Sunday, December 27, 2009

Lazy Year End

It's less than one week to the new year. So what have you achieved?

I used to go crazy with new year's resolutions. I am a list person - I make lists of my lists - and there's nothing satisfying for a 'lister' to check things off. My list of 'Things To Do in Year So and So' used to be long and somewhat unachievable. Over the years I have wisened up and wrote down small goals that I know I could reach with only a small push or shove.

I used to write, "Run a marathon," even when I wasn't trained for a marathon. And year by year at the last week of December I would stare at that one sentence and feeling shitty because I am unable to cross it off. That's the downside of an obsessive 'lister'. You chuck out your confidence when you didn't cross out a goal.

This year, though, I had a plan. Instead of putting "run a marathon", I wrote, "run in a race". And I made my goals flexible; I could add them on or rephrase them, no pressure. "Run in a race" is much more achievable than trying to run a marathon, which would take dedication and mindset. So I did. McDonalds run.

And then, inspired, I added another one, "Run a 10k race." So this time around I had a running schedule, and I ran until 10k is an ok feat. So I did, and I remember spending the rest of the Sunday hours walking around the house feeling like I could do ANYTHING. I ran a 10k. haha. Crossing it off the list felt even sweeter.

In fitness, I believe short term goals (run in a race) are better and more efficient than long term goals (run a marathon). My sister, for instance, stopped writing "Lose 10kg in 2 months" and wrote "Cut out sugary drinks" instead. The latter goal was easier, accountable, and gives the result you can see. Then she would add more and more goals, "To use brown rice in all meals" or "Have 3 portions of veggies everyday". These small goals, when crossed off a list, make for a motivating push for my sister who has always been failing on her diets. These goals, she could control. But losing 10kgs, she couldn't not.

Anyway, here's to another year of healthy resolutions, goals and achievements. I hardly put much stock in resolutions now, since I always have continuous goals, but if I were to write my fitness resolutions, it would somewhat look like this:

(January)
- Start riding your bike! (group rides)
- Swim up to 3km (minimum)
- Cut down on eating out
- Have oatmeal for breakfast
- Go for a walk (once also good enough)

Happy New Year, everybody.

4 comments:

  1. Nadia,
    Bike dah dapat? Congrats!

    Err.. your resolution "Go for a walk" makes it sound to me as if u asyik lari je.. tak pernah berjalan.. hihihi.

    Happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. yeah, this week dapat. ambik yang murah dulu, sbb budget mmg takder hehe. as long as it's rideable kan.

    go for a walk... konon2 nak slowly ease into running... i miss it, especially baca blog semua org LSD la ni lah haihhh

    ReplyDelete
  3. nadia - ni salah cikgu dulu2 lah ni... hujung tahun je bagi homework suruh buat annual resolutions... tah apa apa daa...

    you are right tho, resolutions should be continuous and never a big thing pun.

    anyway, triathlon 2010 ka?

    ReplyDelete
  4. hehe. the downside of resolution is actually the demotivation. but sebenarnya bagus kalau ada. maybe we should rename resolution as goals.

    insyaAllah triathlon 2010. but beginner style je.

    ReplyDelete