One reason New Year’s Resolutions can be tricky is that we often start out with the best intentions but then gradually forget about it. This year I’m hoping to use the end of each month as a “check-in” point to evaluate how I’m doing on my resolutions and troubleshoot if necessary.
One month is just over 8% of the year, so to be on target I would need to be between 8 and 9 % done.
Running and Biking:
I’m slightly behind on running but way ahead on biking!
I loved doing Tour de Zwift and biking 9 events in January, but I think it skewed the balance away from running.
Troubleshooting the Running and Biking Goals: I love using Zwift and the indoor bike trainer, so I’m going to keep that a large part of my winter fitness routine. However, maybe I’ll try to go easier or shorter on the bike trainer so that I can still run 2-3 times a week. I’m also going to pull back on doing long runs. I’d been hoping to start doing some quality workouts to begin training for the Maine Coast Half Marathon in May, but I dread getting on the treadmill for anything over 5 miles. I skipped some workouts due to motivation and I think pulling back and doing the treadmill interval workouts I love and capping it at 5 miles per workout will (counterintuitively) yield higher mileage weeks.
Yoga: I am 10% completed with my yoga frequency goal, with 4 studio classes in January and 1 solo yoga practice of 27 minutes. My intention was to get myself practicing more regularly including at home practices, so I think this is skewed toward the studio side and I’d like to see myself doing a bit more home practice to supplement the studio workouts. Since my goal for the yoga is to keep my plantar fascia pain at bay, doing some more short yoga practices would be great. I’m ahead, but I wonder if my goal should have been even more practices because I can tell when it’s been too long based on how my foot feels. I’m not going to change my goal right now, but I am going to try to have a solo practice at home once a week in February in addition to about a studio class per week.
Other intentions:
Along with my specific goals to run 500 miles, bike 1,000 miles and practice yoga 50 times, I also have intentions for 2019 – things I’m not defining with set parameters but that are priorities or wishful thinking items.
Things like, spend time with friends, make progress on my novel I’m working on, procrastinate less with social media, reduce clutter, bake more homemade snacks, buy in bulk / zero waste projects…. and so forth.
Without getting really formal about it, I can think about each of the things on my wish-list and which ones went well in January and which ones I’d like to focus on more in February. I had a pretty kickin’ January actually – I had champagne with friends, worked out with friends, went out to dinner with friends, rode the bike trainer with Greg, had my sister visit twice, hosted new friends for dinner, made some awesome apricot cardamom cookies, tried new recipes in the Instant Pot, brought the kids to the movies, brought the kids to a show, I mean geez… we actually kind of rocked January!
I’ve even been working hard to spend less time on social media scrolling just to put off unlikeable tasks like washing the dishes, folding the laundry, or meal planning.
NO Facebook, just no.
What’s not going as well?
Well, I signed up for this awesome 30 Day Clutter Blitz challenge recommended to me by a friend and had a great time doing the first three days and then lost focus. I’d like to get back on that bandwagon in February. I also need to actually remove the things I decluttered from our home – right now they’re taking up space in the garage.
I’m hit or miss on eating breakfast – I did a great job in the beginning of the month but have fallen out of habit again. Time to use February as a “reset” button and start again.
Superbowl food planning – this is one of my favorite things ever, and I have not yet figured out exactly what I will pour the buffalo sauce onto this year and what will be served alongside it.
But… I have the Frank’s Red Hot so we’ll be ok, I’ll figure it out!
Hope you had a good January, and that the end of the month can be a “reset” button for you to look at your goals, intentions, and things YOU want out of life and refocus on prioritizing the experiences and people that matter to you.
