It happens to me every August. Maybe it’s something to do with the sweltering heat or the fumes radiating off of new school supplies, but for some reason every August, I have the sudden, intense urge to overhaul my life. To sit back, take stock, and then rearrange my schedule and goals jigsaw style. Some people make New Year’s resolutions (and I’ve tried those, too, to mixed success), but for me Fall is the time for change.
Perhaps it’s a bit of hardwiring leftover from my all too recent student days. From kindergarten to college, Fall meant new beginnings: new teachers, new lessons, and, most importantly, new books. The calendar may start in January, but my year starts in August.
So it came as no surprise to me last week when I noticed the itch to set new goals, establish new habits, and resume forgotten campaigns. I restarted the blog, finally started a knitting project (pictures—and pattern!—hopefully up soon), and set up my list of goals.
First and foremost on the list, as it is nearly every time this mad urge to reconstruct myself occurs, is weight loss. Now, I have no intention of transforming this blog into a fitness blog. The internet has more than enough already, and (honestly) that’s a level of privacy that I’m not willing to give up yet. Mostly, though, I know that even if I tried, my posts would eventually lapse back into a yarny fervor. Today’s post will be an anomaly; it’s constructed out of one part distraction (I’ve been thinking about it all this week), two parts flim-flam (I know that I don’t have any patterns or pictures ready, but I wanted to post something), and several parts (more than I’d like to admit) the knowledge that by making some sort of public declaration will ultimately keep me from straying when the way gets hard.
Needless to say, I am quite overweight and I want to change this. Mostly for health reasons—I’m young and relatively unaffected at the moment, but I know that the hammer will eventually fall. I have myriad other reasons, but they are not really the stuff of public posts.
The only reason that this blog should concern itself with, of course, is knitting economy. Losing weight means smaller sized garments, less yarn consumption, and a shorter knitting process. I, frankly, cannot wait!
To these ends, I’m employing several strategies, with the hope that a few will actually stick. Daniel and I are training for a 5k—we’re set to race at the end of September. I’ve restarted my Kettleworx program. (Not to sound like a salesperson or anything, but if you’re interested in toning/weight lifting, this is a fantastic system. I did it for twelve weeks last year—another fall resolution—and friends told me I looked like I had lost twenty pounds. It’s a wee bit pricey, but I think it is well worth the cost, especially if you can get it on sale through sports authority, like we did!) I’ve also set up a list of rules for myself:
-I have to drink water with all meals. (I’m allowed exceptions when we go out.)
-I have to get up and move every 45 minutes.
-I have to walk for 15 minutes after every meal.
On that happy note, I think my 45 minutes are up. I’m off to pace around the apartment like a loony!
