New Year's Resolutions for 2012

My poor blog. I abandoned you for so long, but something about being back in school again makes me want to start blogging on a regular basis again. (Maybe it's the fact that I don't have a 9-to-5 job grinding me down on a daily and weekly basis, and making me never want to look at a computer screen in my time off.) Whatever the reason, I've decided to give this another try, new year and whatnot. This year, I feel the need to put my resolutions down in writing and hold myself accountable for them. So here goes, drumroll please, my new year's resolutions are:

1. Write in my blog on at least a weekly basis. (And make it interesting.)
2. Re-implement my lifestyle (diet and exercise) changes so that I can lose the rest of the weight I need to, and keep it off!
3. This past year, I read a high number of books (130). Next year, I want to focus on reading more classic literature (which takes longer for me to read than the brain candy on which I gorged myself this year, but will help me with my thesis).
4. Get caught back up on my favorite webcomics.
5. Plan another backpacking trip with my dad for this summer (we had to skip last summer what with both of us relocating cross-country).

That's all I can think of for now. Five seems like a good number of resolutions, so we'll stop there.

Budget Crackdown: Day Two

This year, I'm using Lent to help me enforce my self-imposed budget cutbacks. It will help a lot that Andrea is giving up alcohol, so we can go out and not drink together. My budget rules:
1. No fast food. No exceptions.
2. No buying alcohol when I'm out with friends.
3. I can only spend money going out one night a week.
These cutbacks should serve two-fold. I will save money (which is good as my buffer is going to be gone by the end of March) and I will get back to a healthier lifestyle. I hate feeling fat every time I go into my closet. This week has been hard on my exercising objectives as I had to work later a couple of days and spent all of Monday afternoon cleaning my grill and oven. Not fun, but I always figure housework makes pretty decent exercise. This weekend I have to get back on track. Today I have to work on meeting my weekly job contact quota.

Renewing My Resolve

I'm pretending that the new year hasn't started yet because I only just finally got most of the holiday leftovers out of my fridge and off my counter. It's impossible to start a diet and exercise regime no matter your willpower when there are still bags of homemade fudge on the counter and delicious mashed potatoes and stuffing in the fridge. So the new year starts tomorrow with my resolution to eat better (and less), cut down on fast food, fatty food and too-large portions, and exercise more (now that the tree is down, there's room for my pilates mat) because while I am okay with being single, unemployed OR overweight, but I flat-out refuse to be single, unemployed AND overweight.