It’s that time of year again: New Year’s Resolutions. I think by now you all know where I stand on these.
Then again, I’m also this person who thinks if I take a couple days off I can completely hit the restart button on life, and start with a clean slate. For instance, I successfully did not schedule any meetings for this week (and I did MOSTLY clean my office — with the help of Intern Jimi), but I certainly have not accomplished near enough what I hoped to. Sigh.
For 2016, I resolve to:
Start a new fitness regimen
My favorite fitness instructor is leaving my gym. I am beyond bummed. I’ve taken her classes for six years, and no other instructor pushes me the way she does. I’m totally hooked on Body Combat (if anyone can find me a kickboxing or real boxing class nearby, PLEASE let me know), and Body Flow has been a great yoga replacement. No frou-frou bullshit, just great full body toning and stretching. The other thing is that Gold’s is like 2 minutes from my house, and I am perpetually late for everything.
However, I will start working out with Ivan at Next Step Performance in the new year. We’ll be doing some personal training, and hopefully I can make some of his classes work for my new schedule. Maybe with this weather I can also start running year-round (doubt it).
All this said, I love trying new fitness activities, so I’m open to your recommendations!
Check out some things I’ve tried in the past:
Sleep more
In an unexpected turn of events, I’ve actually gotten a little bit better about this, but only in the last few weeks and now that I’m not doing radio on Saturdays, I’ve even slept in a little on weekends. I resolve to ditch the alarm (oh my god I am terrified just typing that) for days that don’t require me to be somewhere before 10 a.m. OK, wait, how ’bout if I resolve to switch my alarm to 6:30 or 7 a.m. and go back to bed after letting the dog out at 5:30 a.m.?
Because I’d really like to:
Read more
I was raised a reader, and if given the opportunity (the beach), I will tear through books. Unfortunately, I’m still reading the last book I started at the beach this past JUNE because I can’t stay awake long enough to read more than a page or two at a time anymore. I have so many unread books — and so many more on my wishlist — these days I’m not even managing time to read magazines.
Make my own beef stock
We buy a share of beef every year, and I have a pile of “soup bones” and some other frozen goodies. Bon Appetit’s instructional is hanging on my fridge. No clue why I haven’t done this yet except for time. I’d also like to cook more in general. It’s something I enjoy and am pretty decent at, if I do say so. Plus, it’ll give me the opportunity to post more to Sara’s Kitchen.
Improve photography
This baby has been on my list since I was still swearing I’d use my Canon Rebel G (which takes film). I have a nice DLSR and a growing collection of cool lenses (thank you, Nate), so I’d like to work on these and feature more decent photography on the blog.
Learn cocktails
I’m not sure what did it, but it may have been reading Boozehound and inspiration from my friend, Lissa, but I have a sudden desire to own a bar cart, mixology tools and decent liquors (they’re all on their way here now). While beer and wine are my libational bae, I’ve been getting into amaros and whiskies, and maybe I could learn to make a “house” cocktail or two.
That’s where I’m starting this year. I also resolve to drink more water, cut down on online shopping, keep my office and home cleaner, and be a better gardener.
Meanwhile, here’s how I did this past year:
- Do a spring team event, more yoga and unassisted set of pull-ups. Um, nope. Guess I can work on the last two.
- Drink more tea and eat more (wild caught) fish. LOL. Oh I have the best intentions. It certainly wouldn’t kill me to drink more tea.
- Legitimately take the day off (at least once every 2 weeks). Well, I did quit radio, and with my Fantasy Football obsession, really enjoyed my Sundays this fall.
- Be more efficient. This is somewhat improved. I see this as a constant work-in-progress.
- Cook more at home. Seeing how I re-added this above, it wasn’t a total success.
- Pickle/Can. Well, I did some, but I can do better. At one point this summer, I just completely gave up on my garden.
- Spend more time outdoors. I was way better about getting out to walk the dog, and even began running again! It wasn’t all a fail!
