New Year, Same Old

Last year, as with every resolution, ever, I managed to tail off somewhat regarding following my resolutions.  Nonetheless, I feel I got a lot out of my mini resolutions, and I'm rather keen to do some more this year.  This year I'm going two a month, and that's it.  

1. Eating - I'm going to try no refined carbs - potatoes, white pasta, white bread, white rice - for the next month, at least Monday-Friday.  Reasons?  I cannot pretend that it's not because I'd like to shift a bit of the timber I've gained over the festive period.  Nevertheless, I'm cutting these things out because they don't have the same nutritional (and happiness) oomph that one gets from cheese (protein, calcium), meat, sour cream, chocolate, coffee, wine, or any of the other things that I refuse to give up.  Something has to give, so why not those?  
2. Environmental - I'm doing the January Cure for the second time.  This time, I'm even managing to do it in January.  BOOM!  I'm not 100% sure I'm going to do all the cleaning stuff because - bourgeoisie alert - we have a cleaner, but I would like to do the rugs and sweep the floor, particularly as we have a Christmas tree that smells glorious and sheds constantly.  I will probably monitor the Cure on my other site, but we'll see... 

January Reckoning

JANUARY'S GOALS:

As you may remember, January's goals were:

1. FITNESS:  Do four weeks of the 100 Push Up Challenge. 
2. CULTURAL: Go to the Met, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney. 

The reckoning:

1. FITNESS:  This morning I did Week 4 Day 1 of the 100 Push Ups Challenge.  It was, frankly, awful.  I'm clearly a wuss.  But did it I did, for a total of 97 push ups, and on we will continue, as far as possible.  So it's not completing four weeks, but the goal is what made my significant other force me to do it - as a stick/carrot, it worked!
2. CULTURAL: Well, we went to the Met and the Guggenheim.  The Met was overcrowded and a bit too much, but the exhibitions we saw were beautiful.  The Picasso at the Guggenheim was the inspiration for this goal, and was one of the most amazing exhibitions I've ever seen (I'm a sucker for the big old horndog, what can I say?).  While we didn't make it to the Whitney, the motivation for going there was an exhibition that it turns out is on all year.  Let's hope we actually make it... but in the meantime, we have made use of both our Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum memberships this month, so pretty good.

So not a raging success, but a success nonetheless - more museums than I've managed in a while, and far more push ups!  Roll on February.

January Update

Well, the monthly projects are continuing, albeit at a slooooow pace.  We went to the Picasso exhibition at the Guggenheim on MLK Day (it just tickled me that it was that day we went to see an exhibition paintings/drawings that were solely black and white). We also finally went to the Met - more updates about that on January 31.  Yes, it's tomorrow.  Ahem. 

The 100 Push Up Challenge continues, albeit a little slower than I'd like.  Luckily, I enlisted the support of my other half in this endeavour - well, actually, he enlisted himself, knowing my failure rate in the past - and that has made a massive difference to whether I actually do the push ups.  Because, as in previous efforts, when it gets to Week 3, it gets miserable and I am inclined to give up.  For example, Week 3 Day 2 consists of five sets of push ups, with 90 second breaks between each set, and the sets run 14, 19, 14, 14, 19.  Yuck.  And ouch.  Week 3 Day 3 is obviously worse.  And January 31's set - FINALLY into Week 4, but that helps with the resolving - is grotesque.
 

January Objectives

Of course we're over halfway through the month, and I'm finally getting round to stating what my monthly objectives are for January.  Ahem.  Anyway:

1. FITNESS:  Do four weeks of the 100 Push Up Challenge.  I usually get to Week 3 and give up.  I've done two weeks and the two-week test, and hoping to amp up and at least complete four weeks.  It gets revolting fairly soon, but it is good for me.  I'm sure.
2. CULTURAL: Go to the Met, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney.  This is already looking bad, as I've failed to do any of these so far, and it's January 21 already.  ULP!  Oops.