Pete and Repeat Went Into A Store...*

I sat down last year and set some very do-able goals. Then I had a knee problem so the TC 10K was not do-able. Then I decided to Ireland so I cut out the hiking one and the second running one. Then I was lazy so I cut out the weight-loss one.

In short, despite making sure that my goals were realistic, I failed to account for the fact that I like to use excuses as a reason to not do things. Well, I'm back to being able to run (I was actually back to that before Christmas but the holiday season is not a good time to try and set up good habits. It's a time-of-year-too-busy-thing, not a grandma-molasses-cookies-thing, I swear) and looking at my 2011 goals. Easy-peasy, they're going to be my 2012 goals.

Easiest yearly goals I've ever set. And in case you don't feel like actually going back to the old post:

1. Run the TC 10K in 1:15:00 - I'm going to change this to 'run a 10K'. I like the TC but it's stupid crowded and I don't know if I really want to be pushing myself through throngs of people for a time goal. Over the next few days, I'll research other 10Ks in the area and make a decision.

2. Run the Gunner Shaw 10K next November - The ultimate trail race in Victoria. Don't believe me? Read this. Doesn't that sound like ridiculously crazy fun times!

3. Hike the Juan de Fuca Trail - From last year's post: This one was put on hold last year due to other events. It won't be put on hold again. Hey, last year me, yes it will. But Ireland was worth it. Let's try this again, shall we?

4. End the year within 15 lbs of my weight goal - Totally do-able if I'm not a complete twat about it... again.

Now, who wants to start a pool to guess when I'll give up the first one?

*Anyone else remember that joke from yesteryear?
Pete and Repeat went into a shore. Pete came out. Who was left?
Repeat.
Pete and Repeat went into a store... and so it goes until  the recess bell goes or your friend walks away (or punches you).

Goal Slacking

I have finally set my fitness goals for this week: have my fitness goals ready to go for next Monday!

Obviously, I'm as awesome at this whole 'goal setting' thing as I am at this 'staying on track' thing.

I actually did set a few fitness goals this week but they were small because I set a lot of non-fitness goals and I didn't want to bog myself down with lists. I still have to write 'thank you' letters to everyone we stayed with in Ireland (yes, write as in pen to paper with my best penmanship), I need to go through my spice cupboard and my fridge and clean them out, I need to find a job, I want to bake some Zupfe, I'm working on a craft project involving spray paint, I'm trying to set aside 30 minutes a day to crochet, and I stupidly decided to give Nanowrimo a shot... again.

I looked at the list above and wrote down the following fitness goals: don't skip dance class, and go for a long walk at some point. I'm aiming big this week!

Despite the lack of concrete fitness goals for this week, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I really want out of the six months (the length of my journal) so while I have been lackluster in actually setting my weekly goals, they've never really been that far from my mind. I've gotten them figured out for next week and will be doing some of them this week (doing yoga in the mornings, for example) but I don't want the added guilt of not achieving them when I already have a full plate.

I may be the only person who has to write 'write to-do list' on her to-do list.

2010 is Going to Be My Year. Wait, What? 2011?

I have a habit of haphazardly setting resolutions. January 1st rolls around and I think "I'd like to do this" so I set it as a resolution and then don't actually bother to think about how I'd like to make that happen. It's all fine and dandy to say "I'd like to climb Mount Everest" but if you don't bother taking any steps towards making that happen, you might as well be saying "I'd like to build a working TARDIS". (Actually, you'd grow a working TARDIS, but that's a discussion for another blog.)

This year, I wrote down a few resolutions (or goals, which ever term you prefer) and then thought long and hard about how I plan to accomplish them.

1. Run the TC 10K in 1:15:00 - I had a goal of running it in 1:20:00 last year. For a first time runner, I took 12 minutes off my best walking time and figured I could do that. Well, an unfortunate bottom-of-the-foot blister at around the 6K mark put an end to that goal but it had been within fairly easy reach up until that point. This year, I'm going into running knowing that a) I can run and b) I like to run. I'll just make sure I wear better socks this time.

2. Run the Gunner Shaw 10K next November - I wanted to do this this year but it occurred at the tail end of my hip problem when I hadn't been running for almost two months. It is not a race you want to enter into unprepared.

3. Hike the Juan de Fuca Trail - This one was put on hold last year due to other events. It won't be put on hold again.

4. End the year within 15 lbs of my weight goal - This is do-able. In fact, my actual weight goal is totally do-able in 11 months if I lose at a healthy rate without ever hitting a plateau or having a week where I gain, but I want some leeway on this. I don't want to worry about not reaching a certain number if I decided to have the fries instead of salad once and while. Also, I hesitate to set an actual number for my final goal because a lot of it is how I feel. Feeling and being healthy is more important than the actual number on the scale, so 15lbs puts me within spitting distance of all the numbers I would consider as a 'final' number. The easiest way to make this happen is to set lots of short term goals for myself. Weekly. Monthly. Whatever they are, I need to set them and go after them. It's really easy to slide when you think "I still have 11 more months before that goal comes up" but not so easy when you think "I have four weeks". Expect to see a lot more short term goals floating around here.

