Jan
3
Happy New Year, internet peeps.
It’s a new year, which is the traditional time for change in a person’s life. It’s a symbolic date when people decide to kick off changes they wish to make in their lives. Some people make resolutions; others sign up for classes, or join clubs, or start new projects. I mean, who doesn’t want to make themselves happier or healthier or have some positive things come into their lives?
For me, the end of the binging and excesses of the holiday season — well, all of December, really — means it’s a good time to get life back on track. It’s that general “Okay. No more crazy spending or eating everything in sight” attitude that comes with the end of the big New Year’s Day meal. I used to try making resolutions, and usually always failed miserably.
But general changes are a little different. I find if I start the new year with some sort of plan, something gradual or incremental, I do a little bit better. I may only get so far, but at least I can make some progress before life derails my plans.
Last year, I made a plan to do a Project 365 project, taking a photo a day for the whole year. And, for the most part, I did pretty well. I failed miserably at posting my photos here on my blog, getting only to April or so before it went pear shaped. The problem was that it took too long to post the photos. So, lesson learned. However, I DID do very well on the actual project, taking photos maybe 300 days of the year. My motivation was to take a photo of That Baby every day so that she would have a year in her life in pictures. And I did — the year in photos worked out to just under 8,000 photos and about 34 GB of drive space.
So, while storage space and time make it a challenging project, I think overall it was a success. So… WIN! And, most importantly, I have a year in Stinkerbelle’s life captured for her forever. Which makes me wonder if maybe I should do it again this year. I’ll have to think about that one.
My second project of last year was around health and fitness. I failed spectacularly, a couple of times. First off, I was doing some exercise challenges, including 100 Day Exercise Challenges. I had done one in 2009, and it went well, so I decided to carry on into 2010. And I started the year really strong, too… until I ran headlong into some injuries that caused my plans to grind to a halt in the summertime. Part of my problem is that I go too hard, too fast, and with years of chronic injuries dating back to my competitive athlete days, it’s a recipe for disaster. So I started and stopped some more mini challenges throughout the rest of the year, and when that didn’t work, finally resigned myself to ice packs and rest in the fall. So, that sucked. FAIL.
The other health and fitness project we set for ourselves around here was to really, truly make an effort around eating healthy and, specifically for the diabetic in the family, trying to watch our nutrition to help bring his blood sugar into reasonable levels. And that went… okay. I lost a little bit of weight, not nearly what I had hoped — but then again, I didn’t follow the plan as strictly as I should have done. BDH got really busy and really frustrated with tracking and so that stopped maybe a month in. And so, that made it really easy for me to slack off, and so my eating went to hell about a month later.
Not an excuse, I know that. But one thing I suck at? Is willpower. So, when it comes to healthy eating… EPIC FAIL.
Le sigh. Looking back, it really makes me wonder why I would want to do this to myself AGAIN.
And yet? Here I am.
2011 is a new year. It’s as good a time as any to get started. So we have kicked off our healthy eating and tracking plan once again. BDH is already miserable, and being busy doesn’t help his motivation to keep it up, so I don’t hold out a ton of hope. But to be honest, I shouldn’t really rely on him to help motivate me — I have to learn to do it myself. So I have to try again. I need to change my lifestyle, not just for me, but because I have That Baby to think about. I want to be here in this life with her as long as possible. So I’ve set up my plan, I’ve set some goals for myself, and I’ve begun.
I’ve also decided to set some mini exercise challenges for myself. I am going to do things in smaller increments, mixing things up regularly, in the hopes that it will keep me motivated but also keep me from being injured. Sometimes it’ll be yoga. Sometimes, walking. Sometimes, the exercise bike. Maybe if I make some progress, I can mix in some running or something. Who knows. But first, the goal is just to build a consistent (and injury conscious, and affordable, and lifestyle-friendly) exercise plan. And then we’ll see. So, that will be an ongoing project.
My third project for the year is just for fun. A group I am in online is doing an “11-projects-in-2011″ knitting challenge. It’s basically to push you to finish 11 projects during the year. I love to knit, and I have a ton of projects on the needles that I need to finish, so this will push me to get them done, and maybe then I can start on something new. I have a scarf to finish, and some squares for a quilt for Stinkerbelle, and another baby blanket, and some charity knitting… I have a lot. And it takes up space. That shit is EVERYWHERE. So not only will I get things done, and have clothing and blankets and items to show for it, but I will ALSO clean out some yarn stash that’s all over the frigging place. It’s a win/win thing.
I’ve been thinking about some other changes, too. Little things. Things to start the year off fresh and bright. I’ve got some changes to make here, rearranging and reorganizing my blog space. I need to make some headway in some decorating and decluttering projects around the house. I have to do some organizing around finances and budgeting. And I need to get some recipes organized, maybe even put them online. Who knows. But there are things to be done. I have to renew that ongoing “wish list”, as we do every year. That will be fun, too.
It’s another year. Another year, shiny and bright, full of optimism. Might as well take advantage of the newness and add some shine and sparkle to my life, too.
It may be optimistic, but there’s plenty of time in the rest of the year for things that are dull and gray and difficult and challenging. Might as well enjoy the shiny while it’s here.
