New Year's Resolutions 2014

New Year resolutions never really work out for me. I'll make a list, adhere to it until somewhere around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and then it falls apart and disappears from memory before Valentine's Day. I have no idea what my resolutions were for 2013, and haven't had any idea what they were since probably last Valentine's Day, but if I were to guess, I'd say "do more upper-body strength-training," "eat more vegetables," and "drink more water" would've been on the list. Why? Because they're ALWAYS on my list. And they're always my big failures, right up in the beginning of the year.

First resolution of 2014: Don't do that shit. Make resolutions that will work, and make a plan to stick with them.

I don't know if this will work. I do know that I want it to - really, really want it to - and that if it doesn't work, I'll at least know what I tried this year, so I can try something different next year. I also know that it can't hurt to fail at my New Year resolutions sometime in March, for example. I at least will've had January through March to succeed.

But that's defeatist thinking! Let's be optimistic!

Here are the goals I'd like to meet in the year 2014

1. EXERCISE. Now, I already exercise quite a lot. I'm a bike commuter, so I have a daily workout built into my lifestyle 9 months out of the year. It's these three pesky winter months that cause trouble. Living in Massachusetts means winter storms ("nor'easters," which I initially thought meant "it's not easter." Spoiler, it doesn't), and winter storms mean no biking during the storm, or for about a week after the storm has passed. This is problematic for someone like me who loves to cook almost as much as I love to eat.

So here's the resolution: Exercise every day. If it's not cycling, it's treadmilling. If it's neither of those, it needs to be serious, hard, prolonged exercise, like swimming laps. Hiking in the woods does NOT count. Taking a brisk walk counts, but only if it's prolonged. Housework doesn't count. Yard work doesn't count.

Exceptions to this resolution: Visitors staying in the kumquat with us. Out of town visiting family or attending a conference/convention. Ill or injured severely enough that exercise could cause damage or complications.


2. STRENGTH TRAINING. I'm tired of my arms being weak. I'm tired of my abs being weak. Yes, they're weak because I don't use them, which probably means I don't need to strengthen them, but the other side to that notion is that they're weak so I don't use them, and maybe I'd use them more if they were stronger. Won't know 'til I've gotten them stronger.

So here's the resolution: Do a focused strength-training exercise every day. Right now, at the start of the year, that's crunches and press-ups. If I manage to install my chin-up bar (the doorframes in the kumquat are not doorframe chin-up bar-friendly), that may replace one or both. Might supplement. Something else may turn up and get thrown into the mix. Whatever, the muscles need attention daily.

Exceptions to this resolution: Ill or injured severely enough that strength training could cause damage or complications. There's no need to not do these just because I have house guests or I'm out of the house for something. *wags finger in own face*


3. PUBLISH. This one scares me, because publication isn't something I've attempted before, and the small bit of research I've done on the topic makes it look truly insurmountable. However, you can't succeed if you don't try because you're afraid of failure, right?

So here's the resolution: Put forth my best and most unrelenting effort to publish my novel. I feel like everyone and their brother is publishing, but need to remember that my book is no less important than anyone else's. If books I deem to be crap can be published, my book - which is insightful, has a lot of heart to it, and is just downright good - can be published and loved, too.

Exceptions to this resolution: None. I'm close enough to being done with edits that I should be able to start looking for a publisher and get this thing out there for people to read.


4. COOK NEW THINGS. Here's a fun one. I love to cook (and eat, ohh do I love to eat), but I get bored easily with the stuff I know how to cook.

So here's the resolution: Learn to cook at least one new dish every month. That's twelve new dishes this year. I'm going to limit this one, too, and define "dish" as something that could be a meal, NOT a dessert. Desserts are fun, but they don't keep body and soul together very well.

Exceptions to this resolution: January, June, and September are BEARISH months for me. So if need be, I can do TWO new recipes in February, July, and October. I'm hoping this won't be the case, though, and plan to look for two good recipes in May and August so I'm ready for the bearish months. For January, uh ... guess I'd better start looking now?


5. GO SEE MORE MOVIES. I love movies! Especially movies on the big screen. Those mean a bike-ride to Cambridge and lunch out on the Common afterwards (mmm Falafel King) when the weather's nice, or just a train-ride to Boston when the weather's being gross. Plus, there's something about seeing a really good film on the big screen that watching at home can't do for me.

So here's the resolution: Go see at least 6 movies on the big screen this year. Surely there'll be enough good movies for that, right? (Not to mention the little indie films shown at the little art theatre near David's office. Those TOTALLY count.)

Exceptions to this resolution: I refuse to pay time and money for a movie that might not be worth it. If 2014 doesn't give me 6 movies to see on the big screen, so be it, we'll just go to Falafel King without seeing a movie first, so there.

and finally:


6. DRINK. MORE. WATER. This is always, always on my resolution list, and damned if I always manage to cock it up. Water is tasty when I want it and disgusting when I don't, and unfortunately, I don't think to see if I want it until my lips are chapped and I realize I've not drunk plain water in like two weeks. That is really, really not good for me, especially with all the exercising I do.

So here's the resolution: Drink at least one litre of water every day. My plan is to take down a full bottle of water whenever I treadmill (that's actually very easy), and on days I bike, to drink water with dinner. Usually, I have a beer. That's expensive, and not necessary. Beer's only necessary when you have food like pizza or wings. Water goes well with everything, and since I'll be drinking from my water bottle (which, conveniently, is 1 litre), I'll know when I've had at least the minimum. I would love to drink more than 1 litre, but I know if I set a goal of more than one, I'll absolutely fail it.

Exceptions to this resolution: If I'm puking my face off and can't keep anything down, obviously water is out. Fasting for medical tests, obviously, would rule this out (though I don't usually do a full fast; water is almost always permitted).

Now here's the fun part.

I fail at my resolutions every year in part because I don't keep track of my attempts. Not going to do that this year. I'm putting a notifier on my calendar for the first of every month, reminding me to revisit this post. I'll keep track of my exercise, food, movies,  water, and publication progress, and mark it down. Worst-case scenario, it shows me where I failed so I can not fail next year. Best-case scenario, I get to hold this up as a "look Ma, I did it!" achievement. Somewhere in the middle, it shows me where I've succeeded, where I've failed, and gives me motivation to keep doing my best.

Which, really, is all I can hope to do.

January 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

February 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

March 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

April 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

May 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

June 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

July 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

August 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

September 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

October 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

November 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

December 2014:
1. Exercise:
2. Strength:
3. Publishing:
4. Cooking:
5. Movies:
6. Water:

Here's to a happy, healthy, satisfying 2014!

~mey

Homeopathic Medicine

A friend of mine recently posted to his facebook: "Can someone explain to me how people still believe in Homeopathy? I mean, if Homeopathy is right, everything we know about chemistry isn't."

An interesting point. I was about to get all up in arms about how homeopathic medicine is fantastic, but fortunately another commenter did that for me, then went to wikipedia and looked up homeopathy, only to discover that it is: "a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient. The collective weight of scientific evidence has found homeopathy to be no more effective than a placebo."

Huh. Well. I've been using the word "homeopathic" wrong, for one thing. Learned something new today.

Homeopathic medicine isn't the same as natural medicine or alternative medicine or homeopathic medicine, which "emphasizes the interrelationship between structure and function of the body and recognizes the body's ability to heal itself; it is the role of the osteopathic practitioner to facilitate that process." I'm a big fan of some jumble of those kinds of medicine. I medicate stress with a bike ride. I medicate headaches with L-Argenine and stretching. I medicate migraines pretty much the same, but with a nice dose of ibuprofen as well because migraines are Serious Business and I've yet to find another cure that fixes them for me (and even at that, I don't think I have severe migraines, and when I knock them back with ibuprofen, I'm still out for the count for several hours after).

But let's not discount homeopathy completely.

Homeopathic medicine is essentially a placebo, medicine that's not doing a damn thing outside making you think something is healing you. Take, for example, the illness I used to get before going to a certain professor's lectures when I was in graduate school. I'd wake the morning of lecture feeling achy and lethargic. It'd get worse as the day progressed. Then I'd go to class (a four-hour night class that lasted from 6pm to 10pm, and here you should know that I'm a morning person, 9pm is totally my bedtime) and come home with my head stuffed up, my eyes watering, my stomach aching, and my throat raw. The following morning? No symptoms at all.

It wasn't until my second quarter of these classes and their strange accompanying symptoms that I realized it was all in my head. Well. Not all. The aches and lethargy that preceded the class was psychological. Dreading the class, not wanting to go, remembering how tired I always was the following day after staying out so late. Then the congestion and itching eyes and sore throat? Allergy to the professor's cologne, in which I'm pretty sure he marinated before each lecture. All mixed together, it made for one very miserable twenty-four hours (not to mention a lot of laundry, since my clothes all reeked of his cologne after spending four hours locked up with it).

Fortunately, I'm "that hippy" who doesn't take meds for stuff unless I really, really need it. I use massage and stretching to get rid of menstrual cramps each month. I drink barley juice and orange juice to ward off allergies and colds. I swallow a spoonful of honey for coughs and sore throats when the barley juice fails me. So I never medicated against that class, and once I realized that I was causing at least half of my own misery, I started treating it with a nice brisk walk first thing in the morning to shake off the "oh god I have THAT class tonight" lethargy. I started taking my crocheting with me to class, giving myself something to look forward to doing while listening to the professor repeat the same damn thing he'd said in every other class I'd taken with him. And yes, I took sickie food with me to class because it comforted me to have the foods I associated with feeling better - triscuits and cheese, 7up, etc.

That took care of the psychological side. For the physical side, the allergy to his cologne, I took water and throat lozenges for my poor aching throat, a mug of hot tea when the weather turned cold, and when he'd give us a break, I'd go into the bathroom and wash my eyes with a wet cloth. After class, I'd take a shower, wash the cologne off my skin and out of my hair. I'd still have a sore throat when class let out - there's no saving that, short of coming to class with a gas mask on - but I felt much, much better leading up to class, reducing my suffering from 24 hours down to the 4 hours I spent in the class itself.

So, taking sickie food with me and going for a walk - are those homeopathic? I'd say so. I didn't actually need the salt to settle my stomach, but the association settled my soul (if you will). The walk cleared my mind and made me feel healthier, both in the literal I-feel-better sense and the psychological I-feel-less-like-a-lazy-bum sense. Same thing with the ... I don't know, do we call it osteopathic medicine if a doctor wasn't involved? I don't think so. We'll call it "natural" medicine, then, of drinking water and herbal tea, sucking on an herbal lozenge, etc., to help with the allergic reaction I had to the cologne. Combine the two and you've got a woman who's feeling better without taking ibuprofen/aspirin/acetaminophen for the aches or ColdEeze (or whatever) for the allergy.

Oh, and it gave me fantastic body knowledge so that I was better equipped to deal with the intense physical and psychological stress of the job I took a year later. Healing you can't put a price-tag on, that.

That's not to say that "real" medicine is bad. Good lord, no. Just that we overmedicate things without looking into their real causes. And by "we," I mean we-the-patients as well as we-the-doctors, because it's a two-way street, there. You've both got to care if you're going to get anything done. You wouldn't want a doctor to tell you that your headaches are all in your head (haha) and you can get rid of them with meditation if you have a tumor and actually need surgery/chemo/radiation/whatever. Just like you wouldn't want a doctor to do shoulder surgery on you if all that's ailing your shoulder is your posture when you're on the internet surfing 4chan at 2am. There needs to be communication between the doctor and the patient, a dialogue that builds trust. I've not been to the gynecologist in over five years because one of my gynos told me I had leukemia, just so he could run a pregnancy test on me (which I had refused to let him run, before, because I was a virgin and knew I wasn't pregnant) and another told me I had breast cancer, trying to trick me into taking some birth control thing she was pushing onto all of her patients. Scared the daylights out of me both times, and for what? No reason at all.

In case anyone's curious? The leukemia-pregnancy thing turned out to be a mix of headcold and allergies. Who gets allergies in the fall? C'mon! Allergies are like, spring and summer, right? (Wrong - I'm allergic to mold. So mix a mild headcold with allergies, go to the doctor about it, find out you have fake leukemia because your doctor thinks you're the Virgin Mary or some shit.) And the breast cancer thing? No cancer. Just boobs that hurt all the time. I've cured that by bicycling enough to lose some weight (yes, thin women can need to lose weight too, and it's not an insult, not like saying I'm fat, it's just a fact that I had fat that was making my breasts hurt and I needed to exercise and lose some of it). I also wear sports bras when they hurt more than usual, and after a few days, the pain's gone.

No medicine needed, homeopathic or otherwise.