January Update

It's officially the end of January and tomorrow will make the first five weeks of working towards the goals I set out for 2007. I am determined to exercise more, drop 60 lbs by blood, sweat and lots of tears, and write 1000 words a day in January.

I promised to be pretty open about how things are going. Which will be easy when I'm doing well, and not so easy when I'm gorging myself on oreos. Nonetheless, January has been a pretty good month for me. I feel great, which is the most important part.

So how am I doing on my specific goals? Check it out:

1. Write 1,000 words a day in January for a total of 30,000 words. Right now I'm up to 29,340 with plans and time set aside to write tonight and go over my goal. I've written 109 pages for a novel that I am actually going to finish. Not only that, I'm going to continue writing every day and have a goal of 15,000 words for February.
2. Lost 60 lbs. Every morning this month I've gotten up and walked for at least 20 minutes. If I had an early meeting, I'd go after work. Sometimes I'd walk before and after work. I've walked to the grocery store up the way to get an item or two that I've forgotten. Mostly, I've just walked to zone out. I have to say that I've walked before many times. Usually walking at night and three times a week, but this time, I'm on a mission to do it every day. This is getting harder because its cold as balls here, but I'm still doing it. Other than walking, Chef has made me promise to eat breakfast every morning. So now no matter how late I am for work, I eat a bowl of cereal. I've got it down to two minutes. I can spare two minutes to not feel absolutely ravenous by 9:30 every morning. The combination of the walking and eating breakfast has helped me a lot and so far in the last 5 weeks, I've offically lost 8 pounds. I just went and weighed myself (yes, at work--we have an old doctor's scale in one of the bathrooms). Eight pounds in 5 weeks is healthy, so I'm happy about it. Hopefully with another couple of weeks, I'll crack the ten pound mark.
3. Work towards being happy at my career. I've done something every week to help myself with this and so far I'm seeing some of the fruits of my labor. If that turns into anything larger, I'll be really happy. But for now being proactive is enough.

So that's where I'm at after January. Eight pounds lighter, walking more, feeling better, more than 100 pages written and new opportunities popping up. Not too bad a start for 2007. Now comes the tough part: keeping the momentum going.

Speaking of momentum, the weeklong festivites leading up to the Superbowl are killing me. Mostly because I can't wait for the game for the first time in years. Only four more days. . .Go Colts.

Riding high, not dirty

After investing many hours of time and an amount of money that I can't really calculate, it seems like my interest (devotion seems too strong a word) has finally paid off. The Colts are going to the Superbowl.

Some friends have asked me if I'm going to throw a Superbowl party and the answer is a voracious 'No.' Not to be rude to anyone, but I'm almost embarrassing to watch a game with. Even regular season games have gotten to the point that Chef either leaves the room or just leaves me alone. He has described my mannerisms during sporting events as autistic in nature. Although I think that actually does a disservice to those who are autistic. I think I'm actually spastic. I clap my hands repeatedly and tend to rub them together like the evil characters in melodramas do when they're talking about their maniacal plots. It's not attractive, so I'd prefer to do it alone.

Last Sunday, however, for the first time in months, Chef was home during a game. He works the weekends, so he's been spared for most of my drama. He's worked through the entire playoffs until the meeting against the Patriots. In fact, he even had a friend over. Not to watch me or the game particularly, but they ended up doing both.

They got to see the agony of the first half when the hope that I could cling on to was a last minute half-ending offensive charge that ended with a field goal. My dad, who embraces technology on Sundays to be able to chat with my brother and I, sent me a text message that read "A glimmer of hope?". A glimmer indeed.

As we all know by now, the game ended with a bang and not just the sound of me jumping up and down in my living room. Now I'm merely counting the days until February 4th. I don't even mind rushing through my birthday (which on a side note, is the same as Oprah's. The only thing this means to me is that when she dies there's a remote chance that my birthday could become a national holiday. Then I wouldn't have to take it off!). Although I'm not letting Chef off the hook on that one.

And so I leave you with this. . .only 10 more days until Superbowl XLI. Let it a good game. That's all I'm asking.