A New Year with Plenty of Goals

 The New Year is off to a good start so far. Due to Covid 19 running rampant in Rhode Island, I have been given the ability to work from home for the time being. This is good on two levels. First, I wont have to worry about catching Covid from someone at the office. And also I wont have to put as much wear and tear on my car throughout the winter. I am looking at this as sort of a trail period for if I even go permanently remote. I feel that after 18 years in the IT industry. This is my natural evolution. Some things that will change with not having to drive back and forth to work every day include a later wake up time. I am going to be shooting for 7:15am rather than 6:45am like I had been doing. I will have enough time to shower ever morning without having to skip it because I got up to late. I'll now be able to exercise a little during my lunch break rather than spending the good part of an hour driving to and from the house. I wont be tempted to buy cigarettes on either my drive into work... or my lunch break because I no longer have an excuse to leave the house. I do not yet know how I am going to be adjusting. I start the new work schedule tomorrow. I am going to do it on a trail for the next two weeks and see how it goes. If it's not for me then I'll be heading back into the office. I'll likely be eating a more nutritious breakfast and lunch. I wont have to leave the house so there will be no more fast food binges on my lunch break or double dinners. I do have to worry about the cats being a distraction while I am home. and on Tuesdays and Fridays I have to worry about Katie being around the house. If I had my own office it would be nice. But it's hard to do that in a one bedroom apartment. My only real worry is if she goes on the TV while I'm worry... because the volume on the TV may come through on the microphone.  However... I just did a test with the Microphone while Sirius XM was playing on the Alexa and it didn't pick up any background noise. 

 I'm on day 3 of my New Year's quit smoking attempting. I haven't been tempted so far which is a good thing. Last night when I went to give my mom money for helping us move some furniture into the house she said it's ok that we were even. Her and I had placed a friendly wager on who was going to last the longest with not smoking. I have a feeling she either took that as I had failed or she had already smoked and therefore we would have been even on failing the bet. I hope that isn't the case as I really want to see her quit smoking. It wasn't really about the money. But I figured with a nice bet going we both would have quit for good. 73 Days was my longest consecutive Streak without a cigarette and that was from the beginning of last year up until shortly after my friend had died. I have no interest in seeing the people... or going to the places... that made me smoke last year... So I figure I should be good this coming year. It may mean limiting my time with my parents... But that will only be for the first few weeks of quitting smoking. Then from there I should be good going forward. 

 My weight has been fluctuating at the beginning part of the year. My goal is to lose 80lbs by December 31st 2022. On January 1st I weighted 266.4lbs. Which means that within one year my goal is to be back down to 186.4lbs. This should be doable. It's an average of 1.54 pounds per week over the course of the entire year. Between a 20 minute exercise routine every day during my lunch break. Going to the gym for 30 minutes to 1 hour on Monday nights (Katie is going to be closing on Monday nights from now on). And no longer drinking Alcohol and eating fast food... I feel it is a goal that I should be able to accomplish over the course of the year. I am keeping track of my weight every day. For instance, this morning I weighed 264.4lbs... So that's a two pound loss over just the last three days. Which So long as I can maintain the lose by this coming Saturday, I will have made my goal for the week. My goal by the end of January is to be back under the 260lbs mark. Which... should be doable based on my goals. I'm also going to be taking both a multivitamin... as well as Apple Cider pills because those are supposed to be good for healthy weight loss. 

 My Mental Health has been slowly improving over time. I've been consistent with my pills. Which is a good thing. The voices from the floor below haven't been as present as they were last month. The only thing which seems to be an issue... Which again I can't tell if they are real or not is the banging on the ceiling above. Someone is either hitting the floor repeatedly. They are hitting a shared wall between the two apartments.. Or they are working out and dropping their weights. I ran out of my Gingko Biloba Supplement but I recently restocked so I hoping that the improved memory continues into the new year. The weather hasn't really been helping my mood much these days. It's been either cloudy... raining... or mostly cloudy lately and as a result I've had a bit of a depressed mind state. I think too... because my money situation isn't improving as fast as I would have hoped, it has me a little stressed. I understand that we have enough money and credit between the two of us to take care of any major issues in the event one came up.. But still I get a little stressed out. As my Therapist says... I need to stop thinking in terms of "I" and think more in terms of "We" because really... Katie and I are a team in life... we are not single players in this game anymore. I think it might be related to the hardships I've been through over the years. And as a result of that if I don't have 5,000 in the bank then I automatically start thinking that shits gonna be Fucked. But... as mentioned.. my mental health is improving. I can walk around a store without being paranoid as hell... and I can sit and enjoy a show with Katie without becoming obsessive or angry about noises that may or may not exist.