Beginning with a look at this past year, I cannot be much happier. A list of highlights would only do disservice.
An update since moving out of BBurg and being in limbo at home: I have had two full weeks at home to rest up before moving to Burlington, VT. Safe to say that I’ve definitely caught up on sleep, having slept in till 11AM almost every day. Got in some good, and not so good, training and got to spend lots of time with great friends, the best.
It’s only natural that I’ll announce my resolution for this year, in a [not really so] public manner. I started by examining the resolutions of 2011: vegetarian, biking miles > driving miles, and no big beer. For more detail on each: http://andyreagan.com/2010/12/28/christmas-update/. I held the first for 2.5 months, drove home too many times to get the second I’m pretty sure (although I didn’t really keep good track), and definitely succeeded at limiting myself to craft brews.
Resolution 1: Eat healthy
It’s so hard to be specific with diet, but how can I get more vague than this? Well, I’m not going to go veg again, but am going to try to eat better for my overall health (including my heart). With @rumblinstumblin having a heart attack earlier this year, it was no doubt a wake up call to me that I do have a family history and I need to watch what I eat NOW because it will have an effect down the road. So, more recently, I have tried to cut back on my sat fats, and haven’t eaten red meat (with the exception of grilling fillet mignon once a week ago) in a few months.
My dad has really into this health phase, focusing his passion on eating well and it has been both amazing and pretty inspiring. My mother likes to call him “110% or nothing” and there isn’t a much better description. Be it stocks, raising me, looking at colleges, or now eating healthy he can really get into something that motivates him. And most recently, he’s radically changed the way he eats, exercises every day, and is in pretty amazing shape.
Looking into the modern science of heart health, there is a great deal of information and it’s very confusing (most recently reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes). The answers to the question of what we should eat are not as good as we’d hope for something so basic. But, I do think that it can be boiled down to some pretty simple facts (e.g. Michael Pollan’s Food Rules). I had a great convo w Carrie Carlton abt all this, and she sent me to a blog that has a food pyramid that most accurately describes my goals: (via http://www.diseaseproof.com/)
Resolution 2: Tracking my mobility
Considering that my girlfriend is 5 hours away, and I’m driving to Burlington tomorrow, I don’t think that I’ll be able to bike more miles than I drive this year. But, I intend to keep track! I’ve got a Garmin that I’m going to put on my commuter bike as well, and I’m going to track my driving miles at fuelly.com (thx @rbsherfy for the tip).
I’m very interested in how we design our built environment to encourage sustainable mobility and active lifestyles, so by keeping track of how I move myself, we’ll see if I put the miles where my mind is.
Resolution 3: Crush it
I know I’m stealing Gary V’s punchline, and I don’t actually know how he used it, but by ‘crush it’ I mean to live this year with focus and drive. After getting a short break at home, I’m really ready to go back to school and spend the next year learning everything I can, and contributing to research. I suppose this resolution falls under the ‘goals’ category, but the resolution part is to just keep working hard and smart. If this were a goal last year, I more than succeeded, and I intend to keep it up!
Since I’ve been procrastinating packing for my move tomorrow (I haven’t started, it’s midnight, and I want to leave early tomorrow…) I should probably move along. Have a great 2012 my motivated blog followers!
