2018 New Year’s Resolutions

broderic on January 1, 2018

Well I am a glutton for punishment so here we go again…

Am I set up for failure this year? I need to not think in those terms. I will do it. I WILL do it. It will be done.

Health

Target weight 210 lbs. Again. Today I stepped on the scale and weighed 222.2 lbs down about 6 lbs from last year. I think this may be my natural weight, but I want less. The goal is the same as last year, but the amount to lose is less.

Lower my blood pressure. I don’t know what it is now, but it is still high. I need to eat better and exercise to help lower this. Losing weight may help, too. 120/85 target same as last year.

Exercise

Hit the same amount of walking exercise as last year: 142. Spread it out over the entire year as during summer it disappeared.

Bike 100 miles. Get on this.

Row 30K. Hopefully I don’t fuck up my shoulder.

50 straight pushups. 75 straight squats. I want to break this down throughout the year. Half way there in the summer. Fully there by October. Hopefully I don’t fuck up my shoulder.

Professional Life

Be the UnitTest guy at work. Do some pair programming. New job? Yes! Learn another programming language. Swift and release an iOS app.

Personal

Keep up with the Japanese learning. So that I can go to Japan to see a Nogizaka46 concert.

Read more books.

Clean up the home. Give away and donate 50% of the clothing in my house. Get rid of some books. Tidy up.

Fix up the bathrooms 15 years in and they should get some updating.

Cut the coffee spending in half. This means joining the coffee klatch. I need to buy a kettle for the home.

Cut the dining spending 25% again. But for real this time. Need to make healthier lunches.

Less meat. More vegetables and fruit. Eat at least one of each each day.

Resolved [Week 52]

broderic on December 29, 2017

I made a big deal about my New Year’s Resolution for 2017, and I failed to keep at it. Not completely, but at a few of the items I earmarked.

I believe the hardest part was to blog about it. I think it was because there was a format to the post that I wanted to follow. Formatting the post was a bitch to do so eventually I stopped posting. Perhaps, that made me fail to accomplish some of those goals. Sadly, isn’t that the deal with resolutions — that they are made and never completed.

Anyhow, let’s see how I did.

Health
* Resolution: weigh 210 lbs. Results: weight 224 and rising because of the Holidays. I’ll revisit this on next year with probably the same goal. It’s always the same year in and year out: lose weight.
* Resolution: lose 5 inches on around the waist. Results: perhaps an inch or two. The pants fit, but they may not soon. Got to get back on this one too.
* Resolution: Lower my resting heart rate by 4 BPM. Results: 83 BPM. Some change. This one is too tough to measure as I don’t think the apps I am using are fine grained enough.
* Resolution: Lower blood pressure to 120/85. Resolved: Unknown. This is bad. I had to get this down to stave off the diabetes. It’s coming isn’t it.

Exercise
* Resolution: 150 miles on a bike. Results: 2 rides a total of 25 miles. Way too short. I should’ve gotten this one. Still scared about riding on the rode. Must be overcome because I miss biking.
* Resolution: 120 outdoor walks. Results: 142! Killed it. Do I up this next year?
* Resolution: 5 rowing per month. Results: Hit the goals in January, February, March, and May. Did not row the other times. It’s because of my elbow and how my form contributes to making it hurt.

Professional Life
* Resolution: learn a new language. Results: did not do
* Resolution: get a new job. Results: did not happen. Although I am doing something different. Still need to explore this in 2018

Personal
* Resolution: blog more on different topics. Results: Failed as most of the time it was still movie reviews. Although, I did have that bookstore haul thing going on.
* Resolution: Cook more and cut dining spending by 25%. Results: Failed. Spending is down just not 25%. It doesn’t help when you have to pay for many big birthday meals.
* Resolution: Read more books. Results: Failed. I bought more books. Did not read the ones on the night stand.
* Resolution: Japan. Results: Failed. Sadly I really wanted this to happen, but I chickened out because of traveling alone.
* Resolution: Study Japanese. Results: Failed. Although I am now working on it via Duolingo. I should’ve been slightly proficient if I started from the new year.

Once more. I failed. Will I resolve next year for the better? We’ll see.

