13 Decisions
Friday, July 30th, 2010Over the next 13 weeks (August 2 – November 1) I have decided to:
1. Stop writing this blog. (Big shock, I know.) Basically, all non-commercial writing (except for two book reviews I have committed to do) is off limits.
2. Get off (and stay off) of Facebook. (This one may be a little difficult – Facebook is that addictive – but I am going to try.)
3. Stop lying to myself about my weight. By this I primarily mean no “cheating” with regard to the scale I use, but it’s more than that, it’s about taking the health consequences of my actions seriously.
4. Commit myself to recording my food intake on Weight Watchers – even if I cheat, which I probably will, just because that’s how I roll and you can’t beat yourself up over that.
5. Having said that, no pastries, no matter how delicious, or other obvious big-dessert thingies.
6. No fast-food unless completely unavoidable, in which case, good choices are mandated (out with the Baconators, in with the sugar-free ices from Rita’s).
7. The above includes Five Guys. (I will not get emotional about not being able to go to Five Guys. I won’t. You won’t see me cry. Ever. I… *sniff*…. let’s just change the subject.)
8. This means, of course, bringing my lunch to work every day (including diet green tea).
9. And making the meals that I cook as healthy as I can manage.
10. And taking my fish-oil supplement every day, even when I’d rather not.
11. Write on the new novel every day, unless unavoidable due to whatever. Ideally this is 250 words a day, say, with a rough goal of one chapter a week. That’s a little over 22k words, which is more than what I have now, so that’s good.
12. Use downtime (commuting, mostly) to thinking about plotting and characters on the novel. This means that I can’t use that time for frivolous purposes, like rehearsing what I will say to Terry Gross when she interviews me about the book. (Don’t tell me you don’t do this.) I don’t have the luxury of unlimited time to sit at a keyboard and plan out plot points; I need to reprogram my brain to think about what I need to write about when I finally get ten minutes to write.
13. I have a book I need to read – something about how to change when change is hard, and that seems to be appropriate reading for this sort of thing.
And these changes are hard. Re-looking at them, they’re all about denying myself without anything much in the way of reward. I would rather not take the fish oil. I would rather read a Michael Chabon book I’ve read sixteen times before I go to bed rather than write something new for myself. I would rather read people’s Facebook stuff, even when it’s drivel, than do something productive and useful (or write drivel of my own, here, for the Eight People Who Read This Blog).
I am hopeful that I will emerge from this process thinner, wiser, more self-aware, and generally feeling better about myself. Either that, or I will try to drown myself in queso. I don’t know. I can’t say. But these are good decisions, positive decisions, and even if I do just a little bit of this agenda I will feel better than if I did nothing.
Except for the Five Guys.
Man, is this going to be tough.
If this is the only place I see you, I will see you in November.