Sunday, January 2, 2011

Resolutions: Recap and Recommital

Well, 2010 has come and gone and as I look back, I didn't do all that badly (although admittedly I was a far cry from doing well).

Below I give a little recap of how it went for 2010 and what I'd like to do for 2011.

  • Physical
Lose 30 lbs (bringing me below the 200 lb mark)

Unfortunately, I didn't lose 30 lbs. But I did lose 25 and I feel better physically than I have for quite a while. My secret: running my guts out. I've actually started working out on my lunch hour which for me reduces my appetite significantly. Sure, I'm a little smelly when I get back to the office but that just means fewer interruptions and shorter small talk conversations.

For 2011, I'd like to drop another 20-25 lbs...get down to my “playin' weight" and see how that feels. I'm also going to do some weights this year where last year was exclusive cardio.

Run the 4th of July 5K in Grantsville (and humiliate all of my younger brothers and children)

I participated in my first Ray Barrus Memorial 5K and had a great time. Two of my younger brothers beat me, but one of them is a cross-country coach (or was at the time) and the other is twelve years younger than me and lost control of his bodily functions in beating me...for reals. So that means I only beat one of my brothers (because two were too big o' wusses to participate) but I handily beat my three older boys, their dad (fist pump), my sixty year-old dad, and my sixty year-old mom (although she was pushing a stroller). I also beat my little sister, but she had to quit because she was going to be late for work.

I went on to do a half-marathon training plan later in the year, which I completed and by the end of the year I was down to about a 22 minute 5K (where I think in July I got 25:30 or something).


For 2011, plan to do a marathon training plan. I didn't get into the Ogden Marathon so I don't know if I'll even do a "real" marathon but I do plan to run 26.2 miles in a row at some point.

Oh, and I'll be back at the Ray Barrus Memorial 5K as well, with a vengeance!
  • Mental
Read one book per month (I read long books for the most part, ok)

I didn't read 12 books, but I did read quite a bit. I finished Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. I read The Blind Side by Michael C. Lewis, How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins, and worked my way through all of Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker articles. I'm currently reading Andrew Jackson by Brands and am 1/5 through the unabridged version of Les Miserables.

For 2011, the book a month goal still seems reasonable. I'll shoot for it again.
  • Spiritual
Read the Book of Mormon all the way through

Made it through Helaman while reading the Book of Mormon Institute Manual concurrently and most importantly got back in the habit of daily personal scripture study.

For 2011, plan to finish my current time through plus reread again.

Read all of the Old Testament selections from the Sunday School student manual

Not even close. We'll try again in 2011, but this year it will be New Testament.

100% Home Teaching

83%

Spend at least two hours a week on my Sunday School lesson (I feel like this should be more, but don't know where to find the extra time. You're right, I could give up Idol).

Ummm, maybe...sometimes. I did give up Idol but for unrelated reasons.
  • Social
Weekly blog post

Does one count? Dropping the expectation to monthly for 2011.

Organize a get-together with old friends (these are friends I haven't seen for some time, not friends that are advanced in age)

No, in fact I don't know if I even saw any "old" friends.

Send out a Christmas letter (Thanks to Jeanell, we do pretty well at sending Christmas cards, but I'd like to use that opportunity to bring people up to speed on what we're up to).

No Christmas letter either.

A last thing I'd like to improve on is becoming more involved or at least aware of politics and the important issues facing our country. If anyone has good recommendations of websites, blogs, books, etc., please post as comments.

I've done a little bit better here. Just try to read from a variety of papers on a variety of topics. I've liked the Economist app on my iPhone. Every issue, there's a set of "Editors' Highlights", usually about 4-5 articles, that I can read for free. Usually, that's about all I have time for anyway.

Well, I guess that's about it for this blog post. Wish me luck for 2011 and best of luck to everyone else in their quest for continual improvement.

2 comments:

Jeanell said...

You always do so much better than I at New Year's Resolutions... You look great!
Thank You for not including me in the list of people you schooled at the race. I love you.

Jacquelyn Sherry said...

Sounds like you are doing well. Best of luck on the resolutions! Love you, cous.