Every New Year’s Resolution is a series about changing your life through goal-setting. For 2017 I set 10 resolutions and I’m going to try to achieve them all. Read the original post explaining everything if you’re just getting started. In each post I review my daily progress. This is week two
Monday January 16, 2017
Today was a win. I woke up early for a Skype meeting, then I felt groggy the whole morning. An inauspicious start. But then I went down to the gym and breezed through 30 minutes on the bike. I thought I’d do 35, then, having lost myself listening to a podcast, I was nearly at 45. By that point I had to convince myself to do an hour. You see, I wanted to stop, but I only had 9 minutes left by the time it got tough, so I just kept distracting myself knowing that I’d feel better having done the extra 9 minutes. It was true, I do feel better.
After that the day proceeded relatively normally. I had no Soylent but I did have two Kombuchas, bringing my total added sugar consumption to 8 grams. I also made a great vegan Pho for lunch while fitting in work in the afternoon and evening. There is always more to do, but overall today was a success.
Get Fit: 1 hour and 1 minute on a stationary bike.
Save Money: Currently at 46.10
Get Organized: I made a big dent in my clothing situation–cleaning out some things to donate.
Learn Chinese: I did Chinese flashcards during lunch.
Practice Guitar: Played briefly just before bed.
Quit Sugar: It was a good day, only 8 grams from two Kombuchas.
Read 26 Books: Read about 20 pages of Mortality by Hitchens.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading, which is enough, probably.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
Tuesday January 17, 2017
Today was also a win, all in all. I woke up feeling groggy and bad. I powered through the workout, doing 31 minutes on the bike. Doing that 1 hour session a few days ago really helped. I got to mentally tell myself I was only doing half as much effort as before. It’s all relative. I had a pretty unproductive morning but kicked things into high gear with some work in the afternoon.
Get Fit: 31 minutes on the bike.
Save Money: Currently at 50.27
Get Organized: Very little on this, but my cleaning after making two soups including a homemade pho was herculean… Damn that kitchen was messy, but I got it done.
Learn Chinese: I did Chinese flashcards in bed, just before sleep. I almost missed this one! I probably would’ve given up but I didn’t want to break the streak.
Practice Guitar: Played during lunch.
Quit Sugar: It was a good day, only 5 grams, maybe, from a croissant.
Read 26 Books: Read a little bit of Mortality.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading and some work on another project as well.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
Wednesday January 18, 2017
Today was a good day. I did 35 minutes on the bike, then went straight to work.
Get Fit: 35
Save Money: Currently at 52.11
Get Organized: Aside from normal maintenance I did not do much here. The house is not messy though, so I suppose that is a win.
Learn Chinese: I did Chinese flashcards at lunch.
Practice Guitar: Played after dinner. Worked on a new song. Progress.
Quit Sugar: I had one bottle of Soylent for a total of 9 grams.
Read 26 Books: Read some, but not much, of Mortality.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading and some work on another project as well.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
Thursday January 19, 2017
Today was important. I missed my morning workout because I was up quite late the night before with family issues. I didn’t make it up later in the day, so this is the first streak break on the workout side. I actually don’t feel bad but it’s mostly because I believe missing it once doesn’t mean I am going to suddenly get lazy all the time. Time will tell though.
Get Fit: 0
Save Money: Currently at 52.11
Get Organized: Normal maintenance, digital organization is next.
Learn Chinese: I did Chinese flashcards before bed.Slippage here, but not breaking the streak.
Practice Guitar: Played after dinner.
Quit Sugar: I had one bottle of Soylent for a total of 9 grams.
Read 26 Books: Read some, but not much, of Mortality.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading and some work on another project as well.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
Friday January 20, 2017
Back in the groove. It was harder to go to the gym than actually doing the work. A good reminder that most of this stuff is mental.
Get Fit: 30 minutes on the bike
Save Money: Currently at 57.59
Get Organized: Almost nothing.
Learn Chinese: I did Chinese flashcards before bed. Slippage here, again, but not breaking the streak.
Practice Guitar: Played during lunch.
Quit Sugar: I had one bottle of Soylent and some Kombucha for a total of 13 grams. I also had some Pho at a restaurant. It didnt’ taste that sweet, but maybe the broth had sugar. Hard to say. Let’s be harsh on myself and say I had 10 grams of sugar–that would bring me to 23 total.
Read 26 Books: Read some, but not much, of Mortality.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading and quite a bit of writing on another project.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
Saturday January 21, 2017
This was a pretty slow day.
Get Fit: Off
Save Money: Currently at 57.59
Get Organized: Almost nothing.
Learn Chinese: Off
Practice Guitar: Played for fun.
Quit Sugar: I had one bottle of Soylent and some Kombucha for a total of 13 grams. I also had a small amount of whiskey, which I’ve read has very little sugar. This was the first alcohol I’ve drank since the start of the month.
Read 26 Books: Read some, but not much, of Mortality.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading and a bit on another project.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
Sunday January 22, 2017
A relatively relaxed day. It was a good break after a week of getting things done.
Get Fit: Off
Save Money: Currently at $83.29
Get Organized: Almost nothing.
Learn Chinese: I did Chinese flashcards before bed even though I didn’t have to.
Practice Guitar: Played briefly.
Quit Sugar: I had half a Soylent and half a bottle of the new rose flavored GT’s Kombucha, which has a whopping 7 grams of sugar per serving. So, I had approximately 11-12 grams today.
Read 26 Books: Finished Mortality, started The Three Body Problem.
Minimize Social Media: I checked Facebook a couple times to reply to messages. No feed-scrolling.
Write Every Day: I did the post you’re reading and quite a bit of writing on another project.
Make a Difference: My current thought is to transform this into a buy no new items challenge. To be honest I’m skeptical of the sort of part-time make a difference-ing that I’ve been doing. I don’t think it’s enough.
