Plenty of focus on Steem at present around new resolutions habits to form this year, and I have some I want to work on too.

The longer we hold onto and reinforce these patterns, the harder it is to break them. With that knowledge comes the understanding that there is no better time to change than now as it will only get harder to do so in the future. [source]

While there is no arguing this statement, the other side of the coin is that here in the UK with the short, cold days, this time of year is hardly the most inspiring for solar-powered types like myself. However, as I found in the past, going hard early on in the year and making it to the springtime with good habits in place can set one up for the summer knowing that the hard work has been done through the most difficult part of the year.

I have a couple of things I want to focus on over the coming months, and this year I bring the yearly desire along with somewhat of a necessity. Passing the mirror butt-naked last week was a bit of shock to the system and it was clear to me that I have been enjoying the festive period (and the last couple of months with earning a salary again) far too much. I've kept myself in reasonable shape for 20+ years and never really worried about appearance, but the blatant beer belly was not a good sight.

To some my body shape would probably look reasonable at present, but I think we all have some sort of standard or idea of what is reasonable to ourselves. I don't really care too much how others see me, just as I didn't when I was 19 and joined the university gym. It was me who gave myself the kick up the arse back then, and I intent of doing the same again over the coming months.

Food intake (diet) and Exercise

This is where my focus will be in the early part of 2020. I'm just settling into my new job, seeing my daughter most weekend, saving a little cash, and a little STEEM, and so a roof, and a little future planning in financial regard is in place - I just need to make sure I'm also present in the future too!

The exercise is going to come from a few sources. I have a couple of go-to videos that are short and to the point and I've used them enough times to give me a fair idea of where my current fitness level is at. The other night I did them both, back-to-back, and today I can barely walk or sit-up out of this chair. That's when you know you've done some work!

The first is a 10 minute legs and ass routine. It took a while to find one that was both short, and without an annoying instructor (so's to make me want to listen more than once):

The second, not available on YouTube for copyright reasons, and likely to disappear from dailymotion at some point is a 15 minute abs/core routine.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ye22l

Warning - this one is fking brutal if you are just starting out and so take it steady and have water close by. At one point I was doing this one 3 times a week and can confidently say, it works.

So along with the above I'll be using the small gym downstairs for cardio - The runner, bike, and cross-trainer, and like I did today, also for some basic upper body weight work.

The second key area is my diet - this needs a rework and should be quite easy to organise. Firstly, and most importantly, I need to cut down on the beer. It's not like I've been getting smashed every night, but it is all to easy (with a pub serving fine ale 50 metres away and a supermarket not much further) to have one or two each day on the way home from work.

For January, I have decided to cut the beer intake to 0, and so far, so good. The break (no I'm not quitting!) actually started on the 27th December as I started to feel unwell around then and so that's 4 bonus days there. I'm hopeful that even if I wasn't exercising, a month without the main culprit for lack of foot visibility will be a good start, but throw in 3/4 workout routines a week and things should be looking much better come the end of the month.

If I do make it to the end of the month with a better diet (food-wise I think I'm doing OK) and regular exercise, the key thing then will to be keep on going through shitty February and March and make it to April where the daffodils and sunshine will start to appear again.

So in summary, the goals over the next quarter is to throw better things into my mouth, and move around a lot more. And hey, I could even acquire a few tokens talking about it.

Cheers

Asher

Posted with category hive-120078 so's to sit in the Natural Medicine community and follow up on this post by @naturalmedicine asking folks to share their health goals.