New Year's Resolutions for 2015

First, let's look back at 2014.

December 31, 2013
New Year's Resolutions for 2014

1. Climb more stairs.
2. Eat more food.

Mission accomplished! I climbed a lot more stairs (a lifetime personal best) and ate a lot more food (also a lifetime personal best)!

Unfortunately, I weigh more now than I did when I started. Sigh. Getting Shingles in the spring really did some damage to me both on a physical and mental level. That was roughly 4 months without any exercise at all to speak of (just laid there on the couch like a boneless chicken). It also took out yet another hiking season (the previous year was lost to a very serious ankle sprain). It really brought me down. Very depressing.

You can see the symptoms in the four months of reduced blog posting activity (April through September).

1. Don't get Shingles.
2. See Rule #1.

For what it is worth, I was severely deficient in Vitamin D (as was confirmed with a blood test during my annual physical). I live in the Pacific Northwest. I intend to take Vitamin D supplements for life. It's possible that this deficiency helped trigger Shingles for me, especially since my ankle injury in the summer of 2013 kept me inside and away from the sun. Who knows?

50 miles of vertical is my minimum goal. It will take me 10,560 minutes. That's exactly 7 days and 8 hours of exercise. I'll need to average roughly 30 minutes per day (slightly more than that to cover when I'm potentially sick or out of town of course).

0:25:08:00

Or bust! That's the minimum time I wish to see a year from now.



Mission accomplished! Two hours to spare! I hadn't really factored in what Shingles could do ("slightly more than that" indeed), but I made it to the goal just the same. Whew! I got off to an excellent start before the Shingles hit and managed to make up the lost time in the fall and winter. Thank goodness I set this goal in public or who knows where I'd be now.

It is also my intent to make climbing 20 flights of stairs each and every day a permanent habit again.

Mission accomplished!

It was my intent. Even with Shingles, I never stopped intending to exercise each and every day, lol. Hurray! Saved by a technicality! And Vicodin! And Naproxen! And Tylenol! The latter two did nothing for me at all near as I could tell, especially the Tylenol.

And for those curious, I had no chance of getting hooked on Vicodin. It offered great relief but when you've got chronic pain and only have about 70 pills spread out over 3-4 months, it's a bit like throwing water balloons at a house fire. The directions said I could take 1-2 every 4-6 hours. Good luck on keeping up that pace! Try 2 every other day or so (one alone generally wasn't all that effective). Let's just say that I have great sympathy for those who experience ongoing chronic pain.

Here are my New Year's resolutions for 2015.

1. Climb even more stairs.
2. Don't eat even more food!
3. Drink at least one extra glass of water each day.
4. Lose some weight.
5. More hiking!

I'm back to 227 pounds, and at 6'3" that's just too much to be comfortable. I don't care how much I lose, but I do want to see progress in the downward direction.

I'm increasing my pace from a leisurely 25 feet per minute to 30 feet per minute. I'm shooting for 60 miles of climbing. It will take me the same 7 days and 8 hours of total exercise (~29 minutes per day on average). It would be another lifetime personal best if I can do it.

Assuming the timer flips at 30 days, I therefore wish to see the following minimum time on the exercise timer at the end of 2015.

1:02:18:00

The primary goal for 2015 is not to lose weight or to eat less food. It's to be in good shape for the hiking season. The weight will come off naturally if I'm outside doing something I really enjoy doing. In general, I gain weight in the winter and lose it in the summer. 2014's summer was a complete nothingburger though. And on that note...

Happy New Year! :)