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The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.

~ Alice Morse Earle

As of today:

• Weight: 239 lbs
• Neck: 16″
• Waist: 40″
• Navel: 42″
• Hips: 46″
• Body Fat: 31.97%

Since the start of last month, that’s up 2 pounds and 2 inches with no change to estimated body composition. I’ve had worse Decembers diet-wise and I enjoyed the holiday quite nicely thank-you-very-much. It’s not very useful to indulge in self-loathing about the choices I made, so I won’t. I’ll just learn from them.

On the plus-side, I did successful complete my fitness challenge — progressively adding crunches to my morning burpee sets. I did miss a day or two here and there but managed to catch up the debt quickly. Did ‘em all. That’s 466 crunches on top of a whopping 930 burpees.

So, it’s a new day, a new month and a new year. Every day is an opportunity for a fresh start. I know what it takes to hack my diet and I’ve finally figured out how to build my fitness habits. Time to amp it up and take a longer view. cracks knuckles Let’s begin.

I’ll be taking a cross-training approach to fitness this year — alternating days between walk/run and body weight circuit training. Right now, I walk about 3k per workday to/from work. I also am doing 30 burpees and 30 crunches in sets of 10. I’m adding additional movements to make it in to a circuit. For now that means adding lunges and dumbbell rows.

• 10 burpees,
• 10 crunches,
• 10 lunges per side and
• 10 DB rows per side.

Rinse and repeat. I’ll probably tweak it as needed. If I can work up to body weight rows, I should be well on my way to tackling pull-ups by Groundhog Day.

Another project I’m undertaking this year is writing. I’ve been yakking about November’s writing challenge for years, but never get past day 2. It’s gonna get done this November — a shitty rough draft of a 50k word novel. I’m taking an approach similar to getting ready to run a marathon (which is what NaNoWriMo really is, if you think about it). I’ll condition myself into the habit of writing. I’m committing to a weekly blogging frequency in 2013. Every Tuesday, you’ll be exposed to some missive from me. That’s 52 posts for the year, 41 before November. However, some minimally rigid structure is needed:

• The first Tuesday of the month will about my monthly challenge (good to go).
• The second Tuesday will be a creative writing exercise with a random starting first line (should be fun).
• The third Tuesday will be reserved for my thoughts and opinions on whatever interests me (remember, you were warned).
• I’ll leave any geeky tech posts for the remaining Tuesdays.

To sum up:

• January — walk 5k 3 days per week, circuit 3 days per week
• February — run/walk 5k 3 days per week, circuit 3 days per week
  GOAL: February 2nd — Did one freakin’ pull-up.
• March — run 5k 3 days per week, circuit 3 days per week
• April — run/walk 10k 3 days per week, circuit 3 days per week
  MILESTONE: One Year Primal, fresh blood chemistry
• May — run 10k 3 days per week, circuit 3 days per week
  GOAL: May 19th — completed Blue Nose Marathon — 10k Run
• June — TBD
• July — TBD
• August — TBD
  GOAL: August 1st — weighed-in and kicked ass for Family Challenge
• September — TBD
• October — TBD
• November — write 1700 words a day — NaNoWriMo
  GOAL: November 30th — wrote a 50k word novel
• December — TBD

There are some TBDs there for monthly challenges. I’m still thinking about what to conquer next. I’m open to suggestions.

Anyway. Here goes nuttin’.