2019 New Year’s Resolution Checkin — March

As I did in 2018, I’m publicly blogging about my new year’s resolutions (2019: Jan; Feb). For 2019, I’ve picked a single word theme: balance.

Some challenges and changes

Before the self-assessment, February definitely was challenging. We were fostering a very ill cat for most of February and there was quite a bit of drama (mostly involving humans). That situation has resolved and foster cat two came (and went onwards towards working as a therapy cat). Work had its ups and downs also and along with some new excitement and adventures ahead.

Overall chaos resonated as a word for the month more than balance. 😿

Which leads to changes for March:

• On food and weight, tracking is useful but also cumbersome. I am thinking need to recast the goal to focus on (the mushy term) mindfulness (see prior essay/rant by me). By this I mean whether I track a given meal is less important than: (1) am I being selective about what I’m eating and mindful of what’s a healthy amount for me to eat in a day and (2) avoiding binges/overeating that easily creep in as stress “management.”
• Firmer limits. A friend of mine in ~2016 had encouraged me to focus on saying “no” more often. It’s on the list to practice more again. I need to be firmer about my boundaries to stay balanced.

Self-Assessment

I indicated that balance was meant to encapsulate the following areas:

• Food and weight = balance means tracking and making the better choice for myself regularly ↠ Reasonable. I am leaning towards refocusing this aspect (see above). While doing some tracking has helped my love of food + oft-times use of food to cope with stress = limited results.
• Exercise = balance means making it fit in my day because I feel better when I do ↠ Success! I’m continuing to regularly do the NYTimes 9-minute strength workout [Original; Cheat Sheet]
• Friends and family = balance means taking the time for them↠ Success! Overall good though there was definitely some craziness in February.

I am continuing to find the “Streaks” app [iTunes Link] on my iPhone a useful tool for tracking and self-accountability together with the Apple Watch Activity goals:

Onward to March!