Resolved [Week 10]

broderic on March 10, 2017

Well here we are 10 weeks into 2017 and this is only the 3rd post for reflection on my New Year’s resolutions. As you can see, we are slowing down on keeping you, my readers, informed, and making it difficult to hold me to my resolutions. I wonder if I had slowed down at all?

Health
Weight loss is slow. It’s a very shallow slop on a graph. I am losing weight, but not fast enough for my taste. Except if the goal was the end of the year, I may make it.

  • Today, I am at 218 lbs.
  • Blood pressure was at 131/93. I don’t like these meds I am taking as it doesn’t seem to help.
  • My pants are definitely looser, and I can fit into some of those pants that I had abandoned.
  • Resting heart rate is down to the lower 80s (80-82)

Exercise
February I kicked butt. March I am not so much.

  • Using Gorilla Workout app. I’ve made it through level 1 on the leg lift challenge. Struggling mightily on the main gorilla workout.
  • 38/120 walks
  • Rowing – Jan: 7/5, Feb: 8/5, March (so far): 4/5
  • Bike rides are not coming. Still kind of scared.

Professional Life
I am most likely going to strike out on any resolutions here. I am too complacent in what I do at work to want to go out and create a newish me. Perhaps, I am not that gung-ho of a person to seek out newer better experiences. Unfortunately, the new site lead is all for expanding one’s horizons and accepting new, interesting challenges. I’m not liking that as it will definitely affect my performance reviews at the end of the year. We’ll see.

  • Learning a new language? Hardly. As I haven’t peeked at that node.js book I’ve picked up and the ideas for an iOS app are stagnating in Xcode. I should try learning Xcode… again.
  • New job… I wish!

Personal
I am not sure if the growth I was seeking here is coming to fruition. Am I learning Japanese? Off and on. Am I angling for a trip to Japan. Yes and no. Am I wishy-washy? Just call me Charlie Brown!

  • Blogging has been silent these past few weeks. That is my fault as I should be writing interesting posts for you to read, but I am to lazy. Again it’s the laziness that kills me. Act. Write. Post. I can do more. I should do more.
  • I am cooking more. But it seems I still eat out. Take for example yesterday. I had breakfast at a local spot, but I did cook dinner. I almost went for desert.
  • My dining spending is definitely less than last year, but I’ve spent more on meals because of birthday dinners!
  • I am starting to drink coffee every weekday morning which may make snack spending stay the same. I need to find something else then.
  • I am no where closer to understanding Japanese than I am to visiting Japan.

Resolved [Week 05]

broderic on February 1, 2017

Here’s the post wherein I look back at the first month of my New Year’s resolutions.

It’s happening.  I’m really going forward with it, and while some of them don’t seem to come, others are going along just fine.

Health

  • Progress was swift.  I weigh 222 lbs as of yesterday.  That’s 8 lbs lost since the 1st of the year!  Perhaps I am losing it too quickly and when summer hits I will gain back the weight.  Need to keep progressing.
  • I think my blood pressure medication has flipped my measurement.  The last time I checked it was 133/85 when it used to be 124/90.  No idea how.  Need to monitor this better.

Exercise
The Apple Watch has been helpful in tracking and keeping me motivated to workout.

  • 6/5 rowing workouts.  I am trying to keep to every third day schedule.  And I ice down after every workout to keep the elbow from feeling like shit.  I need to row longer as I want to target the weight loss zone.
  • Walks: did more than 10 but they were shorter than last month.  I probably averaged around 28 minutes.
  • Stopped doing workouts besides cardio.  That 7 minute thing made me feel sad because I couldn’t even do it all.  
  • I hope it warms up enough to ride the bike.

Professional Life

  • Doing a little bit more at work.  Somewhat like a new title, but I am not pursuing it with enthusiasm.  Not sure if it’s because I don’t want to or because I don’t have to.
  • Picked up a book on node.js which is JavaScript.  May be using this at work.
Personal
  • Blogging has just been good.  By a rough count, I wrote about 20 blog posts this month and they were interesting stuff.
  • I have been cooking more, but the meals aren’t as good tasting.  Not sure why.  But I still have to eat the dish I created.
  • Japan is a bridge too far for now.  I was gung ho early on.  Now I feel the dread.  I really want to but can’t think about it for traveling alone.  Perhaps a week in Tokyo?
  • I really need to pick it up on learning Japanese, but I get too lazy about it.  I have plenty of Japanese books, but need to apply myself more.  A little rigor would do.
  • I did spend less on dining this month versus the same period last month.  It may be 25% or more.  But still it is very easy to want to drink lattes.

