My resolutions for 2017: The year-end assessment

With hours to spare in 2017, it is that cringe-worthy time to look back at the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and assess how I fared.

Much like it was halfway through, it won’t be pretty.

1. Drop below 180 pounds.
On January 6—the first time I weighed myself in 2017—I tipped the scale at 201.2 pounds. On Friday, I weighed 199. So . . . I lost weight in 2017! Seriously, though, I am still nearly 20 pounds heavier than I want to be.

Sure, I was lighter at times—the lowest I weighed was probably 191—but yet another year passes when I am heavier than I want to be. [Sigh.] Needless to say, this resolution will be recycled once again.

2. Become stronger.
Have I done this? Maybe. I don’t really know. I’m certainly not jacked or ripped, neither of which are my goals, but I think I’m stronger than I was at the beginning of the year. My recent SI problem has put all exercising and weight training on hold for the last month, so I have mixed feelings about this.

3. Get a passport.
I’m happy to report that I accomplished this! Woo hoo!

4. Visit a state I have yet to visit.
I accomplished this when I drove into South Dakota back in July. Sure, South Dakota was the low hanging fruit among the states I have yet to visit, but it became state number 29 for me.

I also visited a Canadian province—Ontario—so I got that going for me!

5. Make a career move.
That did not happen. All I did was a lot of thinking on this front, which is better than nothing. I’m still blessed to have the jobs I have, and there is promise for more and better things with one journal, so things are going well and looking up anyway.

6. Watch more sunsets.
I think I watched one or two sunsets in 2017—far fewer than I wanted. (The sun is setting right now—the orange glow is lighting the tops of the trees—but I don’t feel like braving the subzero temperatures to watch it.)

Though I did not sit and watch any sunsets in 2017, my runs in October and November coincided with sunset, so I did get a taste of a number of them. During one long run, I purposefully ran to the Pentacrest’s west overlook because I knew the sun would be setting by that time. I got there just after the sun dipped below the horizon of the UI’s medical campus on the west side of the Iowa River, the western sky ablaze with yellow, orange, red, and purple. It was beautiful!

On November 27, I started my run just after the sun had set. The sky was streaked with high clouds, which glowed yellow, pink, and orange long after the sun was no longer visible. Walking along First Avenue toward my starting point, I had to stop and admire the sky with City High silhouetted in the foreground. It was probably one of the top five most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

I did watch part of the sunset while in Santa Monica a few weeks ago, hanging out with B.O. for the first time in forever. That is when I took the pic at the top of the post.

7. Road trip.
Didn’t happen.

8. Continue running and maybe run a 10k race.
I did continue running. Though I did not run any races, I accomplished a longtime goal on November 20: run for 60 minutes nonstop. It was the first time I ran for an hour since I lived in California.

I was serious about running this year. In October, I even started a running journal, writing about each run, including details about how long I ran, what shoes I wore, the weather, where I ran, and the time.

All was going well, and I expected to run through the winter. Then I decided to take a break after running on November 27, the evening I saw that incredible sunset. A week later, all hell had broken loose on my left side and I could barely walk. I’ve been dealing with whatever the hell it is ever since. Needless to say, I did not run at all in December.

This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this injury. It has cropped up each year for the last three or four years, each time to varying degrees. I thought I licked it for good after a serious bout in 2016, thought I was being careful and preventing it with stretches and correction techniques. Nope.

I have denied that running is the culprit, that running may not be the best thing for my body. After this recent episode of SI joint dysfunction and related issues, I think it is time for a frank, personal deliberation about running. Is it my shoes? Is it my unique biomechanics? Is it my running routine? Is it where I run (mostly on concrete sidewalks)? Is it poor stretching technique? Is it weak lower body muscles? Is it because I’m overweight? It is likely a combination of a number of those elements, especially poor stretching technique.

I love running and don’t want to stop, but I may need to if it’s not good for me.

9. Read and write more.
Didn’t happen.

10. Say “no.”
I did this a couple times, including today. However, I should have done it more often. I’m just way too accommodating.

11. Do less and enjoy it more.
Didn’t happen. I did do less this month since I’ve essentially been crippled, but I definitely did not enjoy it.

12. Continue learning German.
This is a mixed bag. I have continued learning German, but I have been a bad boy about doing it daily for the last couple months. In fact, there are weeks when I don’t login to Duolingo at all. At this point, after three years of doing so, learning German is something I am making myself do, not something I am passionate about doing. My lack of commitment the last couple months is a testament to that. Plus, I have other stuff going on. Running took up a huge chunk of my time in the fall, so learning German fell to the wayside.

13. Stand up.
I don’t think I did that this year.

14. Purge.
I did this. I got rid of a ton of stuff, mostly books and clothing. Slowly but surely, my life is being decluttered and I have less stuff. I discovered the wonder of selling things on Craigslist, giving away a sleeping bag Sweets gave me that I no longer used, a sleeping pad I no longer liked, a car cover that was a waste of space, and two messenger bags I had almost never used and had no clue what to do with. The guitar that my mom gave me for Christmas in 2003 or 2004? I donated that to the youth group at my mom’s church.

Though I still have a lot of stuff I need and want to get rid of, what I purged in 2017 is definitely a good start.