Welcome to 2018!

It’s New Year’s Resolution time!  Of course, if you’re like me, you hate resolutions. I feel like people set resolutions with no plan, no idea of how to achieve them. It’s like a wish list with no reality. I prefer to set intentions or goals that have real action items.

2017

2017 was both a great year and a rough year for me. I suffered an injury, developed some good habits, and struggled with getting rid of some bad habits. As a result, these things have definitely influenced my outlook for 2018.

Early in 2017, I learned that I have a torn labrum in my hip, and I struggled with pain from sitting. For awhile, running was out of the question. After seeing 4 different orthopedic surgeons and getting a variety of opinions – ranging from surgery was my only option to surgery was NOT an option – I decided to hire a personal trainer and work on core strength and general fitness. This was the best decision I could have made. My trainer treats me holistically vs. a physical therapist who prescribes only the very basic exercises and stretches targeted for one specific area (the hip).

Now I have a great habit of going to the gym, something that I’ve done on and off on my own for a few years without any real consistency. I see my trainer twice a week and most weeks I make it to the gym a 3rd time on my own. I really want to continue this in 2018, and I started my year off with a workout with my trainer bright and early this morning. It was pretty empty at the gym, I was the only one working out. However, I’m sure the crowds of New Year’s Resolutioners will be there later this week.

Despite my injury, I managed to run in the SF Rock N Roll 1/2 marathon. This was a pretty big accomplishment for me, as the SF course is very hilly and challenging. Also, I am normally not that motivated to go to races that are an hour away by myself.

Unfortunately, I had to skip the Las Vegas 1/2 as my hip got worse after the SF race. I’m hopeful that maybe I can do that one in 2018. It’s still on the bucket list! For the short-term, I’m training for the Silicon Valley 1/2 marathon this April.

On the reading front, I was right on target with my goal of reading 60 books. The number of books might be misleading, because hey, maybe I read 60 really short books. According to goodreads.com, I read 23,624 pages across 60 books. This is 5 books and about 5,000 pages more than the previous year, not too shabby. One highlight of my reading adventures in 2017 was re-reading the entire Dark Tower series by Stephen King. These are his best books, in my opinion, and I was very sad that the movie sucked so much. I was really hoping it would be amazing, as the intent was to launch both a movie franchise and TV show.

One thing that was missing in 2017 was travel time. I made the usual 3 trips to Romania, and did 2 weekend adventures while I was there, but I didn’t make it anywhere else. For 2018, I’d really like to travel more.

While I didn’t travel as much as I would have liked, I did make time to go on some local adventures. I rode a Segway for the first time, and had a blast zooming all over Golden Gate park in San Francisco. Visiting Pinnacles National Park and hiking up to the top was also a fun adventure and something I’d like to do again this year.

And last, but not least, I had the wonderful opportunity to foster 3 amazing dogs and help them find their perfect homes. Teddy, Trina, and Nutmeg were all very special dogs. Each had their own unique quirks and needs, which can make finding the right home a challenge. I’m so happy to have been a part of the team that saved them.

2018

So what’s the plan for 2018?

• Keep going to the gym!
• Running
  • Silicon Valley 1/2 marathon
  • Las Vegas Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon (depending on how training and running the SV 1/2 feels with my hip injury)
• Read! (60 books? 24k pages….)
  • Write more book reviews
  • Read more non-fiction and classics
• Travel
  • New Zealand
  • Rome
• Stop drinking Monster (or at least drink less). That shit has got to be bad for me.
• Go on more adventures
• Continue volunteering and fostering

That’s my plan, and hopefully I’m sticking to it!

Happy New Year!