Goal update
It's been a while since I posted on LJ. (since May!) I've been busy, but I've also been keeping up (mostly) with some of my goals for the year. Let's check in:
1. "Do at least 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups every day in January and increase this every month."
Well, January is well-documented and I did a pretty good job of keeping up with this for a while, but I've fallen into the trap of being "satisfied" with my results, so I've backed off. I've only been doing sit-ups every now and then when I don't run, and I do push-ups even less. However, I can rattle off 100 sit-ups now, as I discovered the other day, which is pretty much right on target -- I should be doing 100 per day in September. However, due to my lack of upper body work (including the push-ups), I'm nowhere near 100 push-ups in a single set. I can manage 50 or so if I crank them out quickly without focusing on form. If I use good form (slowly all the way down, slowly back up) I can manage in the 25-30 neighborhood with significant effort. I'm going to try to get back on the sit-up routine, but more importantly back on the push-up routine. I really want to hit that 100 push-ups in a set goal before the end of this year.
2. "Decrease my body fat through exercise and diet, specifically reducing my dairy and processed sugar intake."
I've been somewhat successful with this, as I've had my scale report body fat % as low at 16 (that's inaccurate, but it's the measuring stick I've been using). And I've gone from 210-215 lbs in January to 180-185 lbs now. I've done it, though, without really significantly altering my dairy or sugar intake. I still have a bowl of cereal for breakfast most days. I still eat yogurt for a "healthy snack" when I'm hungry. I still put cheese on many meals. And I still eat sweets. I'm looking to change this to help push me over the 180 lbs wall that I seemed to have hit. I'm looking to get down to around 165.
3. "Keep work and home better separated by developing a daily routine and installing the pocket doors to close off my office."
I continue to struggle with this one. I get in a pretty good rhythm and then have to take a trip and it all gets thrown off. I'm looking forward to the kids going back to school in a few weeks to help minimize distractions and let me find a good routine that I can maintain. We called a contractor to give us an estimate on installing the pocket doors but he never called back. Very frustrating, as being able to completely close off my office would make a HUGE difference and if we do the work, it's a very big undertaking.
4. "Get my entire music library digitized and backed up."
I put some effort into this early in the year, but mostly it's been waylaid due to lack of a large external storage drive. I did assemble some backup copies and rip discs for my entire Talking Heads/David Byrne/Tom Tom Club collection, but that was as far as I got. I've never even finished re-alphabetizing my collection so that I can find things easily on the shelf.
5. "Finally get around to reading Hofstadter's 'Godel, Escher, Bach,' Peake's Ghormenghast trilogy, Mann's 'Magic Mountain,' Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow,' and Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange.'"
I've only gotten to "A Clockwork Orange" but I did do a good bit of reading in the first part of the year. This has fallen off significantly since the summer arrived. If I can get any of those 4 remaining books read, I'll be happy, as I know the first three are very large tomes.
6. "Write at least 1000 words of fiction every month."
Yeah, not even close. Most months I haven't written ANY fiction. I contented myself with the fact that I was at least writing some non-fiction early in the year, but even that effort has dropped off a cliff (again, with the onset of summer). I had hoped to make a serious run at NaNoWriMo this year, but I think I may need to get some other things in order before I commit my month of November to that effort again.
7. "Begin having monthly Game Nights (board games) by March."
Well, we had one in March. That's been it. I managed to make a local Game Night (every Wednesday at Millennium Games) last week while the girls were out of town, but that's pretty much the sum total of gaming I've had this year. Summer is a never-ending onslaught of yard work, and the girls get to stay up until "dark o'clock" so Wendy's usually too exhausted by the time the girls go to bed to play any games. I'm really looking forward to earlier bedtimes for the girls when school starts.
8. "Practice/play my bass at least once a week."
Apparently I wasn't really that serious about this goal because I haven't even opened up the case, let alone picked it up and played. This disappoints me as I really enjoy playing. I think I feel like if I can't put in a good 30 minutes or more it's not worth picking it up, which is of course nonsense. I need to just pick it up for a few minutes here and there to get back into the feel of it. Maybe the girls will be into it and help motivate me.
9. "Log at least 500 miles of running (that's less than 10 miles per week average)."
Looks like I'm going to come up short on this one, as we're entering September and I've not yet broken the 200 mile mark for the runs I've logged. My best month so far was July when I logged 46 miles. I believe there was one 6 mile run that month that failed to register, and of course the Nike+ log always reports shorter distances than what I actually run (all those 5.6 and 5.7 mile runs are actually just over 6 miles). However, given that there are 4 months left this year, that's about 120 days to run ~300 miles. Certainly doable (2.5 miles every day), but realistically I won't run every day due to travel and other causes. Of course, I usually run 6-7 miles when I run, but even every other day is unlikely, especially as the weather gets worse. I could return to treadmill work at the Y, but I've found that just isn't as enjoyable a workout as street running for me.
