Goals for 2007
Meditation
From 1990 to 2000 give or take a few months, I meditated pretty much every day. I took regular meditation retreats, kept a meditation journal and discussed my experiences with other like minded people. So what happened? I was involved in a Buddhist movement and left that movement. In order to disentangle myself from it I gave up everything that was to do with “them”, even though I began meditating before I was ever involved with the movement. So now, almost seven years later I feel ready to start my practice again. My plan is to start slowly with perhaps a couple of 20 minute sessions a week. Nothing compared to the daily 2 hour sessions that I used to do, but I want to lay strong foundation and gradually build on it. If I can maintain a twice weekly 20 minute session for a few months, then I can gradually add to that. I’ll keep you posted of course. Who knows, I may even keep my meditation journal online.
My own yoga practice - one class, one alone
When I first started yoga I had a very intensive personal practice which amounted to over 2 hours a day every day. But early enthusiasm wanes. And now I’m teaching which sort of keeps my hand in there but doesn’t help me to make progress. Toward the end of the last year I started to practise again on my own and found it extremely rewarding after a break of almost 2 years or so. It’s a fairly intuitive practice which I can do since I have been doing it for so long. And I did it at the end of my cycle rides. I thought that it was what I did for money, so why not for pleasure as well. So I would go for my 25 miler down into Kent and have the mat ready for when I arrived home. Marvellous. So more of that this year. But what about going to a class?
The Iyengar Center in New Cross is not too far away from where I live and it was where I took my yoga teachers exam many years ago. But I haven’t been there since then. I’ve been meaning to pop along and see how it’s all going in the Iyengar world. Perhaps it’ll happen this year. And the other class I could go to would be to my friend Jim’s class in Brighton once a month. You’ll find more about Jim in the Blogroll list. That would be a great start. And if I could keep that up for the rest of the year then that would be something.
Diet - 5 a day, etc
Over the years I’ve tried so many different diets. The Zone, Atkins, Food combining, macrobiotics. Some went on for years and others lasted just a few weeks. Why did I do it? In order to restrict myself because I do enjoy food, but also to increase my nutritional input. Following a system gave the impression that it made things easier. At least for a while it did. But sooner or later I wanted to eat something that was outside what was permitted. So now I have abandoned all of that and really just want to focus on being healthy and having more energy. So I’m going to try and make things very simple. Go back to basics as it were.
The British government have been advocating the 5 a day plan for the past years, but I’ve always that it was a bit amateurish given the amount of knowledge that I have about diet. But knowledge is one thing and its application is quite another. I don’t want to follow yet another fad only to give it up. I want something that is simple, easy to follow and easy to maintain. And that is the key here: maintenance. I want to lose a few kilos, who doesn’t after the christmas binge, but I want health and energy too. If this is so simple, then I shouldn’t have to think too much about it. 5 portions of 80g each day of fruit or veg. And other basics such as cutting down saturated fats, salt and sugar. Drink lots of water, at least 2 litres a day and Bob’s your uncle. Well, he’s called Jyoti actually.
My water intake is in place and has been so for a number of years. I know I drink at least 2 litres a day, but I’m not sure exactly how much. So I’m going to count it. How? That did puzzle me for a little while. But I came up with the idea by accident really. My most simple idea was to use a piece of string on my keyring that I would knot each time I drank water (a 250ml glass). But then I thought of the counters that air stewards use when counting passengers. I looked for them on ebay and came across row counters for knitters. I only need to count up to 8 and these things are really small as they fit onto the end of a knitting needle. One has only to twist the small cylinder to keep count. I can use the other side of the counter, the "tens" side to keep count of my fruit and veg intake.
Bike rides eg London to Brighton etc
Aside from my commuting and weekly rides down into Kent, I want to plan a few longer rides. Last year and the year before I rode down to Brighton. This year I want to do that again, but perhaps a few others as well. I also want to design another route for my Kent ride so that I have two rides.
The current one starts in Sydenham goes via Bromley and onwards to Pratt’s Bottom. When I hit that big roundabout I turn back and go via Orpington. The ride from the motorway roundabout to Orpington is about 3 miles non-stop and is a gentle downhill slope. Of the 25 mile trip, this is the best part. You can certainly work on your spinning here.
But I want to have a slightly longer ride for when the weather is really good or I have a bit more time. I have been looking at another route that has this one as part of it, but then goes South towards Down House gives about a 40 mile loop. Out with the map then on a cold sunny Thursday morning in January.
Keep a log of monthly achivements
Now that I’m looking back upon the year I seem to remember mainly the really big events and also the most recent. But I’m sure that there are others that have been forgotten. If I were to sit down and recall what I had done that month rather than that year, then I think it would be a lot easier and then at the end of the year I would have an even greater sense of achivement. Why bother? In order to celebrate my successes. However great or small, they need to be acknowledged and celebrated. I can big myself up to use the more popular vernacular.
