Spring 2019 Goals

Hello ladies and gents. Here I'd like to go on a short motivational speel about goals. Personal mostly but this can apply to anyone relatively speaking. Spring 2019 is here. Life is moving by quickly. Have you been working on all your New Years resolutions? Are you getting everything you want to be done? 

First, my biggest New Years Resolution [only one really] was to work out more. In the beginning of the year I was working out super hard. In fact, during the first week I ran 2 miles everyday for five days. That was way too extreme. Hurt my legs. But I felt great in my mind. I had a strong mental mindset about the whole thing. Then, the California winter was super harsh, so I didn't run because of the rain and cold. Now, spring is here so I have no excuse. I'm not going to go hardcore. In fact, I'll probably run one day, then rest the next. End up running 3 days, resting for 4 days. My weight is still the same, which is not good, as I'm above 200 pounds. I have a lot more work to do. 

Second, I need to learn how to eat less. Contrary to what Americans believe, it isn't the fact that I don't exercise much that I'm overweight. Its the fact that every day I'm eating too much, overfeeding my body, too many calories. If I can learn to eat less [and drink less soda, drink more water], I can lose weight the natural way, by just allowing the weight to fly off, by letting my body be hungry more. This is more difficult than working out for me because my friends all love to eat out all the time and they sure as hell don't eat healthily. In fact, they're all getting overweight too. I was doing this for a while and I managed to lose twenty pounds. Unfortunately, I went back to bad eating habits and gained the weight back. This is the most difficult task for me. My number one goal.

Third, finish my novella and show it around to some publishers. I've been working on a novella [long short story] and my goal once I've finished it is to show it around to some publishers and try to get it published. If I can't get it published its no big deal. In fact, I think just learning how to write better in the process is worth it just by itself. My goal is 100 pages. I currently have 28 pages. So I've got a lot more writing and editing to do before I even really discuss it with anyone.

Fourth, release an album for sale on Bandcamp. I've been working with an alto saxophonist named Jason Thomas. He says he can get us free studio time. Our end goal is to record at the studio and release the best tracks as an album on Bandcamp, a music website people use to sell their tunes. I also want to perform live with him more whether it just be open mics or real gigs. Hopefully real gigs. I also want to find a bass player so we can have a legit jazz trio. The guitar, alto saxophone duo is cool but we really need that bass for the low end, as well as having the complete complementary instrumentation. 

Fifth, read more books. Reading is my spirit animal at this point. Most of all my blog posts are about novels. I love reading with a  passion. Maybe even as much as music. Or more? Not sure. I want to finish reading The Illiad, read the Aeneid,  the Odysee, finish the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, more Hemingway novels, more philosophy, in particular, finish reading Heidegger's Time and Being. Hopefully, I get to all those. Its a lot but I've got the discipline and reading habit to actually do it. I'm a reading machine.

Sixth, think about finding another job if my family doesn't end up moving. The family plan is to move to Chicago but I'm not sure when if ever that is going to happen. I love California and I'd love to stay here but its too expensive to live here on my own. If we end up staying in California say, another year, then my plan will be to find another job. Retail can only take you so far in life. They're not giving me that many hours anymore. Sometimes its good to know when to pull the plug. 

Life is full of distractions. In a way its good that my friends are busy working most of the time. I've found that seeing my friends only once or twice a week is a lot better for our friendship. Time makes the heart fonder, as they say. Not only that, but I enjoy more free time by myself, where I'm able to work on all my goals. A lot of my friends have moved away and others have drifted apart. Sometimes you have to realize that some people will only be in your life for a short while. Such is life. In the meantime, I'm going to keep pushing myself, and fight the good fight, so to speak. 

Time to pump iron ya string bean

So I finally got around to working on one of my New Years Resolutions. And that is exercising. I started last week with a friend doing a pretty hardcore workout. It was about a 2 mile run without stopping going at a pretty moderate pace. Honestly I was surprised I could even keep up with him without stopping the whole time because I haven't worked out in a super long time. Now is the time to change that!

My main plan at the moment is to work out every other day and keep things pretty moderately aggressive. Don't want to go all out like that day with my friend last week and be sore for two days. The workouts I'm doing by myself are enough to make me sweat hard even though its cold but give me enough room to work with that I'm not completely sore for two days afterwards. One thing I learned from starting last week is that you don't want to push yourself too hard on one day alone because this is something I want to do daily.

Right now I've got a short simple regiment where I'm running from my house to the gas station about a mile away. I run back up the hill and its about shy of two miles with a steep grade of the hill. The hill gives you that extra bit of hard work that you wouldn't get running on flat ground. I'm going to keep doing this and adding other stuff to it afterwards once I get used to it.

For example, after running that regiment I'll go inside and do situps and pushups. My friend thinks running alone doesn't remove belly fat so I'm going to add this other stuff to it as well.

Another friend of mine wants to work out but no running for him. He wants to do weightlifting instead. If I do that it will be even more hard work than running because I'll have to keep doing it otherwise the muscle will turn to bodyfat.

My main reason for going try hard into getting into shape is many reasons. I mostly want to be healthy and stay healthy for the future. I also want to be more slim and in shape to have more confidence with the ladies. But in the end it's mostly for my health. I want to live a long fulfilling life and this is one way to ensure that. My goal is to get to my pre-California weight. So if I can get to around 180-200 I will be pretty happy. 

Goku is my main inspiration! Every workout is going to be like training in the hyperbolic time chamber!