Goals? We don't need no stinkin' goals

So, I wasn't going to live up to my promise to report back on February by the Numbers. Failure is a bitch. Fortunately, it wasn't failure across the board. Nonetheless, I didn't do as well as I hoped. The first two weeks went really well on all fronts. Then, as usual, some things happened, I started slipping, and the end of the month was pretty much the equivalent of a blown tire on the interestate. But, for fear of breaking one more promise to myself, here are the results of my month of self improvement.

I guess I should note, all of these goals were aimed at two ends. I wanted to be healthier and I wanted to spend more quality time with my family.

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Health

Days taking a 30 minute walk (12)--FAIL--Yeah, that didn't happen at all. In the first couple of weeks, the weather didn't allow for it. By the time the weather got nice, I was pretty discouraged by the project as a whole.

Pounds lost (7)--FAIL-- This was supposed to just be a nice byproduct of all the other goals. I wanted to drop down to around 167, a weight at which I feel really comfortable. I may have lost a couple of pounds, but it was nothing to write home about.

Days not drinking (26) --FAIL -- Part of the little gut I've been putting on is due to the frequency at which I have a couple of beers. While I think I was intoxicated maybe one night in February, I had drinks on more than the four days I allowed myself. Empty calories abounded. Hence, failure.

Number of nights I go to bed before 1am (14) -- FAIL -- I got pretty close with this one. Early in the month, I racked up a number of early-to-bed nights. Then, as things got uglier, so did the insomnia, etc.

Pleasure

Days cooking a meal (10) -- PASS -- I knocked this one out of the park. I got my cooking groove back and cooked up some damned fine food in the month of February. I aimed for ten meals. I think I probably did 15 or so. I had only one failed meal along the way (show me to cook with rice noodles!), but the rest turned out pretty well.

Number of movies watched with my wife (6) -- FAILED -- Another one where I got pretty damned close. I think, in the end, we ended up watching an average of one movie per week. Here's what we did end up watching (with maybe onee missing...I forget):

Little Miss Sunshine (about time somebody wrote a decent comedy)
The Matador (that was really unfortunate)
Snakes on a Plane (the reason cult films have to be seen before the become cult films)
The Departed (no damned wonder why it won best pictre...holy cow, what a great flick)

Number of days I take my kid for father and son bonding time (4) -- No pass or fail on this one, because I changed it almost immediately after posting it. Instead of focusing just on father-son time, I decided to focus on family group outings. On that front, I think I did really well.

Betterment

Days posting to a blog (25) --PASS-- This was aimed at making me write more. It did.

Books finished (3)--FAILED--This was aimed at making me read more. While I finished "The Making of a Chef" and almost finished "Dogrun," I didn't read nearly as much as I wanted. Fortunately, I'm going to have a lot more reading time this month and hope to make a dent in the stack of ten books I have ready to read.

Reminders

Haircuts (0)
Days shaving (0)

This entire section was based on the false premise that I would make myself look like hell for a month, and as such, focus more on bettering myself. By week 2, I looked like a homeless person and resumed normal hygeine.

Poker

Days Not Going To Live Poker Games (24)--FAILED--It wasn't that I didn't want to go out to live poker games. It was simply that the more of them I went to, the less time I spent at home with the family. In the end, I did okay, hitting only six games out of 28 days. Frankly, I think I hamstrung myself a little with this one.

I've decided to redact the final two goals for a couple of reasons. Number one, you wouldn't care anyway. Number two...well, that's for me to know. Suffice it to say, I failed on the meaningless one and succeeded on the important one.

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And so that is that. I'm embarassed to hit publish, but I'm going to. Yeah, that's it.