…..new goals for January

When I signed up for the Zero to Hero challenge I didn’t realize that it was meant for people just starting out on their blogging journeys. I’ve been blogging for almost two years but when I read the description I thought that I could learn something from this challenge so I signed up.

Our first task is to write about me. Hmmm! What can I say that I haven’t already said. Well I’ll start with the fact that I’m not in my 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50s. I was 59 when I first started blogging and celebrated my 60th birthday and a 30 pound weight loss after documenting my journey for five months. Initially the blog was a platform to record my weight loss, the trials and tribulations of my journey and a way to keep me on the straight and narrow. I thought that if I put it out there for the whole world to see I would remain focused on the goal.

It worked for awhile. I’ve managed to maintain the weight loss but I haven’t been able to lose more. I quickly became interested in many different aspects of blogging. I started to experiment with my camera and loved posting photographs and taking part in photo challenges. I posted some recipes and the blog became a venue to post my art and the art that my students produce.

Occasionally I write about issues that I feel strongly about but I try not to make my blog too political, even though I’m very political and have been involved in numerous election campaigns, working on behalf of other people. This blog has also become a venue to record everyday and special events in my family. I have a son who lives overseas and a sister who lives across the country and I know that they check out my blog to see what I’m up to.

I’m learning so much through blogging and reading other people’s blogs. I’ve tried numerous recipes that have become favourites in our house. I’ve learned how to recycle old clothes and make them into new articles of clothing. I’ve been inspired by other people’s successes with weight loss and running. In the last 18 months I’ve run two 5k races, something I could never have imagined just 2 years ago. I started taking photographs and experimenting with different settings and posting my results. I’ve become a huge fan of the macro setting on my little camera. I just received a new iPhone for Christmas and I’m told I’ll never go back to my camera. I doubt that unless I can figure out how to take macro shots with it.

What do I hope to achieve by following this challenge? To be honest with you, I haven’t been moving very much in the last couple of months (partly due to the fact that I’m on this computer so much) and I never seem to get to things around the house that need to be done (also partly due to being on this computer so much). So I was hoping that my Zero to Hero challenge for the month of January would be to get out and move everyday. I love to walk so my main activity would be walking but it could take on the form of yoga or going back to the gym (I still have a membership that is woefully underused). By the end of the month I hope to be back in form to start running again.

I never seem to find time to do the extras around this house, like reorganizing cupboards, purging closets of old clothes, painting my bedroom, reading (except when I’m under pressure to get a book read for discussion), and working on my painting and drawing skills. Yesterday I made a list of things that I hope to get done. My goal is to work on one small ‘extra’ job everyday. By the end of January I hope this will become a habit and I can start feeling better about my environment. When I’m away I’m going to bring books and sketch books with me and take some time to work on my hobbies.

Day 1

I actually started walking again yesterday. It was cold but I managed to walk 4k with the dog. Today, however, was another story. Both my husband and I bundled up and started on our walk with Frances (our dog). We could tell that this would be a challenge today. With the wind chill factor we were facing -30 celsius temperatures and the wind coming off the lake was pretty strong. The waves were high and because the water temperature was warmer than the air today a fog settled over the entire lake. The city skyline was completely non-existent today. 

Half way through the walk I had to readjust my scarf to cover my mouth and nose but in doing that my glasses fogged over and I couldn’t see where I was going. After about 1k into the walk we decided to turn around and come home. It was just too cold today.

When I got home I decided to tackle cleaning out the refrigerator. We’ve had so much company over the holidays and prepared so many meals that we lost track of what we actually had in the fridge. When new items were bought some of the older items were pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten about. Needless to say I found some pretty unsavoury and unrecognizable food items at the back of this ice box. After a couple of hours of throwing out spoiled or expired food items, washing out shelves and reorganizing the shelves I felt elated to have completed one task on my list.

One day down and 29 to go.

Cheers!