10. "Take the girls to Disney World."
This is all booked. We're going the third week of October.
1. "Do at least 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups every day in January and increase this every month."
Well, January is well-documented and I did a pretty good job of keeping up with this for a while, but I've fallen into the trap of being "satisfied" with my results, so I've backed off. I've only been doing sit-ups every now and then when I don't run, and I do push-ups even less. However, I can rattle off 100 sit-ups now, as I discovered the other day, which is pretty much right on target -- I should be doing 100 per day in September. However, due to my lack of upper body work (including the push-ups), I'm nowhere near 100 push-ups in a single set. I can manage 50 or so if I crank them out quickly without focusing on form. If I use good form (slowly all the way down, slowly back up) I can manage in the 25-30 neighborhood with significant effort. I'm going to try to get back on the sit-up routine, but more importantly back on the push-up routine. I really want to hit that 100 push-ups in a set goal before the end of this year.
2. "Decrease my body fat through exercise and diet, specifically reducing my dairy and processed sugar intake."
I've been somewhat successful with this, as I've had my scale report body fat % as low at 16 (that's inaccurate, but it's the measuring stick I've been using). And I've gone from 210-215 lbs in January to 180-185 lbs now. I've done it, though, without really significantly altering my dairy or sugar intake. I still have a bowl of cereal for breakfast most days. I still eat yogurt for a "healthy snack" when I'm hungry. I still put cheese on many meals. And I still eat sweets. I'm looking to change this to help push me over the 180 lbs wall that I seemed to have hit. I'm looking to get down to around 165.
3. "Keep work and home better separated by developing a daily routine and installing the pocket doors to close off my office."
I continue to struggle with this one. I get in a pretty good rhythm and then have to take a trip and it all gets thrown off. I'm looking forward to the kids going back to school in a few weeks to help minimize distractions and let me find a good routine that I can maintain. We called a contractor to give us an estimate on installing the pocket doors but he never called back. Very frustrating, as being able to completely close off my office would make a HUGE difference and if we do the work, it's a very big undertaking.
4. "Get my entire music library digitized and backed up."
I put some effort into this early in the year, but mostly it's been waylaid due to lack of a large external storage drive. I did assemble some backup copies and rip discs for my entire Talking Heads/David Byrne/Tom Tom Club collection, but that was as far as I got. I've never even finished re-alphabetizing my collection so that I can find things easily on the shelf.
5. "Finally get around to reading Hofstadter's 'Godel, Escher, Bach,' Peake's Ghormenghast trilogy, Mann's 'Magic Mountain,' Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow,' and Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange.'"
I've only gotten to "A Clockwork Orange" but I did do a good bit of reading in the first part of the year. This has fallen off significantly since the summer arrived. If I can get any of those 4 remaining books read, I'll be happy, as I know the first three are very large tomes.
6. "Write at least 1000 words of fiction every month."
Yeah, not even close. Most months I haven't written ANY fiction. I contented myself with the fact that I was at least writing some non-fiction early in the year, but even that effort has dropped off a cliff (again, with the onset of summer). I had hoped to make a serious run at NaNoWriMo this year, but I think I may need to get some other things in order before I commit my month of November to that effort again.
7. "Begin having monthly Game Nights (board games) by March."
Well, we had one in March. That's been it. I managed to make a local Game Night (every Wednesday at Millennium Games) last week while the girls were out of town, but that's pretty much the sum total of gaming I've had this year. Summer is a never-ending onslaught of yard work, and the girls get to stay up until "dark o'clock" so Wendy's usually too exhausted by the time the girls go to bed to play any games. I'm really looking forward to earlier bedtimes for the girls when school starts.
8. "Practice/play my bass at least once a week."
Apparently I wasn't really that serious about this goal because I haven't even opened up the case, let alone picked it up and played. This disappoints me as I really enjoy playing. I think I feel like if I can't put in a good 30 minutes or more it's not worth picking it up, which is of course nonsense. I need to just pick it up for a few minutes here and there to get back into the feel of it. Maybe the girls will be into it and help motivate me.
9. "Log at least 500 miles of running (that's less than 10 miles per week average)."
Looks like I'm going to come up short on this one, as we're entering September and I've not yet broken the 200 mile mark for the runs I've logged. My best month so far was July when I logged 46 miles. I believe there was one 6 mile run that month that failed to register, and of course the Nike+ log always reports shorter distances than what I actually run (all those 5.6 and 5.7 mile runs are actually just over 6 miles). However, given that there are 4 months left this year, that's about 120 days to run ~300 miles. Certainly doable (2.5 miles every day), but realistically I won't run every day due to travel and other causes. Of course, I usually run 6-7 miles when I run, but even every other day is unlikely, especially as the weather gets worse. I could return to treadmill work at the Y, but I've found that just isn't as enjoyable a workout as street running for me.
10. "Take the girls to Disney World."
This is all booked. We're going the third week of October.