It’s been far too long since I even sat down to think about my New Year’s Resolutions. Do you remember those… far, far back in January? Here’s a brief recap of my goals:
1. Keep in touch with friends better.
2. Eat healthier and exercise more.
3. Establish a regular creative (writing, drawing) routine.
I haven’t achieved all of my monthly goals even for January yet, but I do feel I’m doing a better job with my life than before.
Friends
I’m not quite sure whether I should call this a success. I have been making some attempts to get back in touch with people who’ve fallen out of my life, but mostly I have just been having a lot more fun with the people who are already in my life (as you’ve probably noticed from my entries and photos). This newly busy social schedule is wonderful, and vastly enriching, but between going out all the time and just keeping up with home and work, I’m left with very little energy to reach out to those people who aren’t already in my weekly rotation (so to speak). So I really don’t know whether I am keeping this resolution, or warping it.
Creative work
This has been going just plain badly. I’ve hardly drawn anything since 2007 began. I’ve had many ideas, and thanks to my creative writing class I am at least word-smithing, but I’ve really failed to lock in that regular routine I know I need if I’m ever going to do anything worthwhile with my art. As I realized in the middle of January, the main problem seems to be that I don’t have much of a routine, period, so that makes it really hard to keep up with a goal as abstract as “creating” — I mean when there are things like dishes and assigned readings to be dealt with that have real deadlines. Still don’t know how to get on track with this. Artists who are reading: any tips?
Health
Leapfrogging off of Jennifer’s recent entry on exercise…
Thanks to this most excellent product [original link broken, but it was an earlier version of this], I can actually give you numbers on how well I’ve been doing healthwise, Feb 13 – Mar 10:
-Food-
Number of calories I need to maintain my current weight, per day: 2080
Number of calories I need to lose one pound per week (combined with exercise): 1830
Average number of calories consumed per day: 2077
Estimated average calories consumed daily during out-of-town visits (of others to LA, or me to Chicago): 2370
The gamut (estimated low and high): 1254 and 3142
-Exercise-
Number of minutes of exercise needed for basic maintenance: 30
Average number of minutes exercised, per day: 28
Number of calories’ worth of exercise I need, per day, to lose one pound per week (combined with diet): 250
Estimated average calories burned in exercise, per day: 130
Minutes and calories for the first half of this past month, versus the more recent half: 27/124 and 31/151
-Sleep-
Average number of hours of sleep, per night: 7.6
Hmm. Mixed results: some progress, but overall the situation is not good. I’m not getting enough sleep for my needs, so I’m constantly tired. To no one’s surprise, least of all my own, I eat too much. I’ve been working on portion control and not giving into my comfort-food carb longings, but every time I eat out I shoot myself in the foot. What I’ve realized about eating in restaurants is that I always have to take things home, especially if I’m controlling my portion size, so that even just two restaurant trips per week actually feeds me (unhealthily) for several days. I’m still figuring out how to deal with this. When we don’t eat out, though, I’ve been eating really really healthily, and when we do, I’ve been more aware of what I order and how much of it I eat. Slowly, slowly, my habits are changing for the better.
As for exercise, I was aware that I had slacked off this past month, and it really shows in the numbers. We went from hiking almost daily to hiking less than once a week. Bleh. It’s amazing I’ve been able to maintain my weight at all. But you can see the daily averages jumping in more recent weeks — we’re getting back into it, just in time for the stupid spring weather here (does it ever go below the 80s in LA?!).
So that’s how things are with me, a little more than two months into the year.
[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
Eating out: order the kid’s meal, if they let you.
I’ve tried that with delivery. 🙂 Though I haven’t been to a place that has kid’s meals in a long time.
I did find out recently that my favorite Thai place has an entrée that’s just boiled fish fillets and steamed vegetables, with spicy sauce (non-creamy) served on the side. It was tasty, and probably even healthier than what I make at home, since I can’t be bothered to haul out the steamer on a regular basis.
I’m with you on the challenges of eating out. I don’t eat out anymore, except for once a week with Mauricio. Actually we just spent the weekend cooking and eating in.
Frankly I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just about impossible to eat well when you’re out (and why should you? It’s a treat!), so I spend like 2 days before I eat out exercising a little more and limiting treats. So when I pig out outside, I can feel good about pigging out!
But of course there are many different ways to go about it. I’d recommend dance classes for exercise ;0)
Bright
I think I’m nearing your eating-out philosophy more and more as I get older and fatter and learn more about managing my eating habits! We’ve been eating out soooo much lately, the only reason I’ve not gained several pounds is that I’ve been portion-controlling the rest of the time — even when I bring home leftovers, I try to eat only small portions of those. It’s been nice to eat out and know that what I order isn’t going to make me gain weight, but it’s also been frustrating not to lose any with all the calorie-counting I’ve been doing. I plan not to eat out this week at all, though, so hopefully I can get things back together a little… just in time for our cruise next week. ;b Bah!
Taking the time to cook yummy (and not necessarily lowfat things) is the best way to go, but it’s slightly hit or miss for me. First I have to find the time, or the more difficult part, the energy. But then also I have to find a good recipe, because I’ve had experiences where I made big pots of something only to find out I didn’t like it. Then I was stuck with it, too tired to cook anything better, and still ended up eating junk. ;b
I’m thinking of dance classes for next quarter!