218 - Jump Start On New Year Resolutions

Last year my one and only resolution was to make at least one Livejournal Post every day of 2015, which is why my posts have been numbered this year. Even if I cut myself some slack and reduce that to one post for every Business Day (taking weekends of Saturday and Sunday off), I'm still forty-some posts behind schedule. But hey, I've still got three days to make it up!

So I'm getting a head start on my New Year Resolutions this year, because I have CATEGORIES this year and MULTIPLE RESOLUTIONS. Expand the playing field, increase the odds of success!

My categories this year are PERSONAL, HEALTH, ORGANIZATIONAL, FINANCIAL and CREATIVE. Each of which will get their own entry today, because I need to make 43 more posts in three days :P

219 - Resolution I - PERSONAL

First up are my "Personal" resolutions - things I just want to do for no other reason than it sounds like a good idea and could probably make my life better in general.

• PLAY MORE VIDEO GAMES - Yeah, I know that sounds silly, but really I just don't play games as much as modern society finds acceptable! This really hit home for me when I was taking a phone survey and they asked me how many hours do I spend playing video games on a daily basis and I said "I dunno... maybe an hour per month?"
  
• ENFORCE NO TECH TUESDAY GAME NIGHTS - Our "No Tech Tuesday" has been, in my opinion, a HUGE success but has recently devolved from the original vision, which was to be an opportunity for us to play board games all day long. I'm not sure how or why, but it's morphed in to a day where we just run errands and clean. I want No Tech Tuesday to be FUN again! I want it to be a night where all our friends know they can drop by and find us at home, playing games, and they're all welcome to join in :)
  
• DOUBLE TWENTY-TENS DAILY - I need to get back to doing the UFYH cleaning schedule I was once doing, where you set a timer for cleaning and breaks every day. Two 20-minute bursts of cleaning, each followed by an immediate 10-minute "Break". This is SUPER EFFECTIVE and will really help make sure I have time for my other resolutions, since a filthy house is usually the reason I don't have time for video games or board games ;)
  
• NEW COMICS GOOD HUWILL HUWEDNESDY - I would like to designate WEDNESDAY as THE DAY each and every week that we indulge our needs for Thrift Stores and Comic Books. Both of these things are the things that allow me to buy happiness - not in what I purchased, but in the journey of finding the things to purchase. Digging through the bins at Goodwill Outlet and getting excited about what I find there, taking Molly to Subspace Comics and seeing her become more comfortable and excited with each visit... plus it all ties in to my next Personal Resolution...
  
• GET ME AND MY FAMILY OUT OF THE HOUSE MORE - The Pierce Family are a family of HERMITS. Every time our front door opens it's a chore, an every second we spend outside of our home is just a countdown till we can be back in our cave with our pants off. I want us to look forward to going out! I want to be okay with social interaction! I want us to embrace the local community instead of loathing it!

That's the five Personal Resolutions... more coming soon!

220 - Resolution II - HEALTH

Second of my Resolution Categories, "Health". I do fairly good on these usually, all the way up till about October when things start getting wobbly.

• YMCA - Getting to the YMCA is easier for me during the school year, because I can just drop Molly off at school and then - since I'm already up and wearing pants - stop at the YMCA for a quick cardio workout. Weekends, breaks and vacations screw me up here, but my goal is to get to the YMCA at least 4 times each week. Any days I don't get to the YMCA, there needs to be something else that's a good 20 minutes of activity - Playing a dancing game on the 360, mowing the lawn, taking a walk, whatever.
  
• COOKING LIGHT - the first issue of our TWO YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to Cooking Light Magazine came this past week, and my goal is to cook at least ONE MEAL PER WEEK from a recipe in that magazine. Molly and Crystal will have to help me out in choosing what they would like to eat :)
  
• KINDA VEGETARIAN - I've meant to do this for a while now, seeing as how I've noticed that a lot of my constant state of Poor Health stems from meat in one way or another, but this year I'm going "Kinda Vegetarian". This means that when/if there is a NATURALY meatless option in what I eat - no soy crumbles, no tofurkey, no "Field Loaf" vegetarian versions of meat products - I'll go with that option. But if meat is the only thing available, I WILL NOT be that person who says "Oh I can't eat THAT, I'm a VEGETARIAN". You put bacon on my salad? Cool, I'll have bacon. We're having BBQ Ribs? Cool, I'll have one. In order of preference, it will go: No Meat, Fish, Pork, Chicken, Beef. But a big part of this is to try and avoid beef (causes flare-ups of too many things for me), so I may end up skipping meals if the only option is beef.
  
• STAY INDOORS - Every year at around springtime, my family and I get guilted in to thinking we should spend more time outdoors, and every year we all get super-sick because we all have terrible allergies. The outdoors is trying to kill us! And so I feel that it's up to me to find healthy indoor alternatives. I'm not entirely sure what these alternatives may be just yet... the YMCA? Chuck E. Cheese? Not sure yet...
  
• MY FITNESS PAL - This little website/app worked WONDERS for us last year, but I stopped using it just before Thanksgiving because I was expecting a munchier-than-usual holiday season. It tracks calories and exercise for me, and it's the best way I've found to keep track of what I'm eating :)