arthur_p_dent

2024 was a pretty decent year goal-wise. Unfortunately, taking a monthly look at my progress fell by the wayside in the second half of the year, and that's something I'd like to be better at this time around so I can truly see how I'm doing. For 2025 I carried over most of my day-to-day goals, but with some modifications. There are no more daily goals - it was far too easy to tell myself that 4 days out of 7 was good enough, when 7 is what I really wanted to achieve. I've also added more goals that are for "me to take care of me" - to add more and different kinds of fun into my life. I'm looking forward to a good year.

( Jan. 31 Goals... )

( Weekly Goals... )

( Monthly Goals... )

( Quarterly Goals... )

And that's it. Wish me luck! =]

Current Mood: determined

Years ago, back at the beginning of the pandemic when most of us got sent home for months, I started exercising as a way to break up the day. Part of that new regimen was setting a weight target. After a very long stretch of ups and downs, and circumstances beyond count, I finally reached that target early last year. And, after a rough end to 2023, I got back to that target again last month.

I've never made 'weight loss' a part of my official goals for the years I've been doing them. My approach has always been "as long as I'm trending in the right direction I'm happy". And for the most part that remains true. But I realized this morning that I'm entering into the period of the year where historically my efforts towards my goals start to falter. This year, the changes I've made in diet and exercise are really working, much better than in all the previous years, and I don't want that to fall off.

So I changed it. I moved that target for the first time in 4 years. It's nothing crazy, but it's reasonable and fair, and most importantly, it gives me something to work towards so that I don't slack off. It's still not an official goal, and there's no hard timeline to reach it either, but once I do get there I'll move it again. And again. And again. Just enough to keep me motivated. =]

Current Mood: pleased

Last year's list was fairly modest, but considering how turbulent the year was that was probably a good thing - I was able to keep things going rather than let them fall by the wayside. This year, however, I'm being more ambitious on both the number of goals, as well as expanding out beyond just "daily maintenance" goals. I've also modified several of the carry-overs, to both challenge me to strive for more gains on things I was successful at, and to redefine some of the things that just didn't work. So without further ado, here we go.

( 2024 Goals... )

Wish me luck! =]

Current Mood: optimistic

Welcome to 2024. To start this year off, here's a look back at how I did with the goals I set for myself in 2023...

( The year in review... )

( A look ahead... )

And that will wrap things up for 2023. For those who have been following along I thank you for your comments and encouragement. I hope you'll stick with me and see what 2024 brings. =]

Current Mood: headachy

... Haircut. Every 4 weeks.

Why, you may ask, am I adding something so seemingly mundane to my list of goals? Well here's the thing.

I like to keep my hair short. Stubble short. And that's because it hides all the grey. And the grey really makes me look old - and when I notice how old I look, I start to feel old too.

It's been about 7 weeks since my last haircut. I was washing my hands a few minutes ago, and when I looked up into the mirror, I saw the age. And I thought to myself, why keep doing this? I know I hate it when I let it go this long, so why not stop letting it go this long?

Therefore, new goal. Haircut tonight, and it goes on the calendar every month for the rest of the year. Sure it's just a little thing, but if I feel better because of it, well what's more important than that? =]

Current Mood: Alright

I just realized something. It was this week last year when work pressures started eating most of my time, and I lost the momentum on my goals list. I remember telling myself "it's only a short term thing, and once things settle down next month I'll get back on track". But I never did. At first it was just the exercise, but it wasn't long before the other things fell off too, and I stopped keeping track altogether.

I've been sick the last week and a half. As I mentioned in Wednesday's post, things have fallen off, but "hopefully I'll get back on track next week". Sound familiar? I have a lot of work pressures going on now as well, and I think it would be really easy to fall into the same trap as last year.

So this post is for me. So that I don't get complacent and lazy, and let the rest of the year slip away from me again.

Current Mood: determined

At the beginning of 2022, I decided to follow in so many others' footsteps, and I made a list of goals. Much of it was related to personal health, because I was unhappy with the condition I had allowed myself to fall into. And for a while I was doing very well - until the end of April when everything went to shit.

Work was the initial thing that got me off track, and after a few weeks, even though I had all the intentions in the world of starting things up again, I simply could not get motivated (once I began believing my own excuses, I knew I was sunk). Before I knew it, the rest of the year had slipped away.

