As I head into 2009 and start to think about what I want to accomplish, I wanted to look back at some of the things I set out to do in 2008. You can read them in their entirety here, but at a high level they were as follows:
1. Get down to 200 pounds and stay there.
Not completed and carrying over.
2. Make a couple of movies/learn film editing software.
Not completed an carrying over.
3. Blog more
Somewhat successful but still carrying over. I managed to get everydayux (see goal # 4) off the ground but this fine blog took a hit because of it.
4. Launch a professional blog, everydayux.com
Completed! I plan to keep it going and get to posting more regularly.
5. Finish the Basement
Completed! and I totally love it. Will post photos shortly.
Now onto the plan for 2009….
I’ve mixed up the ones that I’m carrying over from 2008 with some new ones. I’ve listed them in order of importance to me (i.e. I’ll be less disappointed in myself if I fail to achieve the ones towards the bottom than I will be if I come up short on the ones at the top):
1. Get down to 200 pounds and stay there.
Last year, rather than lose any weight, I pretty much ended the year at the same weight I started the year with (~215 lbs), never really losing the pounds I put on training for the 2007 NYC Marathon.
I readily admit that failing to reach this goal is due to not taking it as seriously as I needed to in 2008 – both in terms of diet and exercise. This year I’m going back to the system that worked well for me in 2006 with 30 x 30 – tracking weight, meals, alcoholic beverages, exercise, etc. I’ve also done some research to find changes I can make in my diet that I think will make a difference. The tools I’ll use are: a shared Google doc for behavior tracking, an iPhone app called Weightbot (excellent, simple, playful UI) to track weight trends and the Calorie King website to figure out the nutritional value of various foods.
2. Run a race (preferably the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 30th)
It’s been a while since we ran any race and I’d like to get back in the groove of training for something (frankly, I think that’ll help a lot as I shoot for goal #1). I think a full marathon would be too much on the knees so I’m going to shoot for a half and what better place to do it than in Brooklyn!
3. Control the worry.
This is a more touchy-feely goal but one I wanted to capture nonetheless. I’ve generally been a pretty high strung person throughout my life and I’d like to make a conscious effort to better control when I let myself worry about things. There are a few tactical things I think I can do (i.e. don’t check work email late in the evening if I don’t have to) but I think it’s more of a general approach to worrying about things only when I’m in a position to actually do something about them.
4. Stop biting my nails.
This is a resolution more suited for a child than it is a 32-year old adult but it’s about time I take care of this for good. This one will also make my grandma, who once offered me $20 to accomplish this same goal almost 20 years ago, very happy.
5. Take the Take One A Day (TOAD) baton back from Karen.
After I TOADed in 2007 and then Karen TOADed in 2008, we’ve decided this would be a good project for us to alternate on as it gives us a great visual zeitgeist of all the things we did in the past year. This year, the ball’s back in my court.
6. Write more.
Not a very exciting one but important nonetheless – both on this blog and on everydayux. I would like to explore new workflows or tools that might help make this possible. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
7. Make some kind of movie.
This has been hard one to nail down but I don’t want to give up on it just yet. The main goal here is to familiarize myself with the process of getting video footage as well as gaining a modicum of comfort in Final Cut Express or even iMovie for that matter.
There you have them. See you in 12 months to review how I did.
