The Old Year in Review

It's another year, again. I know it is cliche, but the years do seem to go by quicker and quicker. I don't think I achieved a lot of my resolutions. I had even forgotten that I made any. That doesn't bode well. So let's see which ones I actually managed to stick to.

Health

• Keep losing weight. Another 10 kilos this year would be great. I don't want to lose it fast, I want to keep it off, so slow and steady is great. Yeah, this did not happen. I actually put on a couple of kilos over the holidays. So I guess I will just have to get it together this year.
• Be more active. I started doing Zumba at home last year and it felt great to get fitter. I kinda dropped it the last two months because of holidays, sickness and more holidays. So the idea is to work out twice a week. One time Zumba and one time weights. Bf bought a set of weights and I have done training with him the last few days. It's hard but fun. I hope to keep that up. I stopped doing Zumba, but picked up running instead. Doing 2 runs a week, a short one during the week and a longer one on the weekend. So far this has been going really well and I would like to add another day of activity. Either some weights or some yoga, just to not only be running.
• Keep eating healthy. Except for the two weeks around Christmas I have been eating really healthy. I have actually enjoyed doing it. Had much more energy than before and overall felt better. I think I have done rather well. December was a bit of a screw up, but the rest of the year was pretty healthy. And I am planning to stick to healthy food. Actually got a couple of lunch boxes so I can control better what I eat. 
• Get more frequent haircuts. Try every two to three months. Hahaha, I think I didn't get one haircut this year. I should get a cut though. At least to get rid off the frizzy and dry bits. Meh, maybe next month.
• Dye my hair again! Nope. Kinda decided to let the hair dye grow out and see what I am left with. Is taking quiet a lot of time. I guess the not cutting the hair bit is not helping with getting rid off it ;-)

Japan

Since I completely failed at any of the goals I set last year I am trying to set a less ambitious goal (like, not working through a whole book). I basically want to stick to what is happening in the lessons. Do the homework/ review and find extra material in the books. Nothing extra. I figure if I can stick to these basics I will do a lot more than I did the last year. And if I really want to do anything extra, I guess I could always find something.

• Do the lesson reviews each week. This went well for a bit. However my class did not continue to the next year due to a lack of students. So I kinda have been slacking since May. Ups, need to find a study plan without attending classes now.
• Work on one grammar point per week, matching the one from the lesson or an earlier one. Same as above.
• Match that grammar point to JFBP and revise.

Fun things

I sometimes get caught up on the internet all day. Instead of doing something I like doing, I end up surfing the net and at the end of the day feel like I wasted my time. So I want to 'schedule' things I like to do in order to remember to do fun things. Yeah, sounds stupid. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the options there are for entertainment (TV, movies, books, games etc) and even though I really want to play or read something I don't start because I cannot decide what to do first and end up doing nothing. I am getting better at this. Less internet, more planned entertainment. I am reading more, watching specific TV shows that I actually like watching and not just random things. 

• Make an effort to go to the movies (6 times a year). I didn't really count, but it should be around that number, watched three in the last two month (The Hobbit, Skyfall, Twilight) so cannot be doing bad.
• Spend at least two evenings a week reading for an hour. Done! 
• Try to play a game at least once a week. I think so. Might be more on the weekend, but definitely enjoying more quality time with games.
• Blog once a week. Let's not discuss this one...
• Keep the book club running with meet-ups once a month. It was not once a month but close enough. Though thinking to not do it this year as I am not enjoying the books we have been reading.
• Try out new restaurants (4 times). Done, one of them was just across the street!
• Be more sociable. This is not a very concrete goal. But I do want to become more sociable, stay in touch with people, try to make new friends, keep old ones, etc. Maybe try to go out with people from work more often. Hm, I think I did improve on staying in touch with friends that don't live close by. But suck at meeting up with friends that are actually close. Need to work on that!

Overall a big fail. But I am not upset about it. I enjoyed the year overall. I have not made any resolutions for 2013. Of course, there are things I want to do and achieve, but they are not tied into the year specifically. Anybody else had resolutions for 2012, how did you do?

2012 resolutions

I had a lot of fun making resolutions last year and revisiting them this year. So of course I will be doing the same this year.

There is not anything big on the list. I think for me it's more about finding a schedule that works for me and balance out different parts of my life.

