Um, you guys? It's February. How did this happen? My
life don't travel in the rotation of days lately, as any new mom knows,
they travel in increments of hours. Two hour increments, as this is
what my little nine pound dictator deems fit. So between feedings,
changings, and burpings, we've somehow stumbled into the middle of
February and frankly I am flabbergasted. If you've read my
blog for any length of time you know I love resolutions. This past year
I attempted to do 112 things in 2012 and shockingly I accomplished well over sixty of them! And though its February I really want to keep on with the tradition though a bit altered this year as I read Hijabman's
wonderful breakdown in which he listed out what areas he wanted to
focus on and though my list is not exactly the same, I thought it might
be nice to try a different approach to creating goals. And while I have a
ton more goals that I've journaled out, the ones outlined below are the
ones that are topping my list this year:
Minimize connectivity, maximize the moments: I want to be more present in my life. I recently read this moving post
about how to miss your child's childhood thanks to our hand held
devices. My goal is to simply not use the data on my phone while my
children are around me and to find ways to improve my ability to live in
the moment.
Weight Loss: Last
year I set out a goal to lose 15 pounds. I lost over 20. It felt
amazing. I loved not only the clothes I could wear with confidence but
the discipline I gained. Now? Now I've done had a baby and gained back
the weight [and then some] so I get to resolve to do this all over
again! Yay! [Yeah, no]. I have a bit of a road ahead of me but trying to
remember the mantra nine months on, nine months off and luckily this time around I know exactly what to do to get to the other side.
Run a 5K: I
hate exercise. When I lost weight last year, I did it with diet alone,
but exercise is important and I think I might be motivated to do it with
a goal in mind, like a 5K. My seventh grade gym teacher, after watching
me clock in on the one mile in 16 minutes many a moon ago said that
though he never liked to discourage his students he could safely say I
would never ever be a runner. So now, I'm going to harness the power of
the couch to 5K, sign up for a run in mid-June, and prove Mr. Johnson wrong.
Grow a vegetable garden: My
only hope its not too late? I really want to have more control over
what my family and I eat and growing some of my own food seems to be a
way to do this.
Learn at least one new recipe each month:
I do this anyways but hope not to lose sight now that I'm busier. I'd
also love to share my recipes on this blog if there is interest.
There
are a bunch of other goals like relearning to use my fancy-schmancy
camera, read 50 books, organize my house, create a cleaning
schedule/routine but the ones above are extremely important to me this
year and here's hoping I can accomplish them and blog about them along
the way in the hopes that what I learn on the journey could be of
benefit to someone else. Now if you'll excuse me, the little guy who
rules this roost beckons.
Ever accomplished any of
the things I've written about above and have some advice or perspective
to share? Would love to hear your thoughts on what worked for you or
what didn't and if there's any particular thing listed that you'd like
to read more about than others please do share!
6 comments:
I'm right there with you on so many of these resolutions!
Working on the weight loss (thanks to the amazing egg diet, it's working!)
Working on staying off my computer when Hen's here (though I confess I'm typing this with him sitting next to me. It's his "Thomas" time, though, so we're BOTH distracted!
Working on trying to balance child-care & house-cleaning. Oi. I'm really bad at this balance. Quite good at giving Hen my entire attention, to the detriment of tidiness & cleanliness!
Just start small with your garden and you'll do great. I've never had a garden in the part of the country where you live, but there are some excellent books out there--holler if you want some suggestions, gardens are the best!
I am in awe of your 5K plans! I can't wait to hear more.
And recipes--yes please!
I love seeing others' resolutions& then hearing how it's going throughout the year. THank you for the inspiration!
Thanks so much for your insight and encouragement Susan! The egg diet works every time! lol :)
Re: 5K, I am also an aspiring runner. For some people... I don't know, it's like they just get up and go. I have been slogging away on and off for years. Most recently I ran 2.5 miles (slowly!) but it felt AMAZING. My personal goal is to be able to run 4-5 miles regularly. I'm a long ways off but I'm trying!
I used the couch-to-5k app on my iphone and recently my husband started using it too. The app is great- it tells you audibly when to walk and when to run, and you can listen to music while you're doing it. I recommend it if you're an iphone user. I am slow slow slow... but it still counts :)
My best advice is to acknowledge that not everyone is a born runner (I know I'm definitely not), but if you build up slowly, you can do it. I never in a million years thought I could run. And when I first started, I couldn't even run for a minute (yes, one minute). But go slow, and be patient, and the gains will come. I was really frustrated along the way that it just seemed to take so long to build up, but that's just how it goes. Don't push too hard in the beginning because you might get hurt and then you'll get discouraged. Just keep plugging away! :)
Wow, you accomplished a ton last year! Impressive! And had a baby, too? Incredibly impressive! (I think you did more than I did!) One of my goals this year is to minimize connectivity, too. I'm really grateful that I didn't have an iphone or Twitter or FB when my kids were young; but now that I do, it is indeed a huge challenge and risk to missing all kinds of here and now things. Finally, I can speak to gardening -- we've had one every year for at least 20 years, sometimes just a few things, sometimes more. I agree with a previous commenter to start small. It's really not all that hard: the trick is to stay on top of the weeding and the watering. And it is SO fun to do it with young kids. My advice is to have your older son plant some pumpkin seeds. Very gratifying and fun! You can do it!
good luck with your goals. you have a newborn and you're still managing to read, blog and think of resolutions, wow. five months on, i'm still swimming in chaos, sleeplessness and just general inertia. i can't even think about any kind of organization or discipline. sheesh.
Simeen, thanks so much! You are inspiring me! I have tried the "lite" version of the couch to 5K once I have some predictability in my days I plan to buy the app and get to work. Thanks again!
Julia, thanks so much for sharing your perspective on gardening. . . I LOVE LOVE the idea of pumpkin seeds, would that need to be planted now? Must google this. Thanks again!
MD, aww it is hectic here too and I am definitely sleep deprived but I'm trying to make goals so I can motivate myself to keep on keeping on. . . as for exhaustion, I am quite tired but at the same time something about doing this the second time around gives me more energy than I had with just one. Strange but true. Thinking of you dear!
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