20 in 6

I’m not normally a reader of the Design Darling blog, but the other day I somehow stumbled upon Mackenzie’s 101 in 1001 list, a list of 101 things to accomplish in just under 3 years. 

It got me inspired to create a list of my own, although there’s no way I’m coming up with 101 items. Honestly, I need to find less to do, not more.  I came up with 20, which I'll attempt to have done in...six months? Sounds good to me.

These aren’t in any particular order, just the order in which they came to me, and I decided to leave them that way. Here goes:

Cooking

1.      Master swiss meringue buttercream frosting. I have never, ever been able to get this right.

2.      Bake that damn Graham Cracker Cake you’ve been wanting to try for four years now.

Fitness/Health

3.      Eat solidly clean for one week (so much harder than it seems!). I'm thinking something along the lines of the Whole 30 program, with beans and legumes allowed.

4.      Try a cycling class.  Loved it! 

5.      Actually use the 5 pack of yoga classes I purchased.

6.      Get to run a 5k solidly, regularly in under 30 minutes. Right now I'm at around 31-32 minutes.

7.      Go hiking. The hubs and I visited Ann Arbor this weekend, and that included a trip to the University of Michigan Arboretum.  We walked around the trails and the lake, looking at all the fall foliage, and this definitely satisfied my craving for a fall hike.

Fun/Before We Leave the City

8.      Visit the Highline.

9.      Visit botanical gardens and/or Museum of Natural History.

10.   Spend one afternoon in a cool BK neighborhood I haven’t been to yet.

Personal

11.   Meditate regularly for one month. Continue indefinitely if you see results.  I've meditated before and definitely find it valuable, but I'd like to make it a regular part of my routine. I think doing 10 minutes a day would be a good start.

12.   Go one week without being unnecessarily negative.

13.   Find a better hairstyle and master a great blowout.

14.   Actually learn the right way to use your fancy camera. Take a class if that makes you do it. No excuse for owning an external flash for two years and never having opened it!

15.   Go to bed, for real, at 10 pm every night for one week. It IS possible! Right? It has to be. I average 5 and a half hours a night, that needs to change.

Finance

16.   $20 into savings for every goal accomplished.

17.   Go one month without shopping. AH. Probably will save this one for Lent! To clarify, shopping = clothes shopping.

Family and Friends

18.   Call mother in law more often. She’s always calling me first and I feel bad. I’m not so great at being the first to pick up the phone; I much prefer to communicate by text or email.

19.   Create a family birthday list.  Maybe then my cousins could get their birthday cards on time.

Professional

20. Work on having a better filter at work.  I like and feel very comfortable with my coworkers, and I tend to be very opinionated, so sometimes I just blurt stuff out without thinking.

Working Out Like a Boss

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I used to avoid working out like the plague.  The sweating, and pain, and gym memberships didn’t appeal to me. Besides, my daily commute involves three miles a day of walking. I couldn’t possibly need more exercise than that.

My brother and my dad are addicted to the gym, and for a long time, they tried to convince me to join. I struggle a lot with anxiety and panic attacks, and my brother (who is a doctor) and my father (who experiences them sometimes too) were constantly pushing the anxiety-related benefits of exercise. My doctor joined the chorus too, with all three claiming that my walking was bullshit and didn’t raise my heart rate enough. And then my friend Heather, who has nothing to do with anxiety, wanted a gym buddy, so she got on my back too.

I ran out of reasons not to go- the gym is across the street from my apartment. The membership is $10/month.  I had an excuse to shop for a new wardrobe of gym clothes.

I signed up and promised myself I'd give it a solid try for a month, and if I still hated it, I could quit.

Big surprise, I didn’t quit, I’ve been going regularly for over four months now. I won’t lie, it takes effort to motivate myself. It’s annoying to squeeze it into a busy schedule, to be sore, even to shower twice in one day.

But the benefits outweigh it. I was surprised to find working out made me grateful for my body and health. It feels good to push myself to lift more, or run faster. And my anxiety is dramatically lessened, though for full disclosure I should admit there are many other factors at play in that.  I’ve also developed a bicep, only one for some reason, but still cool.

And on the non-fitness front, it’s been great to have a few nights a week to catch up with Heather too. It’s fun to gossip through our workouts, and I’m pretty sure if it weren’t for her I would barely be going.  

So here’s to four more months of gym going, and in honor of that, here’s some of my favorite Old Navy exercise gear. I love their stuff- it's inexpensive and cute!

from left: bubble tank, $8  //  active jacket, $28  //  compression capris, $15  //  compression pants, $25

New Year's Resolutions

I’m kind of obsessed with New Year’s resolutions.  I love anything that gives you a fresh slate and focuses on self-improvement- Lent, the beginning of a school year, etc.  Last year, I committed myself to worry less and I actually did get a little better, though I'm still light years behind the average person.

Here’s this year’s laundry list:

Eat better: Original, I know. I eat fairly healthy, but I would like to cut back on the carbs and cheese, and spend less time (and money!) in the Trader Joe’s candy aisle.  

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Get serious about buying a house:  This is a biggie, one to tackle slowly over the year. Hubs and I aren’t even sure where we want to live- if we want to put down stronger roots in our current spot, or if it’s time to move to the suburbs. And if so, what suburb? There are lots of options, so it’s very open-ended right now, but we’re going to try to figure it out. 

I think. I’m getting anxiety just writing that sentence. 

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Get out of comfort zone: I am a person that, if allowed to, will easily box myself into the smallest life I can find. I instinctively avoid anything unfamiliar or out of my usual routines, and it makes for a lot of negativity.  I want to try to do anything that feels uncomfortable, whether it’s taking the plunge on new projects at work, sharing my blog with people (gulp), or being more open minded socially. Really, I just need to get out of my prickly scheduled habits. 

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Quiet time: To quote Hannah, a favorite blogger, “I want to stop focusing on the mess in my head.”  It’s been suggested to me before, something I always ignored, to sit literally still for five minutes every day, to think of nothing and do nothing and just sit. That’s torture for me; I fill my time an endless swarm of self-imposed to-do’s, designed by my subconscious to avoid the scary stillness. At least for January, I’m committing to a meditation of sorts, five quiet minutes before God every day. 

I also want to get into wearing lipstick more.  All of a sudden I feel like it looks so much better than gloss.

What are your resolutions?