Friday, January 1, 2010

It's been a year

Well it is has been a year since the blog started and it's been 9 months since I last posted. Just terrible. Worse yet is how I feel about my goals.

So the Health related goals:
1. Run at minimum every other day for a total of 30 minutes (increasing speed, intensity, and duration over the year to hopefully be able to run a half marathon by June, and the distance equivalent of a full marathon by next New Years);
Well the running was not going well when I last posted and not much improved in my significant absence - I still want to keep this resolution so it will not be going anywhere!

2. Cut the junk food out of my diet and life (this means purging the house of all bad foods after today);
Well - junk food - if you have been in my office you'll know what this has meant. I will not be keeping this resolution I will be modifying my health resolutions.


3. No more trips to fast food restaurants for anyone in the family;
Yeah well I can dream!

4. A maximum of eating out once every six weeks with health choices;
This has definitely not happened - but this in part to bad planning and lack of organization at home even just in terms of a general schedule.

Home Related Resolutions:
1. Get the house organized and keep it that way. This means keeping the bills and mail organized, keeping the information that comes in recorded;
So keeping the house organized has been a chore and not happened so well (ask anyone who has been over to the house - no comments Nikki ;) ). I have been keeping on track of the mail and everything else.

I think the bigger problem is getting the house organized in the first place. This is what needs to happen first not just clean the house because our house is clean it is just cluttered.

2. Get up and go to sleep at regular and consistent times
This has been a big challenge and it is going to be very important for the year to reach the rest of the goals so this will also not be going away

3. Participate in the 50 book challenge (although I may modify that because some of my books are extremely long e.g., Roots) so I am aiming at reading 15,000 pages based on 50 books with an average length of 300 pages);
I did really well for the first while! I actually think I finished about 30 books within the year (not all of them were posted). Seeing how busy I am with work so far I think a more realistic challenge is one book a month for the next year!

4. Finish my assignments before Friday of each week so that the weekend can be family time;
This became a moot point in June :)

5. Set up a meal plan for the week and follow it;
This also went all to heck one I stopped posting but this will be coming back.

6. Cook one new meal each week;
I don't think that this was a good goal to start - too much required. I will be changing to two new meals or recipes a month. That way I can be flexible on how often and what weeks this has to be done.

7. Track and organize all the food in the house (deep freeze, cupboards, etc.) so that we can help with the meal planning;
Yeah - bad goal it's GONE!

8. Take and post a picture a day!
I think a picture a day is a LOT - which if you know me sounds very strange considering I took well in excess of 10,000 pictures this year!
- I want a new picture a week and I want to start taking some dedicated pictures which I will elaborate more on later.

9. Keep track of all money spent (including cash);
yeah long story

10. Finally, the most important, post to the blog in a regular fashion to keep myself accountable for my goals!
Do I really have to update on this one?

50 book report

#01 Confessions of a Shopaholic (Kinsella, Sophie)11 Can you Keep a Secret? (2004) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#02 - The Darwin Awards: Detailing the Idiotic Lengths to Which Men will go for Sex (Northcutt, Wendy) (Northcutt, Wendy)

#03 -The Darwin Awards III (Northcutt, Wendy)

#04 Shopaholic takes Manhattan (2002) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#05 Shopaholic ties the Knot (2003) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#06 Shopaholic & Sister (2004) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#07 Shopaholic & Baby (2007) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#08 Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action (Northcutt, Wendy) (in progress)

#09 Organize your life - free yourself from clutter & find more personal time (2007) (Eisenberg & Kelly) (in progress)

#10 Roots (Alex Hailey) (in progress)

#12 Remember Me? (2008) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#13 The Undomestic Goddess (2005) (Kinsella, Sophie)


BOOKS ON MY READING LIST FOR THE NEXT YEAR

Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection (Northcutt, Wendy)

Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design (Northcutt, Wendy)

The Darwin Awards the Next Evolution (Northcutt, Wendy)

A Child Called It: One Childs Courage to Survive

Bitter Fruit (Dangor, Achmat)

By The Time You Read This (Blunt, Glies)

Conflict Across Cultures (Lebaron * Pillay)

Fall on your Knees (MacDonald, Ann-Marie)

Getting to Yes (Fisher & Ury)

Long Walk to Freedom (Mandela, Nelson)

Narrative Mediation (Winslade & Monk)

No Time for Goodbye (Barclay, Linwood)

The Dwelling (Moloney, Susie)

The Measure of a Man a Spiritual Autobiography (Poitier, Syndney)

The Moral Imagination (Lederach, John)

The Pact: A Love Story (Picoult, Jodi)

The Stone Angel (Laurence, Margaret)

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Yes Man!