Now that the hoopla of New Year’s Day is over and the shiny newness of resolutions has started to tarnish, it’s time to take a look at the reality of the situation and see where I’m at. I didn’t set any resolutions, but I spent a lot of time in December defining the skills I wanted to develop in 2013 as part of the 13-in-13 Challenge over at 13Skills.com.
In my day job, I’m responsible for managing projects and, as any project manager worth his salt will tell you, it’s good practice to check on how a project is going at specific intervals so that there aren’t any surprises at the end. This approach also allows you to adjust your plan according to where you are at the current point.
So, without further babbling about the boredom of project management, let’s get to my mid-January review! I’m only writing about skills that have deliverables in January.
Skill #1 – Physical Fitness
In case you forgot, I laid out my goals for physical fitness in this article.
Weight and Diet
- Starting Weight: 263.4-lbs
- Current Weight: 259.0-lbs
- Weight Lost: 4.4-lbs
My goal was to lose 30-lbs by June 1st. That means I have five months to lose 30-lbs which works out to a rate of 6-lbs per month or 3-lbs per half month. By that rate, I’m right on track, if not a little ahead. My diet has been on and off over this first half month. I have been completely dialed in on some days and other days – well, let’s just say that there has been some Domino’s consumed since New Year’s Day. Dialing in the diet a bit more should help accelerate the weight loss, however, I am pretty happy with where I’m at right now.
Workout
I set some pretty specific goals, workout-wise, for January. Here’s where I’m at:
| Goal | Accomplished |
| 12 Sessions | 1 session |
| 800 Push-Ups | 200 Push-Ups |
| 800 Crunches | 200 Crunches |
I’ve been slacking a lot getting in cardio sessions. No excuses, I just haven’t been going to the gym and can’t get into it. I think I need something to train for – a road race, big hike, something. I am going on a snowboard trip in late February, so that would be a good goal to get in shape for. We’ll see. In terms of push-ups and crunches – I’m 25% of the way there when I should be at roughly the halfway point. I can probably recover the push-up and crunch goals by getting after them every day, but the cardio may be difficult to catch up on. We’ll do our best to get there.
Skill #2 – Blade Sharpening
I had one key action item due up to this point in January for this skill and that was to confirm the location of my Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker System and Instruction DVD. I’ve accomplished that task and plan on watching the DVD within the next week. The remaining tasks for this month include:
- Purchase a quality whetstone by January 31, 2013
- Rewatch Spyderco Instructional DVD by January 31, 2013
- Find and consume whetstone sharpening instruction by January 31, 2013
I don’t see any problem with meeting these dates.
Skill #12 – Handgun Permit & Skill #13 – Shooting
I’ve made progress on both of these fronts and seem to be on track with where I want to be. As I mentioned in the article describing these skills, I won’t write much more about them for many reasons.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that January is going pretty well in terms of meeting the goals I’ve set. I’m a little disappointed in the workout progress I’ve made, but I think I can play catch-up and come pretty close to meeting the goals. The other skills seem to be dead-on and building at the right pace.
I’ll be back at the end of January with a monthly recap and a plan for February. In the mean time, be on the lookout for more articles which you should be able to implement!
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