#1574, Tuesday, January 5: Goals not resolutions

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Post 1574, Day 5 of 2016
- 1,831 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but I have set up some goals for the new year.

First and foremost is a behavior change that should have a very positive effect overall: I am going to start regular housekeeping. It may take longer to get my apartment right than it did to drop 20% of my weight, but I hope to achieve that end, and, by the end of the year, be in maintenance mode with a clean and neat apartment.

At the same time (and in a complementary effort), I want to start getting rid of excess possessions, including furniture. The goal here is simply to have less (in my mind, much less) at the end of the year than I do now.

Another goal has to do with re-establishing a couple of habits that have served me well in the past: Exercise and meditation. These are both things that I currently do, but not regularly enough to get all the benefits. With meditation, it's just a matter of doing it every day. With exercise, I want to find something that I can do that is completely integrated in my life, not a 'separate' activity.

Perhaps my most difficult goal is to deepen my local friendships. It's weird - I have never been more popular than I am now. I have attained a bit of local celebrity. Yet I don't have friends I can just hang with up here. I'm not sure people still do that. Maybe its a thing of a different age, when there was less responsibility, more freedom to do stuff. But at the end of the year, that's something I want.

The easiest goal involves music. I want to improve on guitar, and start working with the upright. By the end of the year, I want to be comfortable playing out with either. I have a head-start on guitar, since I can already play enough chords to accompany myself singing. But I have something else in mind: solo jazz guitar. The doghouse is another matter. We'll see if any kind of proficiency and comfort with the instrument comes with practice.

All of these goals are interrelated in some way, especially the outlier, the clean house one, as that is, uniquely on this list, not something I enjoy to any degree now. That one, more than any of the others, requires a significant change, from behavior that is currently holding me back, to one that is enabling.

We'll see.

Food and Diet Section


Too few data points to chart. Watch this space for a new chart soon.

Today's Weight:                   205.8 lbs.

Previous Weight (1/4):            204.8 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                   +  1.0 lbs.

Diet Comment

I have been gaining weight since the weekend, and I blame it (mostly) on lack of sleep, not food choices. I've been eating pretty much on-plan.

Food Log

Breakfast
A Quest bar.

Lunch

Roast beef and venison pepperoni salad with kale, spinach, Swiss chard, cole slaw mix and balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack
Sriracha chicken breast and a Quest bar.

Dinner
Roast beef and parmesan cheese with Philippe's famous hot mustard and a Quest bar.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake
   Espressos: 1  Coffee:  24 oz.;  Water: 96+ oz.

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