This year there is no publishing/ work related goal on here. I think for this year I am just planning to stay in my current role and learn as much as possible. Maybe in the year after I will set some goals in this area for development or advancement. But I think for now I just want to gain the work experience and enjoy doing a 9-5 job and the freedom it comes with it. This year will be about enjoying my free time. Since the last years have been about studying and getting into a career.

This time around I thought I divide my goals into categories and see how that works out:

Health

• Keep losing weight. Another 10 kilos this year would be great. I don't want to lose it fast, I want to keep it off, so slow and steady is great.
• Be more active. I started doing Zumba at home last year and it felt great to get fitter. I kinda dropped it the last two months because of holidays, sickness and more holidays. So the idea is to work out twice a week. One time Zumba and one time weights. Bf bought a set of weights and I have done training with him the last few days. It's hard but fun. I hope to keep that up.
• Keep eating healthy. Except for the two weeks around Christmas I have been eating really healthy. I have actually enjoyed doing it. Had much more energy than before and overall felt better.
• Get more frequent haircuts. Try every two to three months.
• Dye my hair again!

Japan

Since I completely failed at any of the goals I set last year I am trying to set a less ambitious goal (like, not working through a whole book). I basically want to stick to what is happening in the lessons. Do the homework/ review and find extra material in the books. Nothing extra. I figure if I can stick to these basics I will do a lot more than I did the last year. And if I really want to do anything extra, I guess I could always find something.

• Do the lesson reviews each week.
• Work on one grammar point per week, matching the one from the lesson or an earlier one.
• Match that grammar point to JFBP and revise.

Fun things

I sometimes get caught up on the internet all day. Instead of doing something I like doing, I end up surfing the net and at the end of the day feel like I wasted my time. So I want to 'schedule' things I like to do in order to remember to do fun things. Yeah, sounds stupid. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the options there are for entertainment (TV, movies, books, games etc) and even though I really want to play or read something I don't start because I cannot decide what to do first and end up doing nothing. 

• Make an effort to go to the movies (6 times a year).
• Spend at least two evenings a week reading for an hour.
• Try to play a game at least once a week.
• Blog once a week.
• Keep the book club running with meet-ups once a month.
• Try out new restaurants (4 times).
• Be more sociable. This is not a very concrete goal. But I do want to become more sociable, stay in touch with people, try to make new friends, keep old ones, etc. Maybe try to go out with people from work more often.

How about you guys? Have you made any resolutions for 2012? What hopes do you have for 2012?

Bye bye 2011

The last few days have been quite uneventful. We met up with the bf's dad and stepmom a few times. Usually to eat. They didn't really want to visit any tourist things (lots of them were closed anyway). So instead we had a lot of good food. Not complaining there. Time at home I mainly spend reading and watching movies. Great and relaxing.

So today it's the last day of the year and I think it's time to look at last year's resolutions and see how I've done:

