Resolutions Checkin

My two very specific and measurable resolutions are absolutely on track.  They were to walk at least an extra mile every day, and to write at least 750 words every day, using the 750 words website.

The walking is very nearly reaching the level of a religious practice for me. As stress comes at me, unexpectedly and out of the blue often, I am aware that the small amount of time to think while moving is helping the same way meditation or yoga might help.  And, my activity level over all is down quite a bit. I don't know entirely why. One of the insights from my arm band that calculates each day's calories is just that - I am burning fewer calories most days than I did when I started this process. Of course, I'm twenty pounds lighter, and just that has an impact on daily calories. But also my over all energy is down. I fidget less, and I sleep more. Perhaps that is because of my restricted calorie diet, seasonal affects from the dark and cold or something else.  But, if I were not walking, I would be burning about 100 calories less each and every day. (One hundred calories per mile is a standard rule of thumb for women, whether walking or running.) So that doesn't really matter much in the scheme of the physics school of weight loss but it does make a difference in my overall health.

Clearly, making it a commitment makes a difference. There have been some days - and yesterday is one - where without the commitment: 365 days of the extra mile - I simply wouldn't have done it. I was tired and doing other things, but I took my book down to the treadmill and strolled my mile at 3 mph while reading, and 20 minutes later I had my check in the box.

I am addicted to the writing as well, though again the commitment is vital to actually carrying it out. The website is very simple and straightforward, to just go in and write. But in the background, it is timing you, and keeping track of how often and when you are writing, and it is game-ified to give badges as rewards for various things, like how many days in a row you write. And this information, just the badges, is shared on the website for all to see, using whatever user name you pick (after I figured this out, I deleted my original registration using my real name and generated a nom de plume). They store your words, tightly secured they say, and have some basic text analysis tools to generate info about your content if you care. Who knew such computer tools exist? Today, for example, they say my main topics are eating and drinking, family, and relationships (well duh). A single day doesn't give insight, but looking at the tools applied to a longer period of time is interesting, because really, what is more interesting than me?

You can also export your words for other uses.  One of the fun things I did was export all of January, then load it into the wordle website to make a graphic of my most used words.  I had to do a couple of manipulations to save it so that I could show it here, but this is fun.

One of the things I wondered about, would writing privately make me blog less? There is only so much time in a day, and walking takes about half an hour, and writing 750 words stream of consciousness takes about half an hour. So during the week, when time is very very precious, the private writing simply pushes aside the time I might possibly spend blogging.  Except, I have very few blog posts on weekdays anyway.  And, it certainly stimulates my thinking, gets the wordy juices flowing, so perhaps it is actually helping. I had six posts this January, compared to 20 last January, but that was all about the running last year, they were not all  that interesting, just stats. I moved the stats this year over to my Quick Log, where I had seven posts, so maybe it is comparable. Anyway, I like writing here.