Goals 2021 - Resolutions in the Time of Coronavirus
As we've already seen, my 2020 resolutions were significantly impacted by the ongoing pandemic. While the vaccine has now arrived, most estimates that I've seen predict that life won't return to normal any earlier than July, and possibly later given the potential variation in the predictions around vaccination rates and other public health policies.
Given that level of uncertainty, I've tried to refine my potential resolutions to things that won't really see a large degree of difference whether the pandemic continues all year or ends tomorrow. As such, I have two goals that are for my personal health.
Of course, my personal health has been the focus of at least one resolution every year that I have recorded my resolutions thus far, usually related to my weight or my blood sugar or some aspect of exercise. In most ways I feel like I've done pretty good on this front. All the weight I lost in 2017 has stayed off, and my A1C (blood sugar) has dropped four years and counting. As such, these are really more minor tweaks rather than huge resolutions.
Stop Eating At Home After 9pm
All the health research says calories consumed late at night are more likely to stick. My personal experience is that when I am eating late at night it's because I'm bored more than because I am hungry. This seems like a useful place to make some improvements. Let's define some terms though:
- If I'm out at a restaurant, concert, baseball game, friend's house or other social activity after 9pm, food and drink are fair game. It's been so long since we could do any of those things that I only vaguely remember what it was like, but if we get to return to these activities I'm not artificially constraining what I can do at them.
- If I'm at home with M and our official sit down dinner extends past 9pm, that's fine, I'm going to eat dinner.
- Drinking a beverage at home (water, wine, water that got turned into wine, hot chocolate, whatever) is fine.
This should narrow it to the situation where I'm sitting around late at night and just eating because I can.
To be clear, I don't expect to lose weight because of this. This is more of an optimization.
Work Out For At Least 30 Minutes Five Days a Week
In normal times this resolution would only be a slight stretch from my normal state, but I'm not comfortable going back to the gym while the pandemic is on, and biking is severely constrained by weather in at least Q1. I can't sit around for three months, which means I need to do some kind of exercise at home. This resolution aims to help make that happen. If later in the year those five workouts includes biking and CrossFit, great, but right now I'm going to have to figure it out here. If I don't, my muscle tone, such as it is, is going to disappear. Right now, my legs are still very good (as you'd expect with all the biking), and my arms aren't bad considering, but my back and abs have gotten weak.
Fortunately, we have a good exercise mat, some resistance bands, a step and some small hand weights. I've done a lot of working out over the years and can certainly use all that gear to put together 30 minutes of body weight exercises down in my basement. If I find that after two months I'm sticking with it, I can consider buying some additional gear - a kettle ball or maybe a slam ball definitely come to mind.
Working out five days a weeks for 30 minutes a shot should be more than enough to get some variety in my workout while allowing for recovery days. Or if we're dreaming, allowing for travel or other exciting plans.
Errata
These are my only two big resolutions. They support the general "Stay Small and Healthy" resolutions I've had the last many years. In other areas, the following items will continue (or resume, as the case may be):
- Keep not eating red meat.
- Continue to "Commit Not Particularly Random Acts of Communicative Kindness".
- Resume reading Shakespeare.
I hope you are able to do whatever you need and want to do to choose your life to be better for yourself.
Given that level of uncertainty, I've tried to refine my potential resolutions to things that won't really see a large degree of difference whether the pandemic continues all year or ends tomorrow. As such, I have two goals that are for my personal health.
Of course, my personal health has been the focus of at least one resolution every year that I have recorded my resolutions thus far, usually related to my weight or my blood sugar or some aspect of exercise. In most ways I feel like I've done pretty good on this front. All the weight I lost in 2017 has stayed off, and my A1C (blood sugar) has dropped four years and counting. As such, these are really more minor tweaks rather than huge resolutions.
Stop Eating At Home After 9pm
All the health research says calories consumed late at night are more likely to stick. My personal experience is that when I am eating late at night it's because I'm bored more than because I am hungry. This seems like a useful place to make some improvements. Let's define some terms though:
- If I'm out at a restaurant, concert, baseball game, friend's house or other social activity after 9pm, food and drink are fair game. It's been so long since we could do any of those things that I only vaguely remember what it was like, but if we get to return to these activities I'm not artificially constraining what I can do at them.
- If I'm at home with M and our official sit down dinner extends past 9pm, that's fine, I'm going to eat dinner.
- Drinking a beverage at home (water, wine, water that got turned into wine, hot chocolate, whatever) is fine.
This should narrow it to the situation where I'm sitting around late at night and just eating because I can.
To be clear, I don't expect to lose weight because of this. This is more of an optimization.
Work Out For At Least 30 Minutes Five Days a Week
In normal times this resolution would only be a slight stretch from my normal state, but I'm not comfortable going back to the gym while the pandemic is on, and biking is severely constrained by weather in at least Q1. I can't sit around for three months, which means I need to do some kind of exercise at home. This resolution aims to help make that happen. If later in the year those five workouts includes biking and CrossFit, great, but right now I'm going to have to figure it out here. If I don't, my muscle tone, such as it is, is going to disappear. Right now, my legs are still very good (as you'd expect with all the biking), and my arms aren't bad considering, but my back and abs have gotten weak.
Fortunately, we have a good exercise mat, some resistance bands, a step and some small hand weights. I've done a lot of working out over the years and can certainly use all that gear to put together 30 minutes of body weight exercises down in my basement. If I find that after two months I'm sticking with it, I can consider buying some additional gear - a kettle ball or maybe a slam ball definitely come to mind.
Working out five days a weeks for 30 minutes a shot should be more than enough to get some variety in my workout while allowing for recovery days. Or if we're dreaming, allowing for travel or other exciting plans.
Errata
These are my only two big resolutions. They support the general "Stay Small and Healthy" resolutions I've had the last many years. In other areas, the following items will continue (or resume, as the case may be):
- Keep not eating red meat.
- Continue to "Commit Not Particularly Random Acts of Communicative Kindness".
- Resume reading Shakespeare.
I hope you are able to do whatever you need and want to do to choose your life to be better for yourself.