Saturday, February 1, 2014

2014 Resolutions

As always, I'm late in making them (the latest I've ever been in fact), but I think I have some good ones this year.  One of them is actually so challenging that I've really delayed in deciding on my official resolutions -- when I write it down, then it's on.  Since we loved our trip to China in 2012, I thought my new goal for the resolutions would be Chinese New Year on Jan. 31, which lets me start on Feb. 1, which has at least a bit of a "beginning" feel to it. 

2014 RESOLUTIONS



1.  Travel for fun!  At least one new country!  And get on a plane to go somewhere for pleasure at least six times during the year!  I'm hoping that I actually do less travel for work in 2014.  As one attorney that I use for a lot of Pennsylvania case has worked on my cases for longer, I'm starting to trust him more and will feel less need to go out there and oversee his performance in arbitrations, etc.  I'll still have to go for settlement conferences and mediations (and god forbid trials, if I ever authorized that!), but it should be less work travel in general.  I'm hoping to actually go to multiple new-to-me countries, but I'd be happy with just one. 

2.  Unplug.  Specifically, no playing on my phone when I go to bed.  This one is going to be tough, tough, tough, and the reason I have waited until Chinese New Year to start my resolutions.  I have been trying to define exactly what this means.  My husband and I usually go upstairs at the same time, but it takes him A LOT longer to get ready for bed.  So I was trying to decide if I could play until he came to bed (particularly since we don't really talk anyway while he is brushing teeth, going to the bathroom, etc.), and whether I could use the phone to check email and weather, and to set my alarm and to text.  I've decided there will be absolutely nothing on the phone except responding to texts after he goes to bed. 

3.  Entertain.  At least 6 dinner parties.  And include at least 3 people or couples who haven't been over for dinner before.  This is a repeat resolution for me, but one I like to make because it presses me to do this when I might otherwise be lazy.  I love cooking and I love when we have people over and we don't have to worry about a waiter trying to turn the table, the noise, etc. 

4.  A legit PR.  I won't specify the distance, but ideally, it will be the half marathon (though if we're talking IDEALLY, I'd prefer marathon or 5k).  I know I've said it before, but I've been running for a long time as an adult and I think my PR days are numbered, but hopefully I've got at least one more in these old legs.  I'd actually be very happy with pretty much any legit PR -- I am not counting 8k as legit since my PR is old and easily beatable if I'd just run that distance again. 

5.  A significant number of running commutes.  I won't set a number.  My office is just under 4 miles from my house each way, so there's no reason I can't get back into doing this.  Last year, I commuted by running about 80% of my possible commutes for the first 9 months of the year.  Then I slacked off after the Berlin marathon.  And I'm not sure I've done it more than once or twice so far this year. 

6.  Lose weight.  So cliche, right?  But I want to get back to my "happy number" which is a few pounds above my racing weight.  I think it's been a bad combination in the last four months of many vacation days with indulgent food and drink, laziness, lack of a goal race, stress at work and poor sleep.  All that has resulted in I think the most I've weighed in at least 5 years.  Ugh.  I'm not happy with the way I look or feel.  Hopefully a few weeks of cleaning things up and not bailing on my workouts (or the effort I put forth) will get me back where I want to be, but then I want to stay there.  No more triple marathons and laziness! 

7.  Finish our wedding scrapbook.  By george, this is going to be the year!  Our fifth anniversary is in April, and I want it done!  I have the scrapbook sitting out in plain view in the living room, but it's still only about 60% complete.   

8.  Do another 30 day Bikram yoga challenge.  I did less yoga in 2013 than before, and I missed it.  While I've frequently noted that a 30 day challenge seems to be bad for my marriage, we can survive one month of not seeing each other enough.  It makes me feel so much calmer, more flexible and more relaxed. 

4 comments:

  1. Great resolutions! Where do you do the Bikram challenge? I've always wanted to try one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I usually go to the Bikram on Mockingbird because it's on my way home from work. On the weekends, I tend to go to the West Village one.

      Delete
  2. I'm with you on the traveling thing. I'm going to Puerto Rico for the first time for my 30th in April and I'm too excited!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish I had the funds to travel the world and visit a new country every year. You are truly blessed with having this be an annual option for you. I just hope to make a trip home to Oregon to see my family that I haven’t seen in over 5 years and to make the trip to Vegas to run the RNR FULL marathon. If I don’t run the full at RNRLV, then I want to do it at either the Dallas Marathon or the RNRSA, but I think if I go that route that I would prefer the Dallas just because it would be the first time I ran any part of the course, so it would be new and exciting for me.

    I have a goal to start a scrapbook for my running. I have most of the stuff I need to do it, I just have to make the time and sit down and actually do it.

    I too want to do more yoga. Ideally, I’d like to do an hour a week. And my trainer keeps encouraging me to do some yoga on my own. He says, and I know he’s right, that it will do me so much good.

    ReplyDelete