New Years Post

[tylik]

school etc. I want to put some really good focused time on the conformational change project. I've been feeling really scattered about my research recently, and sometimes I feel like a complete dilletante with the database work. It'd be nice to get my teeth into something.

Otherwise, I mostly want to get my schedule down to something reasonable and see what that's like. And maybe study with Alexa. And not do the double lab thing ever again. Oh, gods.

And I want to get into grad school. Particularly into certain programs. And I want to hear back from those programs really soon. And... oh, hell, that's all out of my control, and I don't want to stress about it.

body To start with, that keeping the schedule sane seems like a nice experiment. I want to put a bit more focused time into stretching and exercises on my own -- training a lot is great, but it doesn't really do the same things. And it's pretty likely that I'll be moving this year, so I should get a bit better about my own practice because I'll probably be losing a lot of that supportive context. And I want to work on my splits, straddles as well as straights. And abdominal support.

I need to stay proactive about the neck/shoulder problems, and I really want to stay on top of the stuff with my SI joint and hip -- I think I have some pretty good traction on the problem (damn thing has been an issue since the 2003 car accident) and I'd really like to finish it off.

Talk to someone about the allergies unless they are much calmer this spring.

I should consider taking up yoga again. And look into what other martial arts I'm interested in, as I'm unlikely to find the kind of instruction I'm looking for some of the places I'm looking at going.

diet I want to ease myself a little further into the dietary changes I've already been making without getting neurotic. So:
Sticking to the no dairy no land meat bit. These are both clearly good to me.
I'm going to continue to eat duck eggs, and it's socially expedient to be able to eat baked goods with hen's eggs in them, but I don't want to do that a whole lot.
Fish is kind of similar -- I love the fermented fish products, sushi has all kinds of special status for me... but large servings of richer preparations of fish aren't my thing.
The whole grains bit is working well for me. I should probably start experimenting with whole grain only bread... maybe sprouted wheat bread... ergh, fun to do, but a lot more labour intensive. Maybe increase the ratio of hand ground flour to white flour to start with. I'm a little less certain what proportion of my diet I want grains to be. No answers, but should keep returning to the question.
I eat a lot of fruit when I remember to take it into the lab. I tend not to eat fruit at home. This is dumb. I also need to branch out more -- by preference I can eat apples (especially honeycrisps!) until the cows come home. Banannas about the same. Citrus usually strikes me as too messy. I still tend to kind of expect not to like stone fruit, even though in fact I do.
I need to come up with better ways of making sure I get enough vegetables when I get short for time. I *like* vegetables more than I like fruit, and yet even if I aim for just 5 servings a day it seems to take more work to get them all in. And I probably shouldn't solve this by eating a pile of steamed brocolli every day... though it wouldn't hurt. Okay, I should just eat other things too.

I think I'm mostly past being twitchy about knowing that I've chosen a diet that will cause me to shed fat (shedding fat from exercise is okay). And even when I was stressed, in pain, and not being that great about things around quarter's end, and over the holidays, I didn't gain any weight, though I stopped dropping for a bit there... I'm less twitchy about using weight as a way of tracking things, too, though I'm not rushing out to buy a bathroom scale, either.

Oh, yeah, and keep a close eye on the hematocrit. Damn but that's annoying.

body work I want to study with Alexa, if I can. And continue with my teaching and hobby consulting, and at least look into other options for a clinical degree if I decide not to go the MD route. I should also study anatomy more... concertedly.

environment More biking, and walking, less driving. Even though my training schedule is kind of pushing me in the other direction. Despite that, I want to get some serious hiking in. Hmm. Read more about carbon offsets. Look more into food sourcing. Ride trains.

appearance I need to be able to look at least a little professional for interviews. And I'm enjoying having the option of dressing more nicely to the limited extent that I do. I should buy another pair of Fluevogs.

social Get caught up with a bunch of people before I go if I end up going somewhere. Go dancing more than once a quarter. Find somewhere I can dance with the sword, for that matter.

Ho hum.