Resolved [Week 02]

broderic on January 13, 2017

I’ll take some time to look over my 2017 resolutions to see how well I’m keeping them. I’ll try to keep this to every fortnight. Perhaps it will be my new series for blogging this year — one of my resolutions!

Health

  • Weight about 227.  This may be because of water loss from the start of the year.  It’s in a good direction.  I doubt that this is actual.  Let’s keep improving here.
  • I think I tweaked my groin doing workouts because it hurts when I raise my leg to put on my pants.  
Exercise
  • Walks: 3/120
  • Rowing: 1/5 for January.  This may not stay as I think I really fucked up my left elbow.  Perhaps I should see a doctor for that.
  • Started using Seven, the seven minute workout app.  I’m way out of shape as that I can’t do this well.  Is a lazy workout better than no workout?
Professional Life
Nothing to see here so far.  Maybe this is a resolution too far?
Personal
  • Blogging slightly starting to pick up.  It’s not just movie reviews or link of the days!
  • Cooking!  I’ve been making soups!  Keep this up, although I make my kitchen a mess.
  • Japan.  I bought a book about traveling Japan on rail.
  • Japanese.  I watch a lot of Nogizaka46 variety programs.  Does that count?  No.  I need to carve some time out to study.
It’s a start.

2017 New Year’s Resolutions

broderic on January 1, 2017

New Year’s Resolutions are lame. You will break them by the January 2nd if not before. That being said I’m writing out my New Year’s Resolution in order to be transparent. How long will they last? It is up to me. I need to work on my perseverance.

Health

  • Target weight 210. Stretch goal of less than 205. Today I’m about 230 wet. 210 is 20 pounds away. I have 12 months. That’s about a little over a pound a month. It can happen. It must happen because my pants are getting too tight.
  • Lose 5 inches around the waist. What is it now? What constitutes the waist? I would like to lose my belly or decrease that by 5 inches. Anything to get me to fit in my pants.
  • Lower my resting heart rate by 4 BPM. What’s it now? I will say 84 BPM. If I can get it to average under 80 BPM success!
  • Lower my blood pressure targeting 120/85. What’s it now? I would say 125/92. Maybe it might be, but it needs to be less.

Exercise
In order to get healthy, I’m gonna have to get off my butt and do some exercise. I got an Apple Watch to help me track it, but I need better metrics.

  • 150 miles on a bike. I haven’t ridden faithfully for 5 years. I’ve always wanted to get back to the feeling of joy as I pedaled by bike. Two hundred may be a bit too far. My rides around the block were usually 10 to 13 miles. The ride at the NCR trail to Sparks is 12 miles. The airport loop is about 12 miles, too. There’s gonna be a lot of bike riding if I actually get on the bike.
  • 120 outdoor walks. That’s about 10 a month. I didn’t say the average, because it depends upon the weather. What is a walk? 15 minutes!
  • 5 sessions a month on the rower. I’ve got it in the house. I’ve got to use it. What’s a session? 15 minutes! Hopefully, I don’t hurt my elbow doing this.

Professional Life

  • Learn a new language and use it. Maybe use it to write an actual iOS app.
  • Maybe a new job. Not a new position, but somewhere else. Is it possible to even change jobs at this age in this particular field?

Personal

  • Blog more. Not just movie reviews or link of the days. Blog something meaningful. Start a series of posts on a topic. Blog about the bike rides. Something. Anything.  Target five meaningful posts a month.
  • Cook more. Don’t eat out too much. Lessen my snack spending (lattes, donuts, ice cream) by 25%. Lessen my dining out by 25%. Currently, Quicken tells me I spend a total of $6700 on dining out of which $1400 is snacks.
  • Read more books. Read literature a bit more. Maybe finish the novels on the nightstand. There are 3 or 4 I believe. Whatever needs to happen so I don’t stay on the computer all night.
  • Japan. I really want to go there. I will. Tokyo for maybe a week. Really want to go there. Tokyo would a start.
  • Study Japanese more. Maybe 30 minutes a night or an hour for 3 days a week.
Is this too much?  Can I do it.  Follow me and find out.  2017 here I come.