And now, here we are at the start of 2023. After taking a critical look at my goals from last year, and taking some other things into consideration, I think I've got a good starting point for this coming year.

( 2023 goals )

As I said, this is a starting point - I fully expect changes within these items, as well as new items to be added. But for me, I know I need to start out on a smaller scale or else risk getting overwhelmed and not even getting off the ground.

Wish me luck! =]

Current Mood: optimistic

For any Duolingo fans/users out there, I just completed the entire course in Dutch! 8D

Consecutive days = 707
Sections = 6
Levels = 6
Lessons = I have no f'n idea

Am I fluent now? = No f'n way! LOL

I can do a decent job translating written Dutch to English. The other direction though, I still have difficulty remembering sentence structure and word order.

What's next? Well, I had the audio and verbal aspects turned off most of the time, so I have no real idea if the pronunciations I made up in my head are accurate - so I'm planning to do practice lessons with audio to make some improvements there. The big question now is whether I can keep my streak of consecutive days going with no specific goal to chase.

I don't think I'll start another language though. I had started this one as a way to make a bit of a connection back to my Dutch heritage (dad was born there). Had it not been for that, language learning would not have been something I'd have done at all.

Glad I took on this challenge. It's one hell of an accomplishment, even with the asterisks. =]

Current Mood: accomplished

As previously mentioned, today is the day for me to get back on the horse - to pick up where I left off 5 weeks ago. No small feat, since I've gotten quite comfortable with inactivity again. I can see having to consciously talk myself into doing things for the next several days, especially since it's so easy to not do them. But do them I must.

Today was a decent start in most regards. I was able to complete everything on my list except for one item - exercise. That one will be a bear to get back on track with, and will take some time to get back to the level I had reached at the end of April. I will also have to revisit the fitness goals I had set. I just barely missed the April goal, but the one for June is shot to hell.

I also mentioned that I will be starting a new summer project. I will be making a crochet blanket from a pattern I've created entirely on my own. I started with a picture of (if you can believe it) an area rug. It's a fairly simple geometric design that lends itself nicely to being done in separate sections, and stitched together at the end. Creating the pattern was an interesting challenge. Starting with just a picture, I had to determine dimensions for the blanket and the individual sections, pick a crochet stitch that I thought would look nice, figure out stitches per inch and rows per inch, and calculate how much yarn to buy. Now it's time to put hook to yarn and get crafting - the target completion date is October 31, and I'm planning to do monthly progress posts (complete with pictures) on the first of each month.

Speaking of pictures, here's one to get the ball rolling. Included are the original photo that I took the design from, my sketch based off of that photo, and the various yarns I'll be using. Wish me luck! =]

Current Mood: pleased

It feels like forever since I did a progress update. And technically I'm late too, since I should have done this yesterday. But - reasons.

Week 13: 71%
Week 14: 71%

Much improved since the last update, but not back to where I would like it to be. As for reasons...

April not only brings "April Showers" - for me it also brings my busy time of year. Our company is going into our year-end, which means 2.5 solid months of extra hours and extra stress for me. Now, after almost 23 years I know what I'm going to have to deal with, but knowing doesn't make it any easier.

What does this mean for my goals? Well, for one I'm not adding anything major to the list until July or August. What I have now is probably more than I should be doing under the circumstances, but I'm not going to take anything away either. That also means that I need to be sure that I don't beat myself up if I can't keep the pace I want to. I do still want to do as much as I can, but I'm also aware that there will be days that I just can't.

There is, however, one thing that I do need to add to my list during this time. It is not something I thought I would have to be doing, but life often throws shit at you that you just have to deal with.

I will have to update my resume.

I found out a couple weeks ago that the company's owners are "beginning the process of marketing the company for investment, merger, or sale". Now this could take some time, but the upshot for me is that if the company is sold, I'll almost definitely be out on my ass. So, in order to be prepared for just such an occurrence, I'm adding my resume to my goals - I need to make sure it's up to date by the end of June. And then just roll with the punches I guess.

Aside from that, spring is here (ish). Curling season is done, and golf season is close to getting underway. There are landscaping projects to get done, and some more finishing touches on the house. Mostly, I'll be glad to not be cooped up in the house.

