March(ing) On

So, it’s been a little while since I posted . . . goodbye February, hello March! I have so many weird words to share and Very Important Feelings in the queue (30th birthday WHAT) but I will focus on the month project for the moment.

To summarize my recent progress, February was a bust. I mean, complete and total failure. I meditated exactly zero times. Meditation book by my bedside? Unopened. Twice-a-week meditation class four blocks away from our apartment? Unattended. (Sigh.)  No real excuse either – I mean, I was away for one weekend and sick for about a week but neither of those things were preventing me from sitting still with my eyes closed for an hour so this is alllll on me. I intend to revisit this project later in the year, but I already had the next month lined up so I am literally marching on to this month’s project: the 30 Day Shred. Jillian Michaels, you and your weird eyebrows have a whoooole month to boss me around. DO YOUR WORST.

I’m now on day 10 of the shred, which is really just exercising 25ish mins every day for 30 days, each exercise consisting of 3 cardio/strength/core sets plus warmup & stretching. Lots of numbers in there. Lots of squatting and lunging while lifting weights. Lots of jumping on my poor downstairs neighbors’ heads. So far the major results are that more acute awareness of how dirty our floor is (heeeey there dustbunny stuck to my leg sweat, I hope you are enjoying this cool-down stretch as much as I am), negligible weight loss, marginally improved self-esteem and some minor soreness. I am no exercise DVD novice, and there are arguably any number of exercises that I might prefer/realize are better for me long-term, but the 30-day-ness of this particular program is appealing given my overall theme for 2012.  Even if it doesn't yield the impossible promise of total shred-dulation, I think it's a good step forward.

Speaking of half-successes, the general resolution that came out of the January vegan experiment is going decently. I’ve had a little unverified meat here and there (sports-event chicken fingers, I wish I knew how to quit you) but in general I’ve been thinking harder about my meats, buying strategically, and going without when my options are limited. I’ve also gotten better at asking questions, which is an important part of being an obnoxious snooty-foodie concerned food-consuming citizen. And the “going without” part continues to seem less and less like a sacrifice and more like just a thing that happens. When we were in WVA for my birthday, we couldn’t find any verifiable meats (not even trout, which were stocked in the local streams) so we ate vegetarian. Sometimes I didn’t even put CHEESE on my food, which is like a major revelation in Michelle-world. Also I was reminded that I LOVE mushrooms even though E doesn't.  Fungus get in my belly!

So, despite the failure of February, I think I’ve gained an appreciation for what my monthly projects will mean long-term. I don’t intend to carry the exact practices from any month into an ongoing regimen: I am not vegan now, and after March is over I will not work out every day. But the intense short-term focus on a particular idea or practice can be a jump-start to lead me toward a practice that is more flexible and more sustainable in the long term. For post-March, the guideline might be “exercise a couple times a week” or “maintain general cardiovascular fitness” or “hey you on the couch, remember movement?”  Maybe I'll do a a running month next, or a yoga month w/ meditation included, to keep the ball rolling.

On the other hand, the monthly experiments themselves do seem to go better when they require daily practice rather than a few times a week - if I have any lagtime between observances, the risk is that much greater for procrastination or poor scheduling or total February-style failure.  24 hours is evidently the maximum amount of time that I can be trusted to keep an idea in my head.

Better than a goldfish, I guess.