1. Drop ten kilos by the end of the year (preferably not gain any back over Christmas). Surprise surprise this happened! Well, not the last bit. I dropped 12 kilos, but gained 3 back during the holidays. But I am back on healthy eating tomorrow so not worried at all.
2. Read at least one book a month for pleasure (doesn't count if it's for study). Easy peasy.
3. Regularly update Goodreads.Done!
4. Get a haircut at least twice a year (yeah, that's a LOT for me) and make it short.  Done two by May! But none since. Bad me! Might get a cut in January.
5. Try to eat at least one piece of fruit a day. This has not happened since I switched to a diet back in October that avoids fruit. But I eat loads of fresh vegetables.
6. Go one week without carbohydrates (bf swears on this so let's try it out). I never did a whole week, but basically do six days of it and then an indulgence day on number 7.
7. Go out for drinks to a new place at least once a month. I think I managed this. Was not really counting though.
8. Go to at least six new and exciting dinner places during the year. I thought I would totally fail on this, but since the bf's dad took us out three times this week I managed! LOL.
9. Go out at least twice a month and ignore work/study for those nights. I meet people from uni about twice a month for drinks/bookclub. So to my own surprise I managed to do this.
10. Go running once a week. FAIL!
11. Have a detox day once a month. Fail. Though I feel with the diet I switched to it's really unnecessary. Though what I did do I stocked up on bath bombs, so now will try to have a nice relaxing bath about once a month.
12. Cook at least two times a week.Bf complains I didn't do it, but I think I tried hard. Though I do make him cook more than me. He's just better at it.
13. Go to the movies at least six times. Win, Win (May), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, 50/50, Breaking Dawn. Two missing. Darn.
14. Watch at least four Studio Ghibli movies that I haven't seen yet. My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies. I recorded some on our new TV. Now just need to watch them. But yeah, FAIL!
15. Use up all the tea in the kitchen before buying any new ones (except my daily dose of green tea. Cannot live without that. But all the 'fun' ones have to go before stocking up again). Fail, I tossed all the ones out when we moved that I knew I wouldn't be drinking anymore.
16. Go through the whole wardrobe and throw out what I haven't worn for a year or doesn't fit/isn't comfy/looks horrible. Yes! But I kept some things, maybe will have to do it again... Did it again while moving. Tossed out so many clothes mainly due to no storage to keep them. Am very proud of myself.
17. Buy one pair of shoes that looks good with skirts. And maybe buy a new pencil skirt. I bought some new sandals, which look really nice with skirts. And now also some heels for the winter. Still hard to walk in but at least they look decent.
18. Smile when somebody wants to take a photograph of me (instead of yelling at them). Yeah, this worked out good for me. Bf complains I don't let him take pictures of me. Which is not true. I don't have any images of him because he keeps hiding from the camera...
19. Buy a wrist watch. Done! See here...
20. Reply to messages within three days. No delays allowed. Yes, waiting three months is too long. Sigh, I am still very bad at this. Though got a bit better.
21. Go on chat/messenger programmes at least twice a week to stay in touch with friends. Still not big at going on messenger. I even turned off the facebook one.
22. Start an address book and update it regularly.Fail. Though I still would like to do it. I did find my old one. But it's not up-to-date.
23. Do not just get any job when graduating. It has to be a publishing job. Done, done, done!!!
24. Put away money once I got a job for a trip to Japan. Working on it. We want to book in a few weeks. I got enough for the flight, now need to save for the money I will need there.
25. Do the Japanese homework every week for term 2 and 3 and study for half an hour a week on top of the homework. Let's not talk about this...
26. Finish Japanese for Busy People I and work through half of Japanese for Busy People II. I had high hopes for this to do it in between uni and job starting. But then I started work before I even finished uni, so yeah, that didn't happen....

So there are many things I haven't quite accomplished what I set out to do. But on others things I think I have done rather well. I want to do some New Years resolutions for 2012. Need to have a think about what I want to achieve next year and what to concentrate on and then I will put it up.

 

Until then... Everyone have a great start to 2012! It can only get better...

New Year's Resolutions

I usually don't do New Year's Resolutions. But I figured I will make an exception this year as I really like the idea of setting some goals and achieving those. Not talking about big things here, just small ones to make sure life doesn't just pass one by. I will put them on their own page and try to update how I'm doing. This is not a hugely exciting list, but I'm trying to take baby steps!

1. Drop ten kilos by the end of the year (preferably not gain any back over Christmas).
2. Read at least one book a month for pleasure (doesn't count if it's for study).
3. Regularly update Goodreads.
4. Get a haircut at least twice a year (yeah, that's a LOT for me) and make it short.
5. Try to eat at least one piece of fruit a day.
6. Go one week without carbohydrates (bf swears on this so let's try it out).
7. Go out for drinks to a new place at least once a month.
8. Go to at least six new and exciting dinner places during the year.
9. Go out at least twice a month and ignore work/study for those nights.
10. Go running once a week.
11. Have a detox day once a month.
12. Cook at least two times a week.
13. Go to the movies at least six times.
14. Watch at least four Studio Ghibli movies that I haven't seen yet.
15. Use up all the tea in the kitchen before buying any new ones (except my daily dose of green tea. Cannot live without that. But all the 'fun' ones have to go before stocking up again).
16. Go through the whole wardrobe and throw out what I haven't worn for a year or doesn't fit/isn't comfy/looks horrible.
17. Buy one pair of shoes that looks good with skirts. And maybe buy a new pencil skirt.
18. Smile when somebody wants to take a photograph of me (instead of yelling at them).
19. Buy a wrist watch.
20. Reply to messages within three days. No delays allowed. Yes, waiting three months is too long.
21. Go on chat/messenger programmes at least twice a week to stay in touch with friends.
22. Start an address book and update it regularly.
23. Do not just get any job when graduating. It has to be a publishing job.
24. Put away money once I got a job for a trip to Japan.
25. Do the Japanese homework every week for term 2 and 3 and study for half an hour a week on top of the homework.
26. Finish Japanese for Busy People I and work through half of Japanese for Busy People II.