I’m not shooting to getting back to THIS skinny, but this gives you the idea…
OK, so, these things don’t usually go so well, but here goes. Fortunately, most of them don’t require much typing, because I can refer you to when I made the same ones in years past. But I’ll start with something a little different:
Lose weight. This still feels new to me, although as you know, I have tried before. It still feels new because I was a skinny kid, and continued the tradition for several decades after I grew up. When I was little, I was also almost always the shortest kid in the class. I got over that in high school, reaching my present moderate height of 5’11” and a fraction. Which was satisfactory (although an even 6 feet would have been more so). But talk about skinny… In my junior year, I was this height, but in the 115 class on the wrestling team. The following year, I was in the 132. Now I weigh in the vicinity (sometimes more, sometimes less) of 13 stone. In the 180s, that is. In the past, I’ve tried and failed to get down to 168. This time I’m going for 160. (That way, maybe I’ll get to 168.)
Eat better. Not just to lose weight, but to be healthier. I haven’t decided whether to go back to the paleo diet, but I’m going to cut out junk — once I get done with the stuff from my stocking. Don’t want to insult Santa.
Meet my step goals EVERY month. I mentioned that it took several days of heavy beach walking to make it in December. And I made it. I will this month, too — then take it from there. What’s the goal? An average of 10,000 steps a day. Back before the stroke, I was doing better than that. But now, 10k looks good. And I haven’t been hitting it consistently enough.
REALLY read more books. Yeah, that was THE resolution last year. And I did a little better. For instance, back then I mentioned starting le Carre’s A Legacy of Spies. I finished, and it was wonderful. But if you do read it, first go back and read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — if you haven’t read them already. It’s a look back at things that were going on at the same time as those books, and it contains huge spoilers. I also got into Candice Millard, reading her Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, and Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill. Both excellent. And I got her The River of Doubt among several other books for Christmas. And I’m coming off a success. I just finished (last night) reading The Scarlet Letter finally. One of my twin granddaughters is reading it in school, and I want to discuss it with her. The other twin is reading Moby Dick, so now I’m going back to finally finish reading that. Overall, I think I’ll make the goal a book a week. We’ll see.
Blog more, and enjoy it more. That means posting more stuff, and spending less of the tiny amount of time I have dealing with civility problems. For starters, I’m just not going to approve anything I see as problematic — thereby forcing me to spend more time responding and explaining. Maybe I’ll do away with comments altogether — probably not, but that’s on the table. In any case, I intend to enjoy it more. We’ll see how that goes…
That’s enough. How about you?
Oh, and to fulfill the promise the headline hinted at…
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I was 205-206 about 15 months ago. I was able to get down to 183 over the course of 6 months. But Thanksgiving and Christmas has allowed me to get back up to 195. Not happy about that and I feel it but I still feel better than I did at 205. But I’m back on the plan and my goal is 177.
My step goal each day is 7000.
My average steps for the entire year of 2023 were 6,644 per my Iphone- which I have with my almost all the time. This was almost exactly 4,000 steps more than my 2022 average – back when I wasn’t even trying to walk.
I am proud of myself for 2023. But I’d like to consistently average over 7,000.
My other goal is to increase my sleep time. I’ve done a bit better in the last year but I’d like to improve it a bit more. I feel like I hurt myself and increased my stress over the past 10 years not getting enough sleep.
My wife and I bought very nice and not cheap Cozy Earth sheets and bought an air purifier for our bedroom. The noise is also very helpful for me at night. This has helped but I still need to focus on going to bed about 30 mins earlier.
Good luck, and hang in there!
I, at least, have no trouble sleeping. Or rather, my trouble IS sleeping. That’s the aftereffect of the stroke. Thank God I can walk and talk. But as it’s been explained to me, the specific damage I experienced to my thalamus messed with my sleep patterns, in the direction of sleeping too much.
So I live with that, and try to get as much done when I’m able to stay awake…