31 December 2013

2013 Year in Review and 2014 Goal Setting

First. I would like to take a minute to look back at my 2013.

I had a lot of victories.

I started working out for serious.  During 2013,  I did all of the following:
  • Deadlift 175 lbs
  • Did the Fight for Air Stairclimb- this is serious business!
  • participated in several 5ks
  • did 2 10ks.
  • finally picked up yoga as a serious habit
It was all imperfect.  But I did my best at each race and what more can you ask, really.

In 2013. I also did a lot of knitting. I made:
  • Several pairs of mittens
  • Several hats
  • a scarf for Dev
  • a couple of pairs of fingerless mitts
  • finally finished socks I cast on in Maryland
  • a lovely shawl for one of my BFF
 And I lost about 20 lbs over the past year.  I gained and lost much more than that, but the net loss isn't bad at all.




 2013 was a tough one for a lot of people in my family, and it wasn't exactly easy on me, either.  My life went fine, other than my company having a layoff, but in 2013, the following things happened to my sister
  • divorced her husband
  • moved into a rental after years of owning
  • bought a house, but a major fixer upper
  • as a single parent of 3 kids, started nursing school
  • developed anxiety
  • children got into her anxiety medication and two of them were airlifted to a hospital an hour away (they are ok!)
  • witnessed her lovely, 13 year old yellow lab having a very long, grand mal seizure
  • fell down the stairs at her house, breaking her leg
  • had to withdraw from nursing school due to said broken leg
That's a lot of crap for one year.  Thankfully, there was some good mixed in with there, so she's not giving up on life or anything :)  it was a harder year on me, because I love my sister a lot and hate to see her suffering

Now, what do I hope to accomplish in 2013 in three sections

Fitness Goals
  • complete several events.  Fight for Air, Relay for Life- walk a half marathon
  • in the spring, I am going to start back on Couch to 5K.  To this end, I want to complete a 5k where I run the entire thing
  • I'm doing Fight for Air again.  Normally, I would be gunning for a PR, but I have a friend that's doing it with me and my goal is to support her up the stairs.
  • I want to be able to do 50 push ups on my toes.
Weight Loss Goals
I don't believe in setting defined be x weight by x day goals, so for this I will say I just want to be a little better one year from today than I am today.  If I could be out of the Obese range, I'd be delighted.  If I was out of the overweight range, I would be estatic. 

Knitting goals
  • Knit through at least 1/2 of my (admittedly small) stash.  Most of my stash is remnants.  I will be making at least a few pairs of crazy socks for Deven.
  • Start holiday knitting sooner.  Like July
  • SAY NO to people that want me to knit things for them in November.  
  • Knit more for myself.
  • Challenge myself to make harder projects. Lace- a sweater maybe?  MAYBE TRY ARGYLE?  Learn how to Fair Isle

Organizational Goals
  • Finally tackle the spare room.  Reduce the volume of stuff in there by 1/2
  • put in a shelving system that actually makes sense in the spare room
  • get better at keeping things organized in there
All in all, these goals are all both big and small.  Doable and frightening and challenging.  Just what goals should be.


Happy New Year, everyone!

06 December 2013

Things I Never Thought I Would Say

I don't want to have to tell you again, PUT SOME PANTS ON.