Resolutions Results Reviewed—Week 2

So…three fairly simple personal resolutions.

1)     De-clutter the house.

2)     Be on time.

3)     Lose the five pounds recently gained.

I don’t recall if they were in some order but, obviously they should have been in the order of priority.  Because the three keep getting in the way of each other. 

Let’s talk about de-cluttering, as that is my best-kept resolution.   I have gotten one-half of a hall closet cleaned out.  I donated four coats and multiple pairs of boots.  Then I stuffed the scarves, gloves and mittens into a decorative box, unsorted, and put them back into the closet. That’s a project for another day.   Oh, and the extra purses, I donated a few of them.  Then I put the rest in another box and hid the box upstairs behind the guest bed.  Another project.  I have yet to tackle the tops shelves of the closet. 

Does that count as de-cluttering?  I say “yes.”  Getting rid of anything requires an emotional letting go for me.  ‘Plus, the closet looks much better, as long as you don’t look up at the shelves.  Also, for the most part, I have kept up with endless array of current clutter that comes through the front or back door by way of the post office, UPS, or otherwise.  You might think this is not a big achievement, but I’m giving myself one star on de-cluttering.

However, de-cluttering tends to interfere with the second resolution, being on time.  And maybe even the third resolution.  When I am knee-deep in old boots and it is time to head to the gym I found it hard to shift gears and get to class on time.  Plus, I was late meeting a friend.  The friend meeting might technically be counted as on time:  I was in my car and on the parking lot on time.  But by the time I circled around three times and found a place to park I was several minutes late.  The friend was willing to give me a pass.  But that means I’m using the “parking excuse,” something I said I wouldn’t do.  So no, I did not keep this resolution.  No gold star.

And that missing a little of the exercise class may have contributed to the poor results on the last resolution.  No, I have not lost any more weight since last week.  That result may or may not have anything to do with the batch of homemade meringue cookies with lemon curd I made.  To take over to a friend recovering from surgery.  Does that sound as transparent to you as it does to me?  Yes I guess it does.

Maybe I need another plan, less resolutions, or a different priority.  I know I need to get rid of the rest of the cookies without eating any more.  But it is only week 2.  And as Scarlett, said, “Tomorrow is another day.”  So we will see if I can get three stars next week.  Hope you have some gold stars on all of you on your resolutions.

Resolution Results--Week 1

I have yet to do anything about the blog resolutions.  But I am happy to report I have started to work on the personal resolutions. 

You may have noticed, my personal resolutions included the word “try” for getting rid of clutter and being on time.  That is because losing the five pounds should be easier than either of the other two.  I have yet to do anything about getting rid of clutter.  Just putting the house back to sort of normal after the holidays and after out-of-town company was all I had the time or energy for.  So maybe next week I will try to do a little clutter control.

As for being on time, I’d give myself about a 50% score.  If you were waiting for me somewhere and feel I should get a lower score feel free to chime in.  But at least twice I was on time when I might not otherwise have been.  Nevertheless, it is still a struggle to get anywhere on time.  Why is that? 

On one goal though I can count some success.  It’s so great to be back to water aerobics.  The class I attend has a great instructor and the nicest group of participants.  Instead of feeling like exercise, being in the water just makes me happy.  Except for the first few minutes of adjusting to the cold water.  Which makes me work harder to warm up.  So it is all good.

Contrary to advice I have read about weighing yourself every day, I weigh at most once a week.  After going to my exercise class three days and walking in the park most days. I lost one and a half pounds this first week I ate dessert only once, a little strawberry ice cream.  Other than that I didn’t diet.  But the first pound or two is the easiest, isn’t it?

The best part of getting back to water exercise, and even swimming a few laps, is that I feel stronger and more flexible.  And I have less aches and pains in my lower extremities.  But my shoulder/ arm and neck issues do not seem to be any better with exercise.  At least they are no worse.  I may have to make another doctor appointment to see where the radiating pain in my arm is coming from.  Maybe I need to expand that resolution list. 

Good Blog Resolutions--Part 2

Here are my blog-related goals:

1)     Label my blog entries by category so my readers can find the subjects in which they are interested.

2)     Try to make my blog entries a little shorter.  I know, my thoughts are too cluttered, like my closets so it is hard to keep them neat and tidy.

3)     Add more photos to my blog.  This one should be fun. And we need to keep fun in our lives and in our blogs.

4)     Use some of the techniques I’ve read about to publicize my blog and use keywords so my potential readers can search for topics of interest.

5)     Discuss the occasional serious topic in the hope it might help someone think about an important issue.  Perhaps we can even make a difference on some topic of more importance than our own cluttered world, our own over-large waistlines, or own over-filled schedules.  As we clear some of the excess out of these areas of our life we may make room for other issues of importance to the rest of the world.

I hope my resolutions and any that you make for this new year help you and others. Happy New Year. 

Good Resolutions 2012--Part 1

I thought about recycling an old set of resolutions.  After all, who actually accomplishes everything on their “to do” resolutions list?  And who would know?  But I have previously published my resolutions lists, on the rare occasions that I made one.  So I figured I would start fresh.

And this year I actually have some resolutions.

The first three resolutions are personal.

1)     I am going to try to be closer to on time this year. You probably noticed this resolution list is about four days late already.  I usually try to squeeze in two or three more things before I leave the house to head out to an appointment.  As a result I usually am late.  I then blame traffic, or getting lost or whatever.  I need to leave earlier and plan on traffic, getting lost, etc.  In fact, I need to plan to get wherever I am going a few minutes early.  Maybe then I will be on time.  My strategy is to set my iPhone alarm several minutes before I need to leave and use that ring as a cut off to take the final steps: get my hat, coat, gloves, and keys, go the bathroom, whatever… and get out the door.

2)     I am going to lose the five pounds I gained while I had a staph infection and was avoiding swimming and water aerobics.  Unfortunately, the avoidance of my favorite exercises overlapped the holiday season and I engaged in lots of eating, especially sweets.  
     
     So my strategy is to get extra exercise and avoid desserts until I am back to my pre-Thanksgiving weight.  I recently read the article about how you have to be nearly super-human to lose weight and keep it off once your body adapts to a weight gain.http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/behind-the-cover-story-tara-parker-pope-on-obesity/?scp=1&sq=lose weight&st=cse

    The good news is if the weight gain has been short term, only a few months, it may not take up permanent residence on your hips and in your brain.  I think the two months these five pounds has been with me may be short enough that my body won’t notice the loss when I kick it in gear and get rid of it.  At least I hope so.

3)     I am going to try to get control of the clutter in my surroundings.  That should allow me to make our home more user-friendly. Sounds like a description of a new software package, doesn’t it? But I am talking about more bricks and mortar, or clutter piles.  Closets that are filled with useless things, rooms that have accumulated piles of unfinished projects, and plastic tubs packed with stuff no longer needed or wanted.  Out this stuff needs to go.

All three of the foregoing resolutions are of the type most of us make on a regular basis.  That is, unless you never gain excess weight, are neat and tidy and immediately get rid of all clutter, and always arrive at the time you say you will.  Is there anyone out there like that?  If so, will you share your secrets?


My next post will be about my goals for this blog. Looking forward to writing fro you, my readers, and I hope hearing back from you.