Goals 2019: Final Update
I'm going to attempt to do this properly and update my 2019 resolutions before I post my 2020 resolutions. Here's where I'm at since my solitary mid-year update.
Stay Small
Stated goal: My target weight for 2019 is 205 pounds
I was doing pretty well on this until late November, when the holidays and my cousin's wedding overwhelmed me and my weight bumped up to 220 at the end of the year.
Actually, that's not quite honest. Although my weight was consistently below 210 through June, it bumped up to 215 in September or so. The main culprit was that after 2.5 years, I lapsed and started eating food at work I didn't bring with me. The previously used system of "I get so many cheat days at work" and "I won't spend money at the diner" fell apart utterly. Then the holidays finished me off. Overall I spent about $120 at the dinner (ok, $10 of that was lunch for a visiting friend) and ate something at work 55 times, which is about once a week. Not great.
Fortunately, my health numbers, particularly my blood sugar, didn't budge. Let's hear it for working out and still eating healthy at home. With that said, my blood sugar close enough to the pre-diabetic range that this needs to be corrected.
To be clear - the weight isn't important so much as indicator that I'm doing a lot of other things right that are important, like eating healthy (particularly reducing desserts) and working out. Since I can directly draw a line between when I lapsed and weight gain, this is a net bad sign even if I didn't really gain that much weight.
So on the one hand, it's not an utter failure because through June I was going great. But it's definitely not a victory either. I'm going to call this a C+.
No Red Meat
I easily made it throughout the year without touching red meat. I didn't even use any of the five exception cases I called, which does mean that I still have an old package of pepperoni in my freezer. A++ all the way.
Since I stopped eating red meat for environmental reasons and those reasons have not changed, I am not going to pick it back up. I admit, it's easier if you don't miss it, which I didn't really. I was actually somewhat surprised by that, but it works here. I may have an occasional piece of red meat on special occasions, but it'll be very limited, if at all.
Bike Lakewood
I pretty much lost interest mid-way through the year. This is in large part because while some streets are a lot of fun, like down by the lake or going down the main drag at 8am on a holiday, most of the others are just going back forth down streets full of houses, which doesn't give a lot to look at it. This was an interesting idea for riding more, but in 2020 I might just focus on getting into the Rocky River reservation of the Metroparks instead. Can I call this WITHDRAWN?
EDIT 5/2/2020 - Redeemed.
Donate More to Charity
I made three smaller donations ranging between $X and $1.5X and three large donations of $2.5X. That was good. The total number I donated was substantially less than my goal. That was less good. Analysis paralysis was crippling. Earlier in the year, I spent a ton of time evaluating local charities. I might have been better off donating larger sums to arts organizations I patronize or to friends various charity drives, which were mostly for disease research. It would have been better than doing almost nothing, which is what actually happened.
On the plus side, four of the charities were new to me, and of those one is one I intend to donate to every year going forward. That's something, anyway. I'm grading this out at D+ since the average dollar amount donated wasn't even on pace to hit my goal if I'd made 12 donations.
Summary
One A+, one C+ and one D+, plus a WITHDRAWN. This looks disturbingly like some of my semesters in college. Oh well, it's a process, right?
Stay Small
Stated goal: My target weight for 2019 is 205 pounds
I was doing pretty well on this until late November, when the holidays and my cousin's wedding overwhelmed me and my weight bumped up to 220 at the end of the year.
Actually, that's not quite honest. Although my weight was consistently below 210 through June, it bumped up to 215 in September or so. The main culprit was that after 2.5 years, I lapsed and started eating food at work I didn't bring with me. The previously used system of "I get so many cheat days at work" and "I won't spend money at the diner" fell apart utterly. Then the holidays finished me off. Overall I spent about $120 at the dinner (ok, $10 of that was lunch for a visiting friend) and ate something at work 55 times, which is about once a week. Not great.
Fortunately, my health numbers, particularly my blood sugar, didn't budge. Let's hear it for working out and still eating healthy at home. With that said, my blood sugar close enough to the pre-diabetic range that this needs to be corrected.
To be clear - the weight isn't important so much as indicator that I'm doing a lot of other things right that are important, like eating healthy (particularly reducing desserts) and working out. Since I can directly draw a line between when I lapsed and weight gain, this is a net bad sign even if I didn't really gain that much weight.
So on the one hand, it's not an utter failure because through June I was going great. But it's definitely not a victory either. I'm going to call this a C+.
No Red Meat
I easily made it throughout the year without touching red meat. I didn't even use any of the five exception cases I called, which does mean that I still have an old package of pepperoni in my freezer. A++ all the way.
Since I stopped eating red meat for environmental reasons and those reasons have not changed, I am not going to pick it back up. I admit, it's easier if you don't miss it, which I didn't really. I was actually somewhat surprised by that, but it works here. I may have an occasional piece of red meat on special occasions, but it'll be very limited, if at all.
Bike Lakewood
I pretty much lost interest mid-way through the year. This is in large part because while some streets are a lot of fun, like down by the lake or going down the main drag at 8am on a holiday, most of the others are just going back forth down streets full of houses, which doesn't give a lot to look at it. This was an interesting idea for riding more, but in 2020 I might just focus on getting into the Rocky River reservation of the Metroparks instead. Can I call this WITHDRAWN?
EDIT 5/2/2020 - Redeemed.
Donate More to Charity
I made three smaller donations ranging between $X and $1.5X and three large donations of $2.5X. That was good. The total number I donated was substantially less than my goal. That was less good. Analysis paralysis was crippling. Earlier in the year, I spent a ton of time evaluating local charities. I might have been better off donating larger sums to arts organizations I patronize or to friends various charity drives, which were mostly for disease research. It would have been better than doing almost nothing, which is what actually happened.
On the plus side, four of the charities were new to me, and of those one is one I intend to donate to every year going forward. That's something, anyway. I'm grading this out at D+ since the average dollar amount donated wasn't even on pace to hit my goal if I'd made 12 donations.
Summary
One A+, one C+ and one D+, plus a WITHDRAWN. This looks disturbingly like some of my semesters in college. Oh well, it's a process, right?