The List (And the Deidre Flint song about cheerleading goes thru my mind...)
1. Be healthier and in better shape.
My first step in becoming healthier is changing my diet. I've been working on cutting my portion sizes down to where my plate is divided up into thirds, with my meal taking up equal amounts. It's rather hard to do when you love pasta as much as I do. But I would like to think I'm making some progress. I also am trying to make sure that the foods I eat are healthier for me. I have always loved my vegtables (except for a few things like beets..) and I'm working on incorporating more of those into my daily meals. I am also trying to cut down on the amount of soda that I drink thru the day and the amount of "processed foods" that I eat. While eating out is nice once in a while, doing this almost everyday as we have over the past month (I'm sure) is why I've gained back some of the weight I lost over the summer. Thus, I'll be doing more cooking again.
The second step is tracking my progress in becoming more healthy. My current weight is approximately 175 lbs. By June, I want to be down to 155 lbs. My target weight by the end of the year is 135 lbs, with it being primarially muscle mass. I am going to try keeping a food journal. I have heard this is a good thing to do. If I use the food journal in conjunction with making changes in portion sizes and to what I eat, I am sure I can make alot of progress just on the part of dietary changes. I am also going to track my activity levels and my stress levels.
The third step to becoming more healthy this year, for me, is going to be exercize and stress reduction. Last summer, I bought a yoga mat and a book on yoga. I still haven't dragged that thing out and tried doing any of it. Not this year. I'm going to work on putting in a full 90 min of exercize (at least) into my week. I think that doing yoga will be good for keeping me limber, if not making me more so. I also think it will help correct my little problem with bad posture. If hubby and I can afford it, I'm going to try to sign up for a martial arts class of some sort. Perhaps I'll manage to drag him with me. I know that he greatly enjoyed the classes that he took when he was younger. I'm not one hundred percent sure on how to manage the stress reduction part. I know that exercize will help me out. I think that I will also need to schedual my day more and make sure I put time in there for me to do my little sewing and needlepoint projects.
2. Get my spiritual life into order
Over the past year, I have come to realize even more just how much my spiritual life impacts the rest of my life. Thus, I have resolved that I am going to straighten out some of the mess that I have here. There are things about myself that I need to recognize and many of them are actually good things. By working thru the process of spiritual growth and exploration that I have, I've "discovered" several of these good qualities. I'll admit it, I have a fair amount of work to do on the front of my psychological health. Interestingly enough, it's been by working on my spiritual health and development that I've been making alot of progress now. I'm sure that it strikes a chord in some of my friends to hear this statement. And I know that I've said it before. I tend to forget sometimes.. well more often then sometimes, that maintaining my spiritual well being helps the rest of my life go smoothly.
My first step in getting my spiritual life into order is completing the process of my conversion to Catholicism. I have been seriously studying the Catholic Church and her beliefs over the past year, I've become certian this is what I need to do. It hasn't been thru the over zelous efforts of certian parties to convince me that it's "cool" to be Catholic. It hasn't been thru the desire to abdicate the responciblities that I have as a spiritual person or a spiritually gifted individual that I've decicded to do this. It has been thru a process of revelation and study. I'm still a little bit afraid that I'm not "good enough" for God, but I am finding that there are little reminders that "good enough" doesn't matter almost everyday.
My second step towards getting my spiritual life into order is by engaging in some type of act of worship on a daily basis for at least a half hour. There are several prayers that I love and I have drawn a deep sense of ... well words fail me. I can't say comfort, peace, consolation or anything else. It is all of this and so much more. If you've had the experience of having God show you directly that you are cared for, then you know what I'm talking about. I have failed to regularly maintain these activities and I find that I've been suffering because of it. Not some "punishment" for this, but a feeling of being imbalanced and having my little stress related problems acting up. Oddly enough, prayer and simmilar activities just manage to erase the frequent anxiety problems from my heart and replace them with a calm sense of assurance. I'm fairly sure this is a good thing. So... I'm going to do this more.
My third step towards getting my spiritual life into order is to continue my study of theology. Last year, or perhaps the year before, I decided that I was going to read the writings of the Saints. It has been difficult but very enlightening reading. As a result, I have learned a great deal more then I would have just from reading some of the devotional tracts that I've had thrust at me by various people. I'm going to continue this. And with luck, I won't run out of reading material too soon. All of this is simply too facinating to put aside and stop reading. Though some of it I think would benefit from a more readable translation. St. Augustine of Hippo's City of God is... painful with the translation I'm reading.
3. Finish my novel and write the next one.
I have one chapter left. I need to write it, print it, and start sending it off to publishers. I hope to have a publishing contract by the end of the year. The first copy that I get is *so* going to my Mother. Mom really deserves it, she's been trying to help me get published since I was a little girl. :) I am still trying to decide who I'll be deticating it to, and I think that I am going to break some of the traditions that some people are trying to "enforce" on to me. I'm going to deticate my first book published to two people. My Great-grandmother Hazel was a remarkable woman and my first inspiration to be a writer. She really encouraged me to do this. And my mother is another remarkable woman. Dogged determination would be an understatement. I think if you looked up the expression "damn stubborn" you'd find Mom's picture next to it. :) I'm going to be schedualling how I'll be doing my writing over the next year ... well probably over this month, to begin with. This way I can get my writing on here done, my writing in the novel, and all of the other stuff that "needs" done. :P It's true, the hardest part of writing is getting the author to apply their but to the chair and write.
4. Save at least a few grand in the savings account
Hubby and I have been bad. We haven't been saving money for much of anything right now. So... I'm going to find away for us to save up at least a few grand in the savings account. This way we can some day get a house. And some day down the road have our "golden years" include us working only if we want to, all the bills paid for, and enough money to help out our family. Saving money doesn't require too many steps. You just put money aside and don't think about it. :)
5. Clean out my closet and make my wardrobe reflect *me*
I have saved alot of things over the years in my wardrobe. I have a whole little set of clothes for work, in a few different job sectors. I've got the professional clothes, business casual, and the casual outfit that I wear for the daycare. I think I'm going to keep the professional and business casual stuff around. But I need to sort it out. It's rather.. sad that my clothes take up almost 3x the space my husband's does. Alot of it I don't reach for, I just have it on the shelf. So, when spring cleaning comes along, I'll go thru it all.
And perhaps by then I'll have located a nice pine/ceader chest to keep the winter stuff and blankets in. This way I can get some of my closet space back. I also have to go thru my shoes. Some of them are close to dead, I think I may need to go shoe shopping. I am odd, when it comes to most women apparently, I don't terribly enjoy shoe shopping. I rather go antiquing. Hmm... perhaps I'll include my costume jewelery in that bit of sorting also. I have many jewelery boxes of that too. I can assure you this, dear Reader, I won't be making the mistake I did before. I still regret losing a few dresses that I loved because I "had no place to wear them."
6. Make the big sewing and needlepoint projects
I have planned out several different projects. I have the materials around to do them. I just need to make myself sit down and complete them. A few need a little outside help, like a working sewing machine. Others, I just need to apply my butt to a chair and take up a needle and thread. I have some deadlines for these:
- My eldest neice's quilt: Christmas 2006
- St. Mary's Church's needlepoint book cover: Advent 2006
- My patchwork wallhanging: November 2006
- My 1ft di. needlepoint sampler: Feb. 2006
- My friend's bridal shower gift: June 2006
- My friend's motley: Feb. 2006
- My latch hook rug: Nov. 2006
I'll probably add more to it as time goes on. :p
No comments:
Post a Comment