Has anyone else set some interesting resolutions/goals for this year?

Consistent in my inconsistency

If there's one thing I'm learning about myself (well, already knew but have really confirmed) in this whole process, it's that I'm inconsistent. I'm really good (hee hee, I just typed god. Ego much?) at sticking to something for a week and then I let it slip a bit, then I start doing it again and a week later I'm back to not doing it. Healthy eating, going to the gym, walking to work (well, I'm usually really good with that one this time of year, that's more a weather dependent-halting to the habit), drinking enough water, the list is pretty much endless. The good news that I do always end up giving it another go, but wouldn't my life just be easier if I didn't stop in the first place?

As a result of this realisation, my big green lists are back from last year, but this time I'm using them to track my progress. I spent much of my free time this weekend making the various check lists and various calendars all of various sizes and sticking them around my apartment in various locations. Every day that I plan my eating gets a check mark. Every day that I stick to that plan? Another check mark. Every time I go to the gym three times in a week? That's right, check mark. Despite causing my apartment to look a wee bit like a spare set from A Beautiful Mind, I'm hoping that the big charts will help keep me on track.

It's not quite this bad... yet.

Well, it's great that I'm planning on doing this for a month, but shouldn't there be a consequence if I don't do it or a reward if I do? Yes, there should be. Unfortunately, I spent so much of my weekend either being social or making my lists that I didn't get that far in my planning. That will be tonight's job.

Is there anything Calvin doesn't know?

I feel like I've hit a wall with writing. Not just writing for this blog, but with all my writing. I have a million ideas in my head but everytime I sit at my laptop all that comes out is drivel and I end up erasing it. I have repeated this over and over again; Friday, Saturday, Monday and now tonight have all seen themselves fall victim to my delete button and bed time (Sunday fell victim to the hocky game, completely different issues altogether). In the case of this blog, I think I might be suffering from too many topics to talk about and a complete lack of where to start: I'm having hip problems and it feels like a tendon, I won an exercise journal, I'm loving the world of weightloss that I have found on Twitter and (by extenstion) the numerous blogs I now follow, my running partner is back, at the rate I'm going I'll be making an entire women's hockey team out of my coworkers, I've signed up to run (not walk as the last six years) the TC10K, I'm debating about actually joining a WeightWatchers to make my food choices more accountable, I'm reading a history of the Chilkoot at the moment and it makes me want to go right now, and the list goes on. Without some sort of path to follow, my thoughts and ideas on these topics all turn into some sort of jumbled mess which reads like, well, like a Japanese menu translated into Russian and then into English.

I also feel that as my life becomes more jumpled with an every-growing to-do list, writing becomes harder. I'm sure this is completely mental but then, isn't writing? So I'm bringing my back my giant lists and hopefully I'll be back on track with my writing soon.

Listing my lists

Once again, I am changing up my Sunday blog plan for family reasons. My mom and I are heading up to Chemainus for a little girl time and some live theatre. Be prepared for some 'Oklahoma' inspired puns in my next blog. I'm just a girl who can't say no... to a pun (but kissin' is my favourite thing).

As a result of various factors, the six plan nutrition plan has gone out the window. Being summer, many unplanned social engagements emerged and after three days of visiting friends/family or partaking in social activities, I made the decision to retry the plan at a later date. With the schedule planned to start in September, socialising is going to become very rare so it will probably much more successful at that time (going back to school, more on that later). This isn't to say that I've completely fallen of the nutrition wagon, I've just gone back to a more fluid meal planning option.

I realised today that I have a lot of odd jobs that I've been overlooking while the weather has been nice. I mean, I've swept and Swiffer washed the kitchen floor, but it's been a while since I actually scrubbed it. I tend to make lots of 'to do' lists to keep myself on track, but I have a wonderful habit of misplacing them, or leaving them at work. It's not so much that I'm forgetful about the tasks at hand, but more that I'm very easily distracted. Realising that I had written five 'to do' lists in the last week and had only gotten one of the jobs actually completed, I came upon the idea that I needed huge lists which I couldn't lose. On my way home, I stopped at London Drugs, bought some paper and pens, and spent the evening making these large lists. They're now taped all over my walls, broken up into different categories and time lengths. The overly large, daily reminders should get me off my ass to get the jobs done. I do have to be honest however, task two on the list above is on pretty much every list and I know plenty of girl's who also have that on their 'to do' lists.

I bought some new socks this week. I decided to actually look around at the sock options, and decided upon a set of five 'bamboo cloth' socks by Adidas. They were hanging next to my usual socks which I have loved for the last 10 years (also Adidas) and I was wooed by the two extra pairs with the fancy material for the same price. Well, I wore a pair today for the first time and I wish I could take them back. I hadn't even worn them for a full 10 hours and both of them have holes where the big toes should be. The knit of the cloth is very tiny and the wholes so big that I'm not even sure I could darn them. If the other four pairs hold up this well, I will have paid $3 a wear for these socks. It was a good investment, perhaps I should put some money into Bre-X while I'm at it.

As a closer, I didn't get my picture up last week from the top of Gowlland-Tod but here's the Cascade Trail. Don't let the stairs fool you, it's like StairMaster on crack.