That's all for today. I hope everyone has been having a great week, and has fun times planned for the weekend. =]

Current Mood: irritated

So it seems I'm several days overdue. Wanna know why? Because I didn't really want to have a record of the past couple weeks. But eventually I decided that "I don't wanna" is a bullshit reason, so here goes...

Week 10: 71%
Week 11: 39%
Week 12: 64%

Now, the second half of week 10 was spent being sick. Those four days, and the first couple days of the next week, I let pretty much everything slide. And that much I'm ok with - I felt pretty lousy for a while and there was no way I was going to get up early to exercise, or get any semblance of a decent amount of sleep.

But it's been almost a solid week since then, and I'm still playing drag-ass. I haven't exercised in almost two weeks. Last night was the first full night of sleep I've had in the same period, but I had to stay in bed an extra hour to make it happen. Hell, I haven't even taken time to set up my planner for April yet. Tomorrow, like it or not, I'm forcing myself back into my routines.

One thing I did accomplish last month, which I mentioned before, was to write something. I still haven't gotten around to doing a final edit, but I plan to this week - I have the house to myself for a few days, so there's no shortage of peace and quiet. I have another piece I want to write this week as well, and I'm hoping I can post them both soon.

I suppose that's all for this time around. I hope everyone is doing well, and we all get to enjoy some nice spring weather very soon. =]

Current Mood: relaxed

You may have noticed I've switched to biweekly posts. Yes, since there isn't as much to update, I don't think I need to post that often. Quick recap on progress:

Week 8 - 79% completion, same as week 7. Is that a sign of consistency???

Week 9 - 86%!!!!! I got into a pretty good groove last week, and managed to carry it through. Let's see if I can keep up that pace.

So about a week and a half ago, it was unseasonably warm. I decided that I would give myself a test to see just how much progress I had made - I went for a jog out in the *real world*. Long story short, I was able to keep just about the same pace and duration as I do on the treadmill inside. Big difference? Leg pain. I had forgotten just how much effect impact with solid ground has on the body. I was hobbling around for five days.

Overall though, it's a good indicator of just how much progress I've made so far. I'm consistently running 6k at a time now - that was unthinkable two months ago. My sleeping still isn't as good as I want it but I do feel better, so that's a plus.

Changes for this week:

Just bumped up to 50 minutes per day for exercise. No issues there - pretty comfortable at this duration.

My reading for this week is done already, so I have some time to start on my writing goal. I have the basic ideas for a poem and a short story, and I'm really pleased with both. Am I going to share? The poem, probably yes. The short story? Welllllll, let's see how it turns out first.

Anyway, that's everything for this time around. I hope everyone is having a good week. *Hugs* if you are, and *Hugs* if you aren't... Ah let's face it - *Hugs* all around! =]

Current Mood: pleased

I've been waiting to make this post since I first started on my 2022 goals, and the day is finally here. =]

In my last post I talked about how my momentum got derailed by the scale. And one of the things I mentioned was that I didn't have a specific weight goal. Well, that wasn't entirely true. While I didn't set one at the start of this, I did already have one from years ago.

Back in 2020, this thing called COVID came along, and in the initial flurry of shutting down the world, we were all sent to work from home. At the time I was sitting around 106 kg (235 lbs), and since I was going to be trapped in the house indefinitely, I decided I would use the time to start exercising and drop some poundage. As a motivator, I set myself a target weight of 100 kg (220 lbs). I felt it was a reasonable and achievable goal. But 2 months later we were back in the office, and all that went out the window.

Fast forward to 2022 - time to set some goals and work on my health. I didn't want to set a specific weight goal because my real purpose is being healthier, feeling better, and feeling better about myself. But that old target was still out there, and had really gotten within reach. At the beginning of February I almost got it - 100.1 kg (so close!). Then came those two weeks of gains that put me into a bit of a funk. Since then I got back on track, and as of yesterday...

99.6 !!!!!!!

I finally reached that goal, and it felt so good. And it reinforces in my mind that I'm on the right track, and even though I still expect some fluctuations as I go, it's not the end of the world.

Current Mood: ecstatic

Here we are in March already - the year seems to be flying by. Time for a recap of the second half of last month.

Week 6: A fairly solid week, coming in at 79% for the second week in a row. Settled into a nice routine, things were going well, and then...

