I started this blog and this year with a ton of goals for myself and I have met some of them in the first three months and I will reevaluate some of them to see if they still have meaning. At the end of this post I have some brief thoughts on Society in Pandemic.
The Check-In
Goals I have met:
- Hit 150 LBS: I went from about 160 LBS at the beginning of the year to 148 Now.
- Run 300mi in 2020: I have run 161 in January thru March. Way on target here.
- Stay under 2000 KCal per day average: My BMR is around 2000 Calories and I am exercising a bit, so I will eventually need to reassess or else I will start to lose muscle. Right now it is still sustainable.
- Cook More at Home: I have been cooking a lot at home an expanding my mental cookbook and skills, which leads to the next goal
- Go Vegetarian: This was a smashing success and I have enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Other than a mix-up when catered at a work-sponsored lunch once, I’ve not eaten meat this year and I definitely feel healthier. (I had chicken salad instead of tuna salad – whoops)
- Getting Rid of Clutter: I spring cleaned early this year and did this in January. I have enjoyed the benefits of a cleaner house since. There are still some boxes of old stuff I have stored around that have minor sentimental value. But really, it is still clutter and I will target them next.
- Better My Wardrobe: Some of this is related to the clutter. I’ve gotten rid of stuff I won’t ever wear again and I’ve added a few pieces here and there. Being stuck at home gives me less opportunity to shine though =).
Goals I still strive for but I wouldn’t consider a success so far:
- Meditate: I was good about this for a month and then fell off. I feel more distracted now when I try than I was before. My level of stress has gone up significantly since January and I know this would help with it. Right now I run to blow off stress and it works well. This is something I need to get back into because I really find it beneficial when I put time into it.
- Yoga: Same as meditation. I put some time into this and then fell off. I didn’t feel the same benefits as Meditation, but I also had stuck with it far less. I’d like to try this again at a lower priority to meditation.
- Listen to More Music: I’ve done a pretty slow but steady job checking out more artists. To be honest most of it is Drum and Bass to listen to when I run =).
- Blog/Journal: I’ve kept a journal off and on this year, but writings have grown sparser. I was hesitant to blog unless I felt inspired. But I don’t think you can live life waiting for inspiration to strike and at times you have to force it. I DID however write a murder mystery with my sister. It was thousands of words of exposition, and was creative writing – so I will count it towards this. I want to make a bigger blog post about that subject. It was a ton of fun.
Goals I have not started but I want to keep on the front burner:
- Practice the Piano: Now that I am stuck at home all of the time, I should really get going on this for several hours per week.
- Get a Certificate for Work: Same as the piano – being locked up at home is a good excuse to do some continued education. It will probably mean a bump on the paycheck which is helpful too.
The Check-Out and Some Thoughts on Society in Pandemic
A lot of the other goals have less importance to me or feel less relevant now. I think it was good to have a manic brainstorm of a lot of habits that could implement to better myself and I stuck with most of them which I felt were important.
I started the year trying to shield myself from the news because it didn’t impact me much on an individual level. It was needless information, was usually infuriating and didn’t have a day to day bearing on my life. I still kept politically active and went to rallies and fundraisers. With a pandemic, now it is crucial to be in the know.
I think being stuck at home is going to mean I will be watching more TV and playing more Videogames than I set out to do this year. Speaking of which – Half-Life: Alyx was dope, and I still have Beat Saber, so I can remain fairly active and play VR games more.
I am going to do a lot less traveling and meeting people than I had hoped too.
I think this year has been a downward spiral for society and it may keep getting worse. But I don’t think that is any reason I need to halt progress on myself. At work I’ve had more responsibility than ever, and I think I rise to the challenge. I’ve been consistently running and am reaping the health benefits of that. My culinary skill-set is ever-growing. I will have time to get better at piano and other activities I’ve been putting off.
I think this fracture of society is also an eye opening experience. All of my adult life, society has been pretty much the same, and the machine has been operating at full steam. It is finally collapsing and people are forced to see that there is a life outside of their world they built for themselves (or in a lot of people’s cases, built for them). Everyone’s routine is shattered and there is a threat of a lethal disease on everyone’s doorstep. There is a collective consciousness and worry beyond race and class and nation, and I think there can be good forged from the experience. I think catastrophe and the need to behave and operate a different way could provide some positive opportunities and mindsets that otherwise would take generations to develop. I know the situation is bad and I am definitely not celebrating a deadly disease. But I will be mindful of how billions of people are changing their way of life in the span of weeks, and just how rare and strange and different this all really is.
Cheers and stay safe out there.
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