Saturday, July 2, 2011

Mid-Year Review.......

Instead of waiting until the end of the year to look back and evaluate how things went, I decided to do a mid-year review while I can still do something about some of them.

Today is the 183rd day of 2011, with 182 days remaining in the year. I guess a purist would have written this in the middle of the night when it was exactly even on both sides. I guess I'm not a purist.

Weight/Fitness:

Back in 2009, I wrote a blog post about some scary numbers after a routine visit to the doctor's office. I never wrote what the scary number was, because I was ashamed of it. In the interest of full disclosure -- and a more effective mid-year review -- I would like to state for the record that the scary number when I got on the scale that year was 190. I weighed 190 pounds. On a 5'2" frame, that's not just obese. It's downright porky.

Unfortunately, it wasn't scary enough to inspire me at that time. It took me another year to get really serious about changing my eating habits and exercising more. This morning the scale said 154.4, the least I've weighed in some years. I would like to lose another 14 pounds and settle in at 140, but I'll settle for anything in the 145 range. It's coming off much more slowly now, tenths at a time, but I'm not discouraged. I'm okay with what I'm eating, I'm not feeling deprived, and I enjoy my exercise. I would like to be at my goal weight by the end of the year. I would also like to be off blood pressure medication completely. Fingers crossed....

Cycling:

Almost every year since I started tracking my cycling miles, I have set a yearly goal. I've never made it. The closest I've ever come was 2006, when my goal was 2000 miles and I missed it by 2.3 miles. I was going to ride down to the middle school and back on New Year's Eve that year to make my goal, but it was dreary, rainy, cold, and gray. I didn't mind getting wet (much), but I minded a lot getting dead by a car whose driver couldn't see me.


Last year my goal was 2010 miles, and I missed it by over a hundred miles. We had such a wet, cold December that I rode very little that month. I'm not grieving the fact that I didn't make my goal last year, because I wasn't serious about it for about nine months out of the year. After I bought my new bike I got really serious, but come on.... it was October, forcryingoutloud.

Let's not even discuss 2009. Apparently that was a bad year all the way around. 

I took a different approach this year. I set monthly goals that would add up to my yearly goal. I also create a new goal each month for all the months cumulatively up to that point (for example: I have a goal called Jan-July, representing the total of those months). STOP CALLING ME OBSESSIVE!!!!

I have exceeded my monthly goal every month except March. I'm ahead of where I should be in my yearly goal by almost 500 miles. I have already exceeded my Jan-July goal and I haven't ridden ANY this month yet.

Another goal for this year was to ride more each month than I did in the same month last year. For many months that wasn't a problem, because I rode so little. I was a little concerned about June, because BRAG is about the same distance every year. But I wound up exceeding last June by almost 200 miles. Go figure.

50 Things to Do List:

I've completed 18 things on my 50 Things to Do list, which is slightly behind where I should be halfway through the year. Some are in the works; one will be completed on Monday (barring any unexpected catastrophes like fainting in the bank. Oh wait...the bank is closed on Monday. That's good.). Some of them I've already lost interest in and may not even attempt to complete. I hope I don't find myself in a flurry of activity the week between Christmas and New Year's, running around like a banshee looking for hot air balloons and trying to find a golf instructor while dangling from a trapeze and writing a book. And some poetry.


Miscellaneous:

It is 5,443,200 seconds until the first college football game.

It is approximately 5484 hours until the UGA gymnastics season kicks off. Flips off. Begins. Whatever. Since they haven't announced (created?) a schedule yet, I can only use an approximation. You're welcome. I'm giving Kat Ding 227 days from today to be awarded the "10" she has deserved for the last two seasons.

It's 328 real days (not school days) until I retire.

BRAG 2012 begins in 483,480 minutes. I'd better get busy riding.

1 comment:

Kelly said...

Congratulations, you've done well!