Week 7: The week started on a vacation day, and I took it as a "me" day. That day itself was really great, but the wheels really fell off after that. Some sleepless nights made a return, which, as it did in the past, impacted my ability to keep up with other goals. My success rate plummeted to 65%, my worst week yet. So what happened? Well, it was the scale.

I haven't mentioned weight before, and that was intentional. I went into this whole thing with the mindset of weight loss being essentially a side-effect of improving my health. I've been keeping track weekly, but I never set any target other than "down". My rational brain knew full well that fluctuations are inevitable. But, after reaching my lowest weight in I-have-no-idea-how-many years back at the beginning of February, two consecutive weeks of substantial gains simply got to me.

It took a few days to quiet the negative thoughts swimming around in my head, and bring my focus back where it needed to be. Since it was almost the weekend and I had a lot of other things to accomplish, I decided to not stress over it and just start fresh on Monday. And this week has been OK so far, although a different demon has been plaguing my sleep (not going to talk about that one).

Changes for the coming month: Exercise duration is now up to 45 minutes a day, and I've decreased the daily limits on coffee and alcohol. I'm also starting to take a closer look at my eating habits - portion control in particular. I'd like to put some food-related goals in place for April, so I need to do some planning to figure out what those will be.

And there's one other thing I'm adding for March. Taking some inspiration from all of the great material I've read here, I'm going to write something myself. Writing (creatively at least) is definitely not within my list of life skills, so I expect this to be a real challenge. I'll deal with the anxiety of whether or not to actually post it later - for now let's just see if I can create something that's not jibberish. =]

Current Mood: calm

*Took Monday off and apparently I no longer know what day it is...*

Another good week last week - 79% completion. Sleep is starting to become more regular now, although I think it's mostly because I'm tiring myself out through exercise more than anything. Got another book read as well.

Cutting it short this week - almost time to hit the "gym". Hope you're having a great week! =]

Current Mood: Sluggish

Just a quick post about how important hitting my sleep goal is…

Last night I slept like crap. A couple hours at best. But when I got up I didn’t immediately roll over and go for more sleep like I usually do. Instead I got up and made a coffee, and tried to push through.

Well, by the time my “start exercise” alarm went off, I was barely coherent. And I seriously considered lying down to get an extra 45 minutes of rest. And then I fought with myself for five solid minutes about which direction to turn - the basement or the bedroom. It was a real struggle.

Eventually I convinced myself that even a light stint on the cycle was worth the effort, and I dragged myself downstairs (btw, this was the very first time so far that I didn’t choose sleep). But had I got my minimum of five hours sleep, there never would have been a question.

Anyway, that’s all I wanted to talk about. Tomorrow’s a long day so hopefully sleep comes much easier tonight.

Ciao! =]

Current Mood: frustrated

Hi! Back again for my weekly update.

It appears I may have developed a new hobby along the way… yo-yo’ing. Down, up, down, and as you may have guessed by now, this week I’m up again. It was a really good week, with a 76% completion rate. Hit my sleep goal 5 of 7 nights, which in turn led to a 5 for 5 on exercise. Also managed to complete the first weekly reading goal, and the first increase in exercise duration went off without a hitch. I haven’t looked closely at this week so far, but I feel like I’m on a good track, and can maybe put the yo-yo away.

So something I haven’t talked about yet is whether I have any specific goals related to exercise. Well, in fact I have three targets for this year:

1) By April 30… 60 minutes sustained indoor jogging/cycling, minimum 3 times per week. This is my base level to be able to transition to outdoor activities once the nicer spring weather kicks in.

2) By June 30… 10 km jogging twice per week, 2 hour cycling once per week. The cycling shouldn’t be an issue, but reaching the jogging goal in just two months might be a bit aggressive. Time will tell on that one.

3) On October 16… run 21 km - the distance of a half-marathon. This is the date of the Detroit Marathon, and while I’m not signing up for the actual race this year, I want to prove to myself that I can still cover the distance (in 2015 I ran it in 2 hours 43 minutes).

All of these should be achievable if I meet my daily goals. I’ll have to announce them with some degree of fanfare once the targets have been reached. =]

Current Mood: Fairly Decent

Ahh, the joys of trying to make changes in one's life. Some weeks you’re up, but other weeks…

Yes, I slipped backward. Considerably too - only 67% completed last week. Sleep (or a lack thereof) is still steering that ship, and a busy weekend prevented me from catching up on missed exercise. Certainly not a trend I want to continue. Fortunately this week has started out very well, and last week’s shortcomings are great encouragement to keep it up.

February is off and running, and it’s time for a couple of modifications to the plan. Nothing earth shattering - I still want things you be achievable. First is to add five minutes to the daily exercise, up to 35 minutes minimum per day. Future increases will come at two week intervals, ultimately reaching one hour per day starting the week following Easter. Also, my curling league is starting back up again this week, which I will be counting as a bonus exercise day each week.

Finally, I’m adding a weekly reading goal. Real books - nothing digital. I have a shelf full of old books from my childhood that I’ve been wanting to read again. They’re fairly short (under 200 pages apiece), and I feel comfortable that I can read one a week. So we’ll see how that goes.

Well, to sum up January, it was a bit of a bumpy start, but not at all unexpected or discouraging. Hell, the fact that I haven’t scrapped the whole idea already is a win all on its own.

I hope everyone else is making progress with your own goals. =]

Current Mood: mellow

I spent some time this week figuring out how I want to quantify my various goals, so that I can look for patterns and track my progress (I don’t normally like to use the accountant part of my brain too much at home, but sometimes it comes in handy). After some trial and error, I think I’ve got it straightened out.

For week one I had no data. You may recall that I tried to wing it, and kept no records - a mistake in judgement that ultimately led me down this path.

So starting with week two I had a 70% success rate. I’ll be honest, I’m actually surprised I started out that strong. I think the key here was setting targets that are achievable right out of the gate. I can always adjust targets down the road, but if I don’t give myself a fighting chance to change behaviours first, I would just be setting myself up to fail.

Week three brought noticeable improvement - 79% success. The biggest factor was making up some of my missed exercise days on the weekend, which I neglected to do the week before. Hopefully this week I’ll get my full five days in, and keep it going after that.

Trends? Sleep is still my nemesis. With my target set at a minimum of five hours a night, I’ve managed meet it only 5 times out of 14 nights. And, just like I mentioned last week, failure to meet the sleep target immediately led to failures in other areas the following day. Now that I have a decent tracking system set up, I really need to start making some notes about what’s happening on nights where I’m not sleeping, so I can get an idea on what to focus on.

That’s it for this week. See you next week when I wrap things up for January. =]

Current Mood: okay

Meant to do this yesterday - I had a regular Wednesday post going for a while, so I figured I’d pick that up again and do an update on how I’m doing with the goals I’ve set for myself this year.

The overall target for the first few months is to improve physical health. I know, pretty cliche right? But the bottom line is that I’ve been increasingly unhappy with the direction I’ve been going over the past several years, and I’m determined to turn that around. The first week was a disaster, and I ended up getting a daily planner so I had some traceability. This has already been very beneficial - being able to see the good and the bad, and seeing patterns emerge.

Food-related items are going surprisingly well. I’ve only missed my daily limits on caffeine and alcohol once so far, and portion control on meals is heading in the right direction. The struggle with these things is that they can all turn into coping mechanisms very easily - it hasn’t happened yet but I need to be aware and recognize if this starts being an issue so I can deal with it.

Other things are much more of a work in process. Daily exercise is on the list, and when I do get started in the morning I enjoy it (always have). The motivation to drag my butt downstairs is still somewhat lacking however. That falls under “getting into a routine”, and I expect it to get easier over the next couple weeks.

The other thing affecting exercise is sleep, and this will be my biggest hurdle for the foreseeable future. Getting to bed and actually getting decent sleep has been a big problem the past year+ (Covid isolation wasn’t the cause, but it certainly made me cognizant of the issues that are). So far, sleep is the area where I’m seeing the least progress. And the noticeable pattern is that failures in other areas immediately follow nights where I’ve missed my sleep targets. Keeping a close eye on this one.

Today is starting out on the right foot. Despite missing my sleep target by about an hour, I did manage to get downstairs for some exercise (I chose the stationary bike so I could write this at the same time), and I’m feeling more energized already. Hopefully work doesn’t bring anything that might slow the momentum. =]

This post was on the long side, but future updates should be a bit lighter. Enjoy your day everyone - see you next time!

Current Mood: energetic

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arthur_p_dent

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