Progress Report

A week has passed and so far no huge revelations to report. 

I’ve been doing quite well with my resolutions.  I have scratched several small nagging tasks off my to do list, finally made a trip to the dentist, go to yoga twice a week, walk my dog in the mornings and I have brought my lunch to work everyday.

I can already see some minor flaws in my resolution chart.  The way I’ve set up is that every day if I do something I get a black X and if I don’t a red X, but some resolutions aren’t meant do be done every day.  For example, I have decided that I should work out 5 times a week, so what happens on the two days that I don’t work out each week?  I get a red X?  A red X is supposed to mark a failure, but it wasn’t my goal to work out every day so for the moment I am leaving non-workout days blank.  Same with nagging tasks, they are supposed to be something more involved than the items on a regular to do list.  I never intended to be tackling a huge nagging task every day!  I’ve decided to switch to a list of nagging tasks kept next to my chart that I scratch off as I do them instead of having it as a category on the chart.

It may seem like I’m over thinking these things, but Gretchen refers to her resolutions chart as one of the most important factors in the success of her happiness project.  The accountability it brings through the constant daily visual of your goals was an invaluable source of motivation to her.  I think making the most accurate and efficient system possible (for me) is important.

    

I have been thinking about my fitness goals, and I think I’m not trying hard enough.  I don’t mean that I’m not exerting myself; I’m referring more to my lack of planning.  One of the things I admired about Gretchen’s happiness project was all the preparation she did like making lists, researching tons of books for her various resolutions, strategizing, etc.

My main goal toward fitness right now is to make it feel like part of my daily routine, time wise.  It’s more of a scheduling goal at the moment.  What about actual fitness goals?  What do I want to accomplish?  I haven’t tried to learn enough.  For example I don’t know anything about calories.  I was talking to Melissa in the kitchen a few days before we started and I said that I have no idea how many calories are in anything.  I could not name the calorie count a single food item.  Mel turned and looked at me with the kind of bewildered expression you might expect see if you asked someone what the internet was.

Now maybe I’m not giving my original goals enough credit; changing your habits is hard and so is making new ones.  I just hate the running commentary in my head that I’m not being effective in my work out.  I hate feeling like my lack of knowledge is causing me to waste my time.  This is the one month where fitness is my only resolution, there’s no better time than now to really focus on it, get organized from the start.

Cause really, at the end of the day, what’s the point is spending this much time every week working on fitness if I’m only giving it a half assed attempt?  In a couple months when I look in the mirror and go, “Whaa?  No change?” and get annoyed at what a waste of time this is and start slacking off, begin to feel tired and draggy again and… you see where this is going.

So, for now I am simply trying to make working out a part of my regular routine.  Create the mindset that I cannot shut down and be a waste of space once I get home from work, that I must workout right away.  Every month to come I will evaluate my fitness goals and make changes.