This is the
fifth year that I've posted big lofty New Year's resolutions. They've
mostly worked, which is a good reason to keep doing them. This year I have identified four resolutions.
Stay Small
Each of the prior four sets of resolutions had something health related. The
2017 resolution led to significant weight loss, and the
2018 resolution kept most of it off. You could argue that I've successfully lost the weight and kept it off and it's not a habit, but given the stakes it's not worth risking it. My target weight for 2019 is 205 pounds, which was my weight in college.
Given that the system is working, I'm going to keep with it: Any time I eat food at work beyond what I brought with me, I will donate $25 to charity. This year, this includes ALL food food I didn't bring with me, including vending machines, chinese takeout, m&ms, pretzels or otherwise. The following exceptions are allowed:
- Holiday Parties (max 2), Dan's Christmas Cookie Day (seriously, the best damn cookies ever), team birthday luncheons (5 total).
I also have two wild cards that can be used for anything, mostly in case my job schedules a new event that looks like fun. This time I'm not explicitly limiting removing food trucks from my options, because they visit relatively rarely and are a lot of fun.
In addition, if I spend money at the diner I will donate an equivalent amount to charity.
No Red Meat
I will not eat red meat in 2019, with the following clearly delineated exceptions:
-
darlox's BBQ in August.
- Thanksgiving if I make lamb.
- Black Friday if I hold that party.
- Boxing Day if I make a brisket or
indy_was_here makes game pie or
darlox makes whatever the heck that shaved beef thing is called.
EDIT: I have a package of pepperoni in the freezer, which is also fair game.
Red meat includes beef, lamb and pork. Anything else (venison, for example) is fair game.
You might think that this is related to the Stay Smaller goal, but honestly my cholesterol and blood pressure are both pretty good for my age. I'm doing this because I have reached the conclusion that it's hypocritical to be concerned about global warming and still eat beef and pork. Since I do not want to go vegetarian or vegan at this time, this is the first step. You might argue that this is also hypocritical, and you would not be wrong. Everybody has to draw their line somewhere, and for now, here's mine.
Bike Lakewood
As I pointed out in my
2018 bike summary, I only really rode to work. To address this, I resolve to bike down every street in Lakewood, Ohio. I'll buy a paper map and highlight the streets as I do them.
In addition to getting me on my bike more and supporting the Stay Small resolution, this has the secondary value of letting me explore Lakewood. Now that Tulip is not inclined or really able to take long dramatic walks, I no longer see as much of my town as I used to.
Donate More to Charity
I realized that given my income level and expenses, the amount I donate to charity is frankly embarrassing. I've picked an amount that I will donate from each paycheck to charity. This will include the
$546.72 I owe from last year. I'm not going to state that number here because how much I make is not anyone's business but my own, but it's significant.
I will make a donation at least once a month so that I don't wait until the end of the year. This means I'm going to have spent time thinking about what I care about in more depth than I have in the past. My off-hand assumption is that justice-related charities and environmental charities are likely recipients, but we'll see how it plays out.
What Didn't Make the Cut
I thought about including "Commit Not Particularly Random Acts of Communicative Kindness" for the third kind, but honestly I have that system down now, and I think it's habit that doesn't merit a resolution.
I thought about something to limit Facebook usage as I did in
2015. However, I don't want to get rid of it clearly because I find it to be a useful tool. Instead I tweaked some of my systems to surface stuff I wanted to do more clearly, and Facebook time has plummeted. It's a limited trial, but so far it's promising.