2023, New Year, New . . . Well Nevermind

Ok. It’s been a minute since I’ve ‘WordPressed’. Now that the 12 Days of Christmas are officially over, I guess it’s time to get back to life.

Sayonara, Christmas Tree of 2022. Please don’t mind the orange and red lines. The utility company FINALLY marked our yard, so Verizon Fios can bury the stupid cable lines THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN BURIED IN JULY!!!!

I don’t know about most folks, but my holiday season was kind of blah. I wonder if having blah Christmas seasons will be the way of life. I’ve noticed (primarily through social media) that since the pandemic, many folk are not going balls to the wall with their holiday celebrations. Actually, I told the hubby that we should consider going on vacation trips during Christmas. You can find amazing travel deals . . . especially if you don’t mind traveling on Christmas Day. Besides my bday, NYE probably is my second favorite holiday. What was Kwame doing on NYE? He was asleep on the sofa by 9:30 pm, and he didn’t even get to see the ball drop. I will say that I was slightly annoyed that the husband didn’t wake me up to see the ball drop and to have a glass of champagne, a spoonful of black-eyed peas, and 12 grapes. But, hey . . . there’s always next year.

I’m not really sure where I am in terms of training for my next marathon.

However, I do know that I am not where I would like to be regarding my fitness. Since I’m trying to drop a few pounds this year, I was shocked to see how much weight I’ve gained since moving to Virginia in July.

I purposely left off the numbers because I will admit that I’m a little embarrassed with this weight gain. Until living in Virginia for the past six months, I never realized the effects of passive exercise. For instance in NYC:

• One has to walk to and from public transportation. For some subway stations, you have to climb up and down SEVERAL flights of stairs.
• I was walking at least a mile to and from work. Also, my commute to work involved an uphill climb.
• Social meetups involved walking to and from the restaurant/bar. In Va, you pretty much walk from the parking lot to the meetup. From time to time in NYC, I would incorporate running ~3 miles to a bar to grab drinks with friends.
• The city was more pedestrian friendly. In Va, even causally walking to a restaurant or a bar will have folks give you crazy eyes. An example, I told a friend that I ran to the rec center for a workout. My friend was like you ran ALL THE WAY to the rec center?!!! I mean, the rec center is only 1.5 miles from my house.

All said and done, at the end of the day, I cannot blame anyone but myself for my weight gain. Whatever the case is, I have GOT TO get it together. This is the biggest I have ever been in my life, and I really am becoming a bit depressed about it. I wonder if this has affected my confidence in job hunting. More on this later.

Besides issues with weight loss, 2022 was just an ok year (at least social media-wise). I will say that I have had better years.

While it’s not a major surprise, I did not complete my run 2022 kms in 2022 goal.

I had a feeling that I would not meet this goal sometime in August. Since I like to torture myself, I will reattempt this goal for 2023. What’s one more kilometer?

Other than these random things, I don’t have much to discuss. Starting next week, I hope to have a real Monday Weekly Training Update or whatever I call my Monday posts.

Question(s) for the Day?

-If you celebrate, how were your Christmas and New Year’s?

-Did you make any resolutions/suggestions/goals for 2023?

-Any interesting books or podcasts that you would like to recommend? In 2023, I would like to read more and listen to more (non-reality TV-related) podcasts.

Social Media Plug:

Instagram

@smokinscientist (Twitter)

Kwame s (Strava)