Thinking about resolutions
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 2:01 pm
I really shouldn't even bother - every year it's the same - get more exercise, watch my weight (or in most cases lose some), spend more time being creative, and try to be happier. The past 2.5 years have been rough, as most of you all know. Work has been stupid, and I've not been surviving the middle school years with any grace at all. Next year can NOT be more of the same, because I'm worried that my health is going to start to fail if I don't make some kind of real change.
Work is getting better - that's for certain. The past 6 months have actually been relatively great. I don't think I've brought my computer home and worked in the evening more than once or twice since about May. Our organization has started to settle in its restructuring efforts, and we're starting to come to grips with our new identity and what it means. For my part, it means good things, including a new boss who has been awesome. We've still got a ways to go, but the improvement over 2014-15 is mind blowing. However... those two years did a lot of damage. I quit caring about what I ate.. like AT ALL. I just couldn't be bothered with one more thing to stress over. And I drank. A LOT. Like, 4-5 bottles of wine per week. It started in late 2014, and it didn't take long before it was a habit, and the thing I looked most forward to after getting home from work.
But, it needs to stop. I've gained nearly half of the weight back that I lost 5 years ago. I still go to the YMCA, but only once a week, which makes my $70/month family membership a total waste of money. So resolution #1 is going to be to get back to a 3x/week exercise schedule, at a minimum. If we can do a little bit of basement clean-up, I can even do some of those sessions at home (equipment currently blocked by piles of crap). And I'm really hoping that if I can get going on resolution #1, that it will lead into resolution #2, which is to quit sabotaging my efforts with food and wine. I'm not even going to say that resolution #2 is to lose weight - not at first. I just need to cut way back on the wine and potato chips and frozen pizza and anything else that's processed and has little nutritional value.
#3 is to get back to crafting, which should come naturally if I can get #1 and #2 established. I've spent the last two years with a glass of wine and a remote control. It hasn't been that I haven't had the time to craft. I just haven't had any desire to do anything that would take me too far away from the kitchen. If I can get back into the habit of just going downstairs, then I'll start doing something with my hands other than hold a glass. This year, crafting will actually be good for my health.
#4, again, will be to try to be more happy. Eating makes me ridiculously happy, and wine tends to help me "unclench". And I'm looking to get rid of that particular source of happy. Not good. And, 2017 is when we become high school parents. We need to find a way to buckle up and enjoy the ride. I haven't entirely figured this one out yet. But I suspect that the continued positive improvements in work life will help. I'm also pondering signing up for some night classes next fall - nothing academic - it won't help my career. But maybe I'll finally enroll in a foreign language class. Or, sign up for the "glass sampler" class (part of the Fine Art program), where you get to learn how to blow glass and do lampwork. If Jake can start taking the bus home after school next year (5th grade) and he and Nicole can agree to not kill each other in the hour before we get home, then I think I can maybe work in one class per semester.
Anyway - those are my goals for 2017. They haven't changed from recent years, but this year, it's more important that I take them seriously.
Work is getting better - that's for certain. The past 6 months have actually been relatively great. I don't think I've brought my computer home and worked in the evening more than once or twice since about May. Our organization has started to settle in its restructuring efforts, and we're starting to come to grips with our new identity and what it means. For my part, it means good things, including a new boss who has been awesome. We've still got a ways to go, but the improvement over 2014-15 is mind blowing. However... those two years did a lot of damage. I quit caring about what I ate.. like AT ALL. I just couldn't be bothered with one more thing to stress over. And I drank. A LOT. Like, 4-5 bottles of wine per week. It started in late 2014, and it didn't take long before it was a habit, and the thing I looked most forward to after getting home from work.
But, it needs to stop. I've gained nearly half of the weight back that I lost 5 years ago. I still go to the YMCA, but only once a week, which makes my $70/month family membership a total waste of money. So resolution #1 is going to be to get back to a 3x/week exercise schedule, at a minimum. If we can do a little bit of basement clean-up, I can even do some of those sessions at home (equipment currently blocked by piles of crap). And I'm really hoping that if I can get going on resolution #1, that it will lead into resolution #2, which is to quit sabotaging my efforts with food and wine. I'm not even going to say that resolution #2 is to lose weight - not at first. I just need to cut way back on the wine and potato chips and frozen pizza and anything else that's processed and has little nutritional value.
#3 is to get back to crafting, which should come naturally if I can get #1 and #2 established. I've spent the last two years with a glass of wine and a remote control. It hasn't been that I haven't had the time to craft. I just haven't had any desire to do anything that would take me too far away from the kitchen. If I can get back into the habit of just going downstairs, then I'll start doing something with my hands other than hold a glass. This year, crafting will actually be good for my health.
#4, again, will be to try to be more happy. Eating makes me ridiculously happy, and wine tends to help me "unclench". And I'm looking to get rid of that particular source of happy. Not good. And, 2017 is when we become high school parents. We need to find a way to buckle up and enjoy the ride. I haven't entirely figured this one out yet. But I suspect that the continued positive improvements in work life will help. I'm also pondering signing up for some night classes next fall - nothing academic - it won't help my career. But maybe I'll finally enroll in a foreign language class. Or, sign up for the "glass sampler" class (part of the Fine Art program), where you get to learn how to blow glass and do lampwork. If Jake can start taking the bus home after school next year (5th grade) and he and Nicole can agree to not kill each other in the hour before we get home, then I think I can maybe work in one class per semester.
Anyway - those are my goals for 2017. They haven't changed from recent years, but this year, it's more important that I take them seriously.