It’s Been Awhile

OMG. It’s been too long. I survived 2020. A lot of people didn’t though. It was a crap year in a lot of ways. But there were some silver linings. A new president is on the way. I actually have enough saved to pay off my student loans. I’m holding on to as much savings as possible in case I lose my job or some calamity happens, but as soon as things calm down, I want to get rid of the loans. They have been dragging me down for nearly a decade and it is time to rid myself of them.

In any event, I want to set some goals for 2021. Some years, I have a million goals. This year I want to streamline it, at least at first. Let’s get to it:

1. Drop the weight. Get to 163 lbs – I have been stuck at 189 for months. And for someone 5’7, that ain’t great. It is an improvement since mid-July, when I was 194.8, but I haven’t been below 185 since April, and I haven’t bee below 180 since last November as I was training for the Philly Marathon. If I lose a pound a week, that would get me to my goal by the end of June. I think that is a realistic deficit.
   
   To do that I want to:
   • Track all my calories for the month of January
   • Limit soda, sweets and fried foods to one day (Jan. 20)
   • Keep my calories under 2000 as much as possible
   • Get under 186 by the end of the month.
     
     
2. Be the fittest all around I can be – I was saying to someone the other day that I want 2021 to be the ‘fittest year ever’ for me. I am having a hard time quantifying that though so I have to think specifically. I’m probably never going to run a half marathon in 1:24 like I did when I was 24. I don’t want just good endurance fitness right now. I want to be all around. So I want a combination of strength and endurance. I’m having a hard time formulating what that is. But I will break that into smaller chunks. For the first two weeks of January, I will do a 15 minute full body routine I found online three days a week. And then three days a week I will ride my bike for an hour. In mid-January, I will revisit the plan to eventually add some running and extend the bodyweight fitness routine. My plan would be to do 3 days a week of some combination of bodyweight exercises and 3 days a week or running or biking. This combined with me losing weight will help get me to a fit place. I’ve done well so far the last few weeks, so I hope to continue.

That’s where I want to start for now, with the fitness and diet goals. I am just hoping to get to a place with nutrition where I am not thinking that I am dieting, but rather just living life. Like I want a lifestyle change, not just a short-term diet. I want this to be long term. The exercise and fitness are relatively easy for me since I love to move and work out. Eating is tougher. But this will be the year. More will follow in the coming days.

I’m just hoping for a good year, but who knows. We’re all on the verge of disintegration.