Resolutions

For someone who has never had a thing for New Year's resolutions, I've got a pretty long list, which will get longer as the year progresses. I will admit...I'm still not going about it the traditional way. As you can see, we are week into the new year and I've just finished a preliminary list. This speaks to one of my first resolutions...in a word, flexibility.

Goal 1. Flexibility.
I would like to start the year off right by giving myself the opportunity to embrace flexibility...in my diet, my daily exercise, my endless to-do list...you name it. It is all too often that I beat myself up for not getting enough done in a day or for cheating on a diet or for skipping a workout. I now have a baby, and while I do not want to use having a baby as an excuse for avoiding things that I might not want to do, this year I am trying to remind myself that sometimes things just don't get done..and that's ok.

Goal 2. Healthy Diet.
Isaiah started solids on Jan 2nd (oh my god! I know!) and I am still desperate to lose the rest of the baby weight. Clearly a focus on diet is in order. While we are not fast food junkies or anything, I do cook like the Midwesterner that I am...lots of cheese and potatoes and such. I hope that "leading by example" will benefit us in the long run here... this is the year we learn to eat our veggies. :) I would love to eat entirely organic, but this is totally unreasonable from a financial standpoint. Instead I am making sure that Isaiah's diet is organic. This goal has turned out to be a blast so far. I've started making homemade baby food from organic produce.

Goal 3. Family Cookbook.
In order to keep our diet interesting...and to find ways to get my husband to eat broccoli, ha...I am trying at least 1 new recipe a week. So far this is working out great, but I have learned that any more than 2 or 3 new recipes gets to be a bit much....especially if they suck 3 nights in a row! I would like each new recipe that gets a thumbs up from both of us to go into a family recipe book that I'm creating. I don't plan on only having 1 child and I do plan on going back to work eventually...a book brimming with tested, healthy recipes will be priceless in the future I'm sure.

Goal 4. Exercise.
Mark and I used to exercise regularly. When we first met we probably would have described each other as athletic...today we are not quite as athletic as we once were. I am not going to commit myself to working out for an hour a day 7 days a week all year long, but I am starting out that way. I busted out our old P90X videos, which is an extremely intense home workout program. Of course, I can't get through the standard version that we used to do every morning at 4am (ugh!), but I've decided to start with the less intense program and am modifying exercises that are too difficult. Currently I workout for an hour a day (or longer if I have a fussy baby break, or two) and I rotate through core-focused exercises, cardio, shoulder and arm strength, ab work, yoga, leg and back strength, cardio kenpo (think Tae-Bo on steroids), and stretching. Once I finish the first 90 days, I'll re-evaluate my workouts and I am almost certain I'll cut back to working out every other day or so. I don't like exercise enough to workout every day, but I do want to be able to get back to rock climbing and hiking advanced trails once summer hits so I'll be kicking my own ass for awhile...I hope.

Goal 5. Craftivism.
Knitting and other crafty endeavors are not just a creative outlet...for me it is like meditation. I use it to relax. I only have to focus on 1 thing...my pattern. It is wonderful! This year I hope to share some of the thing I make with others so I have set a goal of making at least 1 item a month to give to a charitable cause.

Goal 6. Again with the Crafts!
I have a book of 365 different knitting patterns and have told myself for years that I would knit 1 a day. This is the year that I will actually do it...and I plan on knitting the swatches together to make a big blanket.

Goal 7. Write.
Whether its a silly children's poem for Isaiah or one of those more serious writing projects I have stuffed up my sleeve, I plan on taking the time to write something each week. When the focus of your life is writing for at least 8 hours a day every day, its pretty hard to imagine being out of practice...but it does happen. I look back on my previous blogs and it takes every bit of my will power not to go back and correct errors. I know once I start fixing things I won't stop and I'll end up re-writing an entire blog entry that I published months ago...how silly is that?! I could take the time to write my blogs carefully I suppose, but that sort of takes away for the spirit of the blog. Not to mention that I would never post anything because I would write...and re-write..then move this paragraph over here...you get the idea.

Goal 8. Read.
I need to spend more time reading adult things. I used to read constantly, especially when I was on bedrest. I haven't taken the time since Isaiah was born (gee, I wonder why :). This shouldn't be a difficult goal. I read to Isaiah every morning and every night...its usually Shel Silverstein poems, but I take the time to read nonetheless. I intend to replace one of those readings with something I'm interested in. Yay me!

I'd also like too:
- Reach pre-pregnancy weight, fitness level, and/or pant-size
- Keep a daily activity schedule for the month of Jan. I do this for Isaiah's diet since he is starting new foods and for his naps so I can try to get him on a relatively consistent schedule. I might as well do it for myself to make sure I'm sticking with my nutrition goals and to determine where all my precious time goes! Am I wasting too much time watching Oprah or am I actually keeping myself as busy as it feels?

I do have a long list of other things I'd like to try this year, but none of these are goals I am 100% committed to at present. Some of them include:
- Trying a new craft...potentially getting more involved paper crafts, recycled crafts, etc.
- Start a container garden with fresh herbs for the kitchen.
- Look into starting a home compost for the container garden.
- Paint the kitchen, sitting room, hallway, and master bath.
- Set up the office in the basement.

I'm sure I'll continue to add to the list of things I want to do this year...but that's a start. I am curious to see how dramatically I'll roll my eyes as I look back on this blog at the end of the year, while I wonder what the hell I was thinking. haha.