Resolutions.  For a long time, I would decide on two or three things, and without fail, fail to meet any of them!  Eventually, I admitted to myself that a large part of the reason was because they were unrealistic.  At the first indication that they were not going to "work," I'd get all depressed and chuck the whole idea.

Realizing the truth about my resolutions, I decided to skip any formal declarations of things I wanted/hoped to do in any given year.  But I always felt like I was taking the easy way out.

Last year, I decided that I would try something slightly different, and rather than calling them "resolutions," I would tell myself they were reachable goals.  They included things like eating better, exercising more, trying to do better at work - you get the picture.  And the good news is, that I was able to keep them in mind all year, and even if I didn't accomplish exactly what I'd hoped, I felt like I'd been trying, and that was definitely a good thing.

I also tried the One Little Word challenge, choosing "kindness" for my word of the year.  It seemed like this would be an excellent thing along the way to trying to bring myself into the more positive aspects of things.  I'm happy to say that for the most part, it worked.  I may still not be the kindest person you'll ever meet, but I'm a lot better than I used to be, and a lot more conscious of trying harder to be kind.

Thinking of this, I have decided that for me at least, this approach to things works a lot better.  I have a tendency to be really hard on myself if I have specific expectations set in stone and I fail to meet them 100%.  Whether or not they are realistic doesn't  matter - I get frustrated and angry with myself and figuratively, take about 10 steps backward.

So in 2013, I'm going to work on my "personal goals" as opposed to my New Year's Resolutions.  Some will be relatively mundane, but all of them will be things that will make me *want* to accomplish them.  At the moment, I'm still floating things in , my brain, deciding what will be the main focuses (foci?), but to be perfectly honest, I think the fact that I'm giving it all some serious thought is a step in the right direction, and I'm pretty happy about that.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of Christmastime to enjoy, and I plan to do just that!