What did I accomplish in 2010?
First of all, I now floss every day. I know that sounds trivial, but I've been meaning to get around to that for 15 years, and after last year's periodontal deep cleaning, I decided to get serious about it. I used the "don't break the streak" method of Jerry Seinfeld (via Lifehacker) to get rolling. I think I've missed <5 days this year.
Then I decided to try group therapy, joining a group for people with social phobia. I'm not sure how that's working out, to be honest. It's not quite as skills- and goal-oriented as I'd imagined (although, God help whoever tries to make me formulate an actual goal), and I've discovered that a lot of things that I used to agonize over bother me less than they used to anyway. Whether this is because I now avoid activities that make me uncomfortable, and whether I avoid them because I genuinely don't like them or I avoid them because I'm phobic, I don't know. Also, to some extent, I have in recent years begun to take the philosophy, "I'm too old for this shit," by which I mean that I don't worry myself with some of the extreme fuss and angst I used to put myself through in order to, say, go into a shop and ask for assistance. I'm not sure if the group is helping me at all, or if it's just my natural growth. Probably I should figure that out, as it's costing me fifty bucks a week.
I have long been upset by my weight. I found it so upsetting, and the topics of weight loss and exercise seemed so complicated, that I have been unable to do anything about it. Last summer I convinced myself that I could keep a food diary for a couple weeks. I didn't commit to any other action, in order to keep from feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed. I figured I could commit to tracking data. I found a web site with basic food diary functions and created an account. As part of creating an account, I was forced to enter my current weight, activity level (sedentary) and a weight loss goal (at the time, staying pat was not an option offered by the database, so I selected 'lose 1 lb/week'), so that the site could generate a target daily calorie intake. I am not very good at estimating amount, size, or quantity, so using a food diary forced me to pay attention to how much I was eating (previously I sort of figured if it had vegetables, it was a good dietary choice, and how many calories could there really be in CPK's sun dried tomato fusilli?). By the end of the first day, I was horrified. I had no idea how many calories I should be taking in, and even less idea how much I actually was taking in. I was so stunned that I decided I had to start doing something, so I began trying to keep to the site's recommended daily calories for losing 1 pound/week. The site also has a simple calculation of the percentage of your diet which is protein/carbs/fat, so I started trying to get more protein and less carbs, too.
I do not own a bathroom scale, and I think that's probably best. Considering how weight can fluctuate on a daily basis, I would make myself crazy with daily weigh-ins. Even a weekly weigh-in is potentially discouraging. I weighed myself on my parents' scale when I visited them at the end of July. I had a doctor appointment mid-September, and weighed 8 pounds less. I wasn't too excited about this, because scales can show different weights, weight fluctuates a few pounds during the course of the day, etc. At Christmas when I was at my parents' again, I weighed myself on their scale. I lost 30 pounds since the end of July.
I was very excited by the weight loss, and proceeded to weigh myself daily for the duration of my stay. I probably put on 2-3 lbs over the holidays, but still--30 pounds! Needless to say, I'm looking to continue this progress in 2011 (since I'm still roughly 80 pounds overweight).
My year was also pretty enjoyable at work, if only because we hired a geek who I adore both personally and professionally. Since he has some self-esteem and actual skills, I doubt he'll be working at our agency for much longer. I'm bummed about that, but on the upside (c.f., the social phobia thing), I made a friend this year.