Resolutions Update

View from my balcony this weekend

I confess, since returning from my conference earlier this month, I have not been particularly resolved.  Let's see how things have been going shall we?

Tidy kitchen before bed every night, put away dishes in the morning: Miraculously, I have managed to continue this resolution through thick and thin.  No matter how tired or out of it I feel, my kitchen is clean when I take myself off to bed.  For this alone, I don't feel so bad about letting the rest slide...

Minimize my needs to give away more: Well, I've been meeting my budget for this so technically, things are ok.  

Eat less meat: No clue how this went down the last few weeks, but I was certainly not making any special efforts to keep track.  I suspect I had more meat plus days than minus.  This was partly due to my trying out a new roast chicken recipe (one roast chicken lasts a looooooooong time if you live by yourself) and also not bringing lunches into work very much lately.

Get to work earlier: Disaster!  I am still waking up fairly early to go to Bar Method but for the life of me I can't seem to leave my house at a good time after that.  Even on non-exercise days I wake up early but again, cannot leave.  Must fix this!

Writing out my progress has been helpful.  I see now that I probably need to plan my menus more specifically and perhaps keep track of meals and schedules again, even though it's a pain.  I definitely waste too much time on the internet in the mornings and that contributes to my late start on the work day.  Weekends are when I organize for the coming week so on Saturday I will put a little structure back into my efforts and see how things go from there.  The key is to stay conscious of these areas in my life that need improving.

Bar Method : Seven Months

Bar Method Portland! (from oregonlive.com)

The last couple of months have been extremely busy, with holiday travel, work travel and a flurry of work-related stress in general.  But I've been able to keep up with it all, in large part because of BM.  I know the way I rave about this class makes me sound like a paid advertiser (I most certainly am not!), but it's really transformed my life not just my body.  People who exercise probably can relate to this general sense of well-being; for me this class is special because I hate exercise usually and would never be able to stick to anything else.  General thoughts:

• I am always sleepy when I shuffle off to BM in the mornings but the class really wakes me up and I feel good when I leave.  Very important in these gloomy wintry days.
• I love having these times to myself where I'm not thinking.  My personality tends toward obsessive and over-analytical (good traits in a scientist, not so great in daily life), but it's amazing to give it up 4 hours a week and just do however many lifts and tucks I'm told to do and trust that it'll work.
• At a work conference last week, my friend who has not seen me in a year said: Wow you look amazing, what have you been doing?!  Last year she said: Omg are you eating why are you so thin!  Since my dress size has not changed at all, I am sure BM had something to do with my change from sickly thin to healthy thin.  
• I am still sore pretty much all the time.
• I no longer need the strap for round back!  I still grab it just in case I'm stiff that day but I've been doing the exercise without it more and more.  It's tremendously exciting because this was one of my goals when I started.  Now if only I can make a vertical leg...
• Someone commented recently about how flexible I was.  This really really surprised me.  I'm still probably the least flexible person in class, but when I consider that last year I couldn't even touch my toes and now I can almost flatten my palms to the floor, I have to admit a big improvement in this area.