New Year. New Goals. Usually I can’t make it past the fifth of January with my new years resolutions. I decided to write about them now instead of earlier because I wanted to see how well I was doing. I’m going to write these from hardest to easiest. I am aiming for 8 out of 10. I’ll create a small table on this site somewhere so I can update how I am doing.

Once again, these are listed hardest to easiest:

10. Take public transportation to and from work 2 times a week

This is just plain difficult. Public transportation looks great on paper. It seems like it would be easy to do. It takes a different mindset that I just seem to lack. To make this work I need to ride the train to work 96 times during the year. It is halfway through February and I have accomplished this goal 5 times.

Pro’s of taking the train. It can save me money. I can get a discounted pass through my work or get one free through the college. In my little truck I spend about $8 a day to and from work depending on what the gas price is. This would save approximately $768 a year.

Con’s of taking the train. I have children. They wake up at night. They get sick sometimes. They have a schedule that is always in flux. The train leaves at 5:36 every morning and every half-hour after that. If my kids don’t match the trains schedule I don’t take the train. The other issue is I lose a half an hour each way I drive. That’s 96 hours a year which is 4 days I could be doing something else. Are 4 days worth $768 bucks? Right now I’m not sure.

9. Weigh 185 pounds and keep the weight off for 2 months.

I started eating better and I exercise. I’m not sure if I can break the 195 pound mark. I started at 208 and have made it to 198 pounds and have stalled. I’m down 10 pounds and assuming I can keep exercising and eating right I think I can get down to my goal weight but it’s becoming a struggle at this point.

8. Top of Utah half-marathon.

I would like to try a half-marathon sometime this year. I found a running program that I can follow but I need to get committed to it. I am currently able to run about three miles but I only have about 5 months until I have to be able to go about 13.5. My biggest issue here is that running makes me hungry. Being hungry makes me eat. Eating makes me gain weight and that starts affecting other goals.

I’ve been skiing once. It was a terrible experience. I didn’t know what I was doing and I pretty much spent most of the day on my rear. I think I was 12 years old and my cousin took me up to Brighton Ski Resort. Once I figured out how to get on the lift we made it to the top of the hill. I think it took me half a day to make it down the hill twice. Fast forward to today and I want to get started again. Why?

1. I grew up in Midway, Utah growing up and went skiing once. It’s 20 minutes from Park City. I can’t have my kids grow up and not get that chance.

2. Ski Utah – I met the Ski Utah company at a luncheon a week ago. Westminster College does a “Power Lunch” at the Alta Club and invites someone from the community to speak. This was Nathan Rafferty that runs the Ski Utah company. He made some comments about getting the locals up in the mountains to ski. I realized I really should make another effort.

3. Skiing videos. Youtube has a bunch. This is one of my faves since it is Snowbird and I have a little bit of a connection there.

So Friday I am taking the 6 and 4 year old and their 33 year old dad (me) and learning how to ski at Snowbird. We’ll see how it goes. Everyone tells me that they’ll pick it up fast and I will be the odd man out. I’m nervous but it’s time we figured out how this skiing thing is done.

UPDATE:
Hey we did it! The 4 year old did really good, the 6 year old went down Chickadee and figured out the chairlift which was impressive. It took some time but I learned to stop, start, slow down and not run into people. Overall